Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 97:385 (Jan 1940)
Article: The Reasons for Faith
Author: Robert Kenneth Strachan

BSac 97:385 (Jan 40) p. 93

The Reasons for Faith

Robert Kenneth Strachan

Acting Dean, Instituto Biblico de Costa Rica

Out of the night that was the Middle Ages, born of the groping struggle of enlightment with superstition, of humanism and individualism with religious totalitarianism, two philosophies of faith emerged. “I believe, in order that I may understand,” said Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury in the eleventh century. “Nothing is to be believed, unless it has been understood,” affirmed Abelard, outstanding teacher of the twelfth century.

Anselm based his affirmation on the truth that any grasping of the inner truths of existence, any penetration of the vast reaches of Infinity, any profound understanding or knowledge of God, may only be achieved from a certain ground. That ground he conceived to be initial faith. Middle-Age obscurantism falsely interpreted and wrongly applied his principle. “Credo” became incredulity, and in the measure that it became credulity, “intelligam” became superstition. Credulity without the support and authority of reason, fastened on the authority of the Church for its support. Thus was a principle, true enough in itself, divested of its truth, purposely warped, and thus did it fall into disrepute.

As a reaction against credulity Abelard’s principle found an echo in the thinking of many men. I will believe only what I understand, was a natural revulsion based on the recognition of the principle that reason is the seat of appeal. Before man will fling himself out on a venture of faith, he must, at least, have grasped the reason for faith. But in the extent of its recoil from credulity, rationalism made the double mistake of confounding “credo” with credulity, and of concluding that hence faith was at odds with reason.

Rationalism enthroned, assumed dictatorial powers. It forgot that man was composed of more than mind and matter. It denied in the government of man the voice of the

BSac 97:385 (Jan 40) p. 94

heart, the feelings and the emotion. Under its rule the spirit became a persecuted minority. In its ideology, as in that of the political totalitarians, everything was for the reason and the reason was everything. Hence faith as a principle of understanding, as a means of apprehension and appropriation was excluded and placed in a concentration camp, an enemy of the mind.

And herein lies the greatest threat to the Rule of Reason. In the suppression of the voice and liberty of the feelings and the emotion, she has become unreasonable. In the proportion that Reason has rejected Faith she has become unreasonable. It seems evident that in the thinking of the present day there is the recognition that Rationalism, ...