Justified Reason

10/6/2014

Another article that was handed out at our first RCIA Meeting was Justified Reason by Adam D. Hincks and published in the Jesuit Magazine called AMERICA. In it, the Hincks describes a female friend who was getting ready to enter the catechumenate in order to become catholic. At the time she was getting ready to "check her head in at the door" in order to prepare herself to make room for belief. However, she eventually came to realize that Catholic belief is not set up in opposition to reason and that both reason and faith, believing and knowing are employed. The author goes on to talk about how faith and knowledge are related.

In the comment section below, can you identify and describe links between faith, reason, and knowledge. What kind of concrete examples does the author give? Can you provide any of your own examples from your own life?

8 Comments

Karen M.

10/15/2014 09:21:24 am

In “Justified Reason” we see that being a person of faith does not require one to abandon reason. In our society it is quite common for knowledge to be presented and perceived as factual and scientific, while faith is seen as strictly thoughts or emotions and not based on facts.

Our society, largely led by mainstream media, perpetuates these ideas. Matters of faith typically receive little respect. People of faith are often dismissed as ill-informed or close minded. Ironically the faithful are more open minded than those lacking faith or those relying on “proof” before believing.

People of faith do not require only tangible physical evidence nor do we require that we should witness all matters of faith personally. We have not seen God or Jesus Christ ourselves. We rely on the words and traditions which have been shared with us. We trust those sources and we acknowledge our trust. But society often finds this to be lacking in credibility. However, there is not a similar skepticism of the physical sciences, even though scientists accept and use the findings of others without personally verifying those findings.

Clearly some trust is necessary for scientific knowledge. If that is acceptable, then faith and belief (religion) has credibility as well. Belief fills the gaps when our own personal knowledge is lacking. In science there is trust and belief, just as in matters of faith (religion).

The question is, why is this similarity so surprising or unbelievable in our society. It does not seem to me that there should be competition between the validity of knowledge and the validity of faith.

The scientific community relies on collaboration and acknowledges that belief in the work of others is necessary and acceptable. The author writes about his own collaboration and the need for trust and belief in others. Faith is no different. People of faith also rely on the knowledge of others.

In my own efforts to strengthen my faith and become more educated about the teaching of the Catholic Church I rely heavily on the knowledge and works of others. In addition to attending mass, I listen to a lot of Catholic programming (radio and television) and I have amassed quite a collection of books on Catholicism, Christianity, faith, and prayer. I trust these reputable sources in guiding my pursuit of a deeper understanding of Catholic teaching and building a deeper relationship with God, just as a scientist has trust in sources other than himself.

Jay

10/17/2014 01:31:17 am

You are certainly on the right track here. What's amazing to me (and perhaps to you as well) about the current Synod is that it resembles the early Church in which the first Apostles and believers were struggling to understand "What did Jesus mean?" "What are we supposed to do now?" in light of the changes that his death and Resurrection had on their immediate lives and on the path of humanity.
In a similar way, the Church is struggling with those beliefs and issues now in light of how complex and diverse the world and manner in which we come to know things and live has come to light.
My other comment, and I hope I get to highlight this for the entire group is to remember the distinction between Natural and Revealed religions. Natural ones arise from human knowledge--philosophy for example, or nature worship. Revealed religions still rely on human experience to perceive, but also include revelatory experiences of God that reveal things that we would not have been able to come to understand on our own. (The Trinity for example, is not something we would have come to understand through human reason alone).

10/16/2014 10:51:51 am

Faith draws us beyond the sort of believing and knowing. Therefore, I believe once you have belief and knowledge or what the author compares to recognizing values in our knowledge that prompt a decision to act, we can then have faith.

Concrete Examples:
Belief: The author states; "When a child believes his parents, for example, it is because he has come to do so through experience, understanding and verification that their words are trustworthy and recognizes the value in assenting to them."
Therefore; our belief is what learn, what we are taught, whether it is 2+2=4 or the Laws of gravity. Our beliefs come from what we know. Which then links us to knowledge.

Knowledge:The author states "our belief in God is complemented by the immanent knowledge of God we acquire through prayer and spiritual experiences"
Similarly, whether our knowledge and belief come from simple classroom learning, our faith and knowledge in GOD and Jesus Christ come from what we learn at an early age through our parents, god parents, and masses. Furthermore, the final link is faith, which requires us to take our knowledge and belief and reason with what we ultimately desire, - that is GOD.

Jay

10/17/2014 01:35:00 am

I'm glad that you see how faith/trust/belief is operative in normal everyday life and also embedded in our quest for knowledge. In philosophical terms, we humans are capable of transcendance. We are not just the sum of our parts nor is our reality simply objects and matter, but things of meaning and relationships of significance. This requires a much more complex field of reason and experience and while that may not make everyone come to full faith, it is always potentially there.

10/16/2014 11:44:01 am

I believe that all knowledge requires faith to learn. You must believe or have faith in the information you are learning for it to take effect. Reason is the basis for a decision or a cause for why you believe something. To have faith and gather knowledge you must have reasoning.
The author discusses a child believing his parents. A child has reason to believe or have faith in their parents because their parents prepare him or her with with the knowledge they need to survive and function.
I have faith and believe in God because reason leads me to do so. I intend to improve my faith by gaining knowledge through the Church.

Jay

10/17/2014 01:37:02 am

What you write is very important. St. Peter writing to the early church asked them to always be prepared to give reason for the hope that is within you. He was basically saying that there is something reasonable and attractive about the Good News/the Gospel story. And if we can more comfortably remember that and speak about this experience it will more authentically be received and it will also more deeply form and conform ourselves to what we proclaim.

Minh

10/18/2014 04:49:31 am

I believe one must have faith in order to learn the teachings of God. As humans we have the capacity to process complex ideas and have the ability to use critical reasoning. As children, we may simply believe things we are told based on faith from our parents (e.g. Santa Claus, tooth fairy, etc). However, as we grow, our horizon broadens and we need faith to guide us in our understanding of the world

Jay

10/18/2014 11:19:43 am

Your notion of "horizon" is noteworthy. Karl Rahner, a very influential theologian speaks of God as the horizon upon which humanity is fore grounded.

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