Faith and Reason in Christian Theology: Models Explained

Introduction

Faith starts in the mind and moves to the will. Thomas Aquinas is one of the most well-known scholastics to make that argument. The mind must consent to the truths of the faith, and the heart and mind must then act in unison to bear that faith out in one's life. This is why the scholastics argued that faith rested on reason—for people are rational beings who need reasons to "buy into" an idea. Anselm's ontological argument, for example, used reason to prove God's existence. However, as others and Scripture show, faith can also be obtained through deep intuition and feeling. This paper will explain how, although faith typically depends on the use of reason, faith can be reached in a variety of ways; and in some cases, false reasoning can even be used to destroy faith.

Defining Faith and Reason

Hebrews 11:1 states that faith is the substance of one's hope in God—it is what allows one to see without seeing. However, God gave evidence to people to convince them of His divinity: testimony, Scripture, miracles, teachings—all of these served to bring people to faith. In other words, God appealed to people's reason. Thus, the Christian faith is generally based on the application of one's reason to the revelations and teachings of the Christian Church in a process of discernment to determine whether the claims of the Church are credible. This is why the scholastics hold that faith is based on reason. Faith is trust in God—and it is independent of all else. Faith does not need reason; it simply rests on reason. Of course, it can rest on other things as well, as Avery Dulles shows in his seven models of faith, which shall be described later in this essay.

Reason can be defined as the assent of the mind to the facts laid before it. In terms of its relation to faith, the use of reason can be described as the process of the mind consenting to the truths that the Church teaches. This is commonly required before an act of faith can be made or before faith can be professed. Faith is therefore, typically, the outcome of a rational assent of the mind to the facts laid before it, which teach, namely, that: 1) Jesus Christ is the Son of God; 2) He died on the Cross in reparation for the sins of the world; 3) His sacrifice atoned for the sins of mankind and opened the gates of Heaven, which had been barred since the fall of Adam and Eve. The Christian faith encompasses other teachings and doctrines as well, but these are the preeminent points that have a historical basis. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be mindful of the reasons we have for such hope—such faith. We are not to forget them, because people will want to know. People will see the joy, peace, and hope in the heart of a Christian and they will not ask, "What feeling gave you this hope?" Rather, they will ask, "What reason do you have for this hope?" Reason is what drives people to act deliberately and with consideration.

However, God does not always appeal to one's reason to bring a person to faith. In the story of St. Paul, for example, before his conversion Saul is persecuting Christians (Acts 8:3). Saul would not listen to reason because he had built up a wall of hatred around his heart and mind and would not let God's proofs reach him. Thus, to reach Saul, God used a blinding flash of light and literally knocked him off his horse. This experience had nothing to do with the use of reason—it was a visceral experience, a shock to the system that set Saul on his way to conversion and to the Christian faith. Reason was applied before long, of course, but in the beginning Saul had to have his inner being shaken and put in the right disposition. Saul required a dose of humility. Thus, while faith may be said to rest upon reason, it could also be said that reason rests upon humility.

Scripture and Personal Revelation

As Paul was not one for whom reason was the primary factor in conversion—but rather revelation—it is fitting to examine what Paul says about faith and reason. In 1 Corinthians 1:23, Paul asserts that faith in a crucified God is not something that "rational" people—namely the Jews and Gentiles—would readily embrace. He is pointing out that their overreliance on "proofs" and "justification" stems from their pride, which ultimately makes them foolish. Paul was similarly prideful when he was Saul, and that is why he had to be knocked off his horse. The reason of God was foolishness to him. This is why elsewhere Paul claims that if a man is going to glory in himself, he should glory in his foolishness, because this is what allows him to have a humble disposition in order to see the glory of God. When a man is full of himself, he cannot see God. Faith in this sense connects to reason by way of humility. Once converted, however, Paul understood the appeal of reason and used it to teach others—whether Jew or Gentile—going to their temples and synagogues to reason with them and move them to faith (Acts 17:17).

Luke 7:38 describes a woman washing the feet of Christ with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing them with oil. It is traditionally held to be the conversion of Mary Magdalene—she is making an act of faith and an expression of repentance and contrition for her sins. She had not been catechized previously, nor had she been shown to have studied the teachings of Christ. She was simply saved by Christ from stoning (John 8:1–11), and that encounter compelled her to conversion. Like Paul, she was moved by a kind of direct, personal revelation—an intimate contact with the divine through Christ that stirred an intuitive reaction full of feeling and conviction. This was not what Aquinas and the scholastics describe as faith resting upon reason. This was faith resting upon a personal encounter with God. Reason could come later.

The Apostles were similar. When Christ said "follow me," they followed Him, without even knowing who or what this man was (Matthew 9:9). Why should a tax collector stop what he is doing and abandon everything to follow a Nazarene? There is no rhyme or reason to it other than that he was touched, like the other Apostles, by the spirit of the Holy Ghost. And yet this was not a total conversion, because the seed of faith they had was still very weak and needed to be reinforced. Christ Himself excoriated the Apostles for their weakness of faith during the storm when they feared for their lives even though God was with them (Matthew 8:26). Christ calmed the storm and performed another miracle to shore up their weak faith. They needed reassurance through sense data, through experience, through works—so that they should have faith, trust, and hope in God. They needed reason to strengthen their commitment to the revelation and to move them to give themselves wholly to God in mind, heart, and spirit.

Conclusion

All of these models work together to explain the relation of faith to reason. It is in one's behaviors in daily life that the full extent of one's faith becomes known. Faith should translate into life, just as a seed grows into a tree. It starts in the mind but is then manifested outwardly in one's actions. If it is not manifested in this manner, of what use is one's faith? The Christian faith is meant to serve the soul, to open it to God's grace, that the grace might transform the life of the person. It is meant to give peace, joy, and strength and to free one from depression, fear, and darkness. This is also what is meant by the informing of the character by the Christian faith: the faith must establish the character and shape it so that one begins acting as a living reflection of Christ in the world.

The behavioral aspect of the faith is also meant to help communicate the Word to others. Faith comes by hearing, and for the faith to grow throughout the world it must be communicated—and those who have the faith must be the ones to do the communicating. This is why the Christian faith cannot be something one hides under a bushel; rather, it is the light that one shines from atop the hill (Matthew 5:15). Whether one experiences Christ directly or is appealed to by reason; whether one is brought to God by a proposition, or by a need to do something good, to act; whether one is touched by revelation like St. Paul or lifted up by the spirit—in every case one is brought to faith, and reason plays a part in that journey, just in different ways for different people. However, unless faith is reinforced by reason, it may be weakened over time.