Faith & Reason

Here are some key thoughts that jumped out at me from the essay, "The Relationship Between Faith and Reason" by Thomas A. Howe and Richard G. Howe in To Everyone an Answer:

• Too many people think of faith as: believing in something when commonsense tells you not to (accepting something against the evidence.)

• "Our contention is that religion is more than something to give us peace of mind, a purpose for life, and happiness ... We believe that true religion must be grounded in reality, that it must make true claims about reality - who we are as human beings, who God is, and how we relate to God. The religion that cannot answer these questions is false, not because it fails to give one peace of mind, but because it makes false claims about the way things are."

• The Role of Reason - While it it the Holy Spirit who enables someone to believe, he may sometimes use the presentation of evidence for the Christian faith as the means whereby someone can come to see the truth of the gospel. There is conflict between the work of the Holy Spirit and the use of evidence and reason. The evidence and reason as such were never intended to supplant the work of God's Spirit but rather are intended to be the means by which the Holy Spirit brings someone to faith in Christ.

• Biblical Mandate to give reasons: 1 Peter 3:15; Jude 3; Acts 18:24-28; Acts 9:22; Acts 15:2; Acts 17:2-4; Acts 17:17; Acts 18:4; Acts 19:8-10; Acts 28:23-24.

• What is faith? "Faith is a personal trust in someone or something. Saving faith is a personal trust in God, who is true to his Word. Sometimes people will argue that faith is contrary to reason - the notion of believing in something in spite of reason. But this is not accurate. Faith is not contrary to reason or irrational. In fact, trusting God is eminently reasonable. God has demonstrated his faithfulness and trustworthiness again and again. Even in those times when it seems that the promises of God will not be fulfilled, it would in fact be unreasonable not to believe in God. Faith is trusting God to do what he says he will do. Faith is a personal trust."

• "The intellectual aspect of faith is belief. The intellectual aspect of faith is the stable and unchanging commitment that is grounded in truth. This is perhaps what people are talking about when they say believe in spite of reason. Often, circumstancts of life may influence us to question the truth of God's Word. The intellectual aspect of faith, however, is not grounded in the appearances of the moment but in the truths about God and reality. Although I may feel strong in faith, my mind can remain committed to trusting in God because I know to be true about him. This is not mere opinion but is a firm commitment of trust in God based on who he is."

• Faith and Reason - "The best way to understand the relationship between faith and reason is to see that each has its proper role to play and that faith and reason complement each other in their respective roles."

• Reason - believing those things demonstrated by appropriate disciplines e.g. philosophy, science and mathematics.

• Faith - believing those things revaled by God through Christ and Scripture that could not be discovered by reason alone e.g. the Trinity, Human fallenness, The Gospel.

• "Reason does not cause faith, but our faith is not unreasonable."