Monday Thoughts: Faith and Reason

Here is a draft of the last part of the philosophy chapter I posted a week ago. You can see the first two chapters in draft form at http://www.kenschenck.com/phlchapters.html.

I think I have come to a fair grasp of Reformed epistemology and radical orthodoxy--by the time this is finished it will be even better. But I post it here in hopes that the experts will refine any rough edges.
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Thus far in the chapter, we have argued that while some Christians have opposed certain forms of philosophy, all Christians are philosophers because they have views on the questions of philosophy. As we end the chapter, we need to discuss an issue that gets at the heart of Christian opposition to philosophy where it has occurred. What role does revelation and faith play in what Christians believe?

A good place to begin talking about revelation and philosophy is to notice that all thinking is, well, thinking. As we will discuss at greater length in chapter 4, we simply cannot get away from a basic sort of reasoning. We cannot “understand” anything without basic patterns of thought. Tertullian used it; Kierkegaard used it. When we articulate faith, we utilize basic reasoning.

It is thus somewhat misleading to speak of faith versus reason. Unless you believe that every individual thought you have is directly revealed to you by God and that there is no logical connection between each of your thoughts, then you use reason all the time. You think; you make connections from one thought to the next. Rather, what we should contrast is faith versus evidence. We will explore this topic in more detail in chapter 4: “Paths to Truth.”

For the moment, we would claim that Christian thinking differs from other thinking not so much in the thinking itself, the “rules” of good thinking that we will discuss in the next chapter. Rather, Christian thinking differs from other thinking because of the presuppositions by which it operates. As we said earlier in the chapter, a presupposition is something you assume before you start reasoning rather than something you necessarily argue for. They are somewhat like axioms in geometry. You do not try to prove that two points make a line. You assume it and in fact use it to prove other things.

So Christians assume any number of beliefs and interpret the world through those assumptions. For example, when a Christian reads the gospel stories, he or she will read them with the belief that miracles can actually happen. Belief in the possibility of miracles is a presupposition, and we likely come to different conclusions about the gospels depending on whether we start with this belief or not.

Now some Christian philosophers have argued that certain Christian beliefs are almost exactly like axioms. I personally believe that God exists, even though I am not sure I can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Nevertheless, it is a presupposition that I bring to the world when I am trying to understand what is going on. I assert belief in God by faith in the absence of definitive evidence.

Reformed epistemology goes one step further. You know from the previous chapter that epistemology is the branch of philosophy that asks about how we can know anything. Reformed epistemology argues that a number of beliefs about reality are properly basic, like axioms, such that we do not need to argue for them. It does not worry about trying to evaluate these beliefs in terms of faith versus evidence, as we did above. It holds that we could hardly function in the world without assuming certain basic beliefs.

So how could we function if we did not assume that the world exists outside ourselves and that the people we see have minds that are at least similar to ours? Alvin Plantinga has argued that belief in God is so intrinsic to reality that it is not only beyond reasonable doubt. He would say that our existence and our thinking all presuppose the existence of a God who makes existence and truth possible. He believes the world does not make sense unless we assume God’s existence.[i] Perhaps he is correct.
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Reformed epistemology: An approach to truth that considers certain beliefs, such as the existence of other minds, as “properly basic,” beliefs without which we could not even function in the world. Such beliefs are “warranted” without argument.

Alvin Plantinga: Along with Nicolas Wolterstorff, one of the originators and main proponents of Reformed epistemology.
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At the same time, it is no coincidence that Reformed epistemology is identified with a particular Christian tradition: the Reformed tradition. Reformed Christians believe that the only ones who will make it to heaven are those specific individuals that God has chosen to be saved. You can see that it makes sense for such a person to believe that no proof or warrant is needed for belief in God. Those whom God has chosen will obviously see the truth of God’s existence with or without logical proof.

On the one hand, other Christian traditions probably would agree that logical proof is not the most important part of faith in God. You do not need to be able to prove God’s existence beyond a reasonable doubt to justify belief that God exists. Yet it is also no coincidence that Christians who believe God gives everyone a legitimate opportunity to be saved have more room for argument about such things than Reformed epistemologists do. This textbook stands in such a tradition.

Reformed epistemology is philosophy—in fact it is hard core philosophy. It would not object to philosophy itself as a subject. However, it might object to an approach to philosophy that did not largely assume the truths of the Christian faith. This is especially true of a position very similar to Reformed epistemology called radical orthodoxy.[ii] It would especially believe that philosophy is not Christian unless it assumes all the essential elements of Christian faith.

Reformed epistemology argues that we can assume certain beliefs without argument, yet it has a very rational flavor to it. Postmodernism claims that we cannot be certain that our reasoning is sound and leads us to truth. In this light, radical orthodoxy argues that, since you cannot really prove what is true anyway, we should simply assume all the essentials of Christian faith in our thinking. Whereas Reformed epistemology might argue that belief in God is properly basic, radical orthodoxy would assume a full blown belief in the Trinity, the virgin birth, and many other things without argument that clearly are not properly basic to human thought.
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Radical orthodoxy: a postmodern approach to truth claiming that, since we cannot be objectively certain about what is true, we should assume all the essential beliefs of Christianity without argument.
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Before we leave this chapter, we should also mention that our minds are really much more than our conscious thoughts. If we are to believe the field of neuropsychology, we are only aware of the tip of the iceberg of what takes place in our brains. This fact makes us wonder the extent to which we are playing games when we act as if philosophical arguments and ideas are really the heart of our perspective on the world. What if, in fact, we behave the way we do because of things going on much “deeper” inside us than we realize? If so, then a good deal of our professed quest for truth might be a game we are playing with ourselves, a game that potentially is not really about what we think it is. It might conceivably undermine this entire book. We will return to this question in our unit “What is Truth?”

[i] See especially Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief (New York: Oxford University, 2000).

[ii] See especially James K. Smith, Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-Secular Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004). While many proponents of radical orthodoxy are Reformed, not all are. The postmodern element is sufficient in itself as as a basis for this position.