Is faith unreasonable?
Is it contrary to reason or in tension with it?
St Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century gave a lot of thought to these questions.
But before speaking about Aquinas, it will be helpful to identify three fundamental mistakes
about the relation between faith and reason.
The first is skepticism.
That is the view that faith in itself is irrational or contrary to reason.
Someone might say, "Well, faith cannot be proved, so it's irrational," or, "Science
has disproved religion."
The second mistake is the flip side of this and we call it fideism.
This view agrees that faith is opposed to reason and it says, "Well, that's not a problem.
Let's just stick with faith."
So a fideist might say something like, "All we really need is the Bible, so stop worrying
about what reason or science might claim."
Now there's a third mistake.
That's to say that faith is purely subjective.
On this view, faith is only true for me.
It's purely personal and interior.
Now against these three errors, St Thomas Aquinas argues first that faith and reason
are never truly in conflict.
This is because there is a fundamental unity of truth which is based on the order of reality.
There cannot be something that is true according to faith and at the same time false according
to reason or science.
And likewise, truth is not purely subjective, nor is it merely private or personal because
ultimately, the truth is based on something outside of the mind that is in reality.
Now because God is the source of reality of everything that exists, he is the ultimate
source of the light of reason and also of divine revelation and the light of faith.
So since both reason and faith come from God, and since truth is one, we can be confident
that faith and reason will never truly contradict each other because truth cannot contradict
truth.
So it follows then that if we find something that looks like a contradiction between faith
and reason, either our reasoning is faulty or it doesn't prove its point or we are in
some way misunderstanding the truths of faith.
Aquinas makes a second important point.
He says, "The Christian faith is eminently reasonable."
Every day in fact, you and I believe things that other people tell us and we learn truths
from them, like trusting what they say.
Now in the case of faith, we trust in God who is truth himself and God gives us what
are traditionally called signs of credibility that show the rational warrant for accepting
the claims of the Christian faith.
For example, the miracles of Christ, which many people witnessed, or the enduring reality
of the church and the consistency of her teaching, which has perdured through two millennia of
history.
All the same,
faith's mysteries in themselves remain hidden from view.
Our mind is not able to fully comprehend them even though it's reasonable to believe them
and they are believable and the signs of credibility confirm their truth.
Even with this, the truths of faith, like for example the divinity of Christ or the
reality of the Holy Trinity, these things cannot be proven by natural reason.
But by the supernatural light of faith, the believer embraces them without hesitation,
without reservation, and affirms that they are true because God bears witness to us about
them.
For readings, podcasts, and more videos like this, go to Aquinas101.com.
While you're there, be sure to sign up for one of our free video courses on Aquinas and
don't forget to like and share with your friends, because it matters what you think.