Faith and Understanding— An Introduction to The Rational Believer
In his Proslogion, Anselm uses the now famous phrase fides quarens intellectum to describe his philosophical project. For the last thousand years or so, Christian philosophers have adopted this motto of “faith seeking understanding” as a description of their task. The idea is that there is some supportive relationship between human rationality rightly conceived and Christian faith. Perhaps the support relationship goes one way, perhaps another, or perhaps it goes both ways in a mutually beneficial alliance.
However, the term “faith seeking understanding” always bothered me. Although Anselm didn’t mean it this way, the phrase itself seems to imply that faith necessarily comes prior to understanding, and the application of rationality to a pre-existing religious faith was just an ad hoc attempt to find intellectual justifications for a pretheoretical faith commitment. To be fair, there are proud and effective Christian thought traditions that seek to do just this: both fideism and presuppositionalism have able defenders who make compelling arguments along these lines.
However, I am not one of those defenders, and Anselm wasn’t either. But let’s set aside my own hangups about the phrase and interrogate the idea itself: what is the relationship between religious faith and rational thinking?
Your garden variety internet atheist will say that faith is fundamentally irrational, while your garden variety internet apologist will say that faith is supremely rational. Today you can find thousands of atheist and apologist blogs and Twitter accounts engaged in sometimes cordial, sometimes fierce and vindictive ideological combat over whether religious faith has any part to play in rationality. Over both their heads the professional philosophers have the exact same debate in professional journals and published works (but usually with a bit more nuance and grace).
This is a very big question, to say the least. Oceans of ink have been spilled for thousands of years trying to untangle it. My goal with this publication is, I hope, somewhat modest in respect to this question. I am a pseudonomous Christian with a Ph.D. in philosophy of religion. I spent ten years on my graduate work, wrote a dissertation, and have a few modest publications. After graduation I worked the adjunct circuit for a few years, but I have not taught at the undergraduate or graduate level now for some time. I got out of academia because (1) there are not enough full-time tenure track jobs to go around and (2) I realized I could support my family far better by leaving professional philosophy behind and working in the private sector.
It was a difficult decision to make, and it haunts me every day. Like every young philosophy student I dreamed of publishing influential works and having an impact on a generation of students. It didn’t work out that way. I work in the corporate world now, but my fascination with the big questions of philosophy never faded. I’m a philosopher at heart. Hence this blog.
One goal I still have is to write a book called (you guessed it) The Rational Believer, examining the question of faith and rationality from a philosophical and theological perspective. At least part of the impetus for this publication is to help me work out my own thoughts on the topic as I read, research, and reason.
For almost a decade I struggled with many dark nights of the soul as I interrogated my own Christian faith. Was it true? Was it rational? Was it just a fantasy drilled into me by my evangelical upbringing? I came to peace with my faith after that intense period of self-questioning, and arrived at the conclusion that the broad lines of Christianity answered the questions and mysteries of life far better than the alternatives.
But I still need a scheme, a system. As a philosopher I have an unhealthy obsession with understanding everything about everything: the fundamental facts, the interpretation of those facts, the systems of thought that govern how we even think about facts and their interpretations, and that’s just a start.
Over time I suspect this publication will cover a variety of topics I’m interested in, not just philosophy and theology but culture (both high and pop), book and film reviews, the various news items of the age and, hopefully only occasionally, politics. I consider myself a classical liberal, as a brief glance at my Twitter account can attest. But I hope to keep the politics to a minimum here, as passionately as I feel about the topic.
So, off we go. I hope to post at least once a week, hopefully more. Even if no one reads this blog, I hope to use it as a vehicle for personal growth by spurring me on to further research, study, and debate as I work out my model of rationality with fear and trembling.
