Faith and Reason: The Scholastic Journey

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one of the most important questions faced by philosophers and theologians throughout the centuries has been the interplay between faith and reason the second century Church Father tertullian put it this waye what does Jerusalem have to do with Athens unquote our faith in reason enemies or are they allies is the Christian faith reasonable or is it as some contend a blind leap and an irrational dark [00:00:14]

the gothic Cathedral it wasn't just a building it was an attempt to embody the period's thoughts about God and man as Bruce Shelley says in his masterful church history book church history and plain language quote the medieval masters of the gothic style tried to portray in stone and glass man's Central religious Quest they wanted to depict attention on one hand was man aspiring to reach the heights of heaven and on the other hand was God condescending to address the least of men [00:01:33]

the schools these Cathedrals housed gave rise to the universities of the late Middle Ages there task was to understand and explain Creation in light of God's revealed word and ways as the Crusades had been an attempt to extend the authority of God over the Middle East the universities hope to extend an understanding of God and his creation over the realm of the mind and how did the world of ideas bow to the rule of God how was reason to be made a servant of Faith [00:02:43]

the aim of the Scholastics was twofold first of all to reconcile Christian doctrine with human reason and second to arrange the teachings of the church in an orderly system but it's important we Mark at the outset that a free search for truth it was not on the horizon for the Scholastics the doctrines of the church were fixed the purpose of the Scholastics was to show the reasonableness of these doctrines and explain them [00:03:01]

the curriculum was limited to grammar rhetoric logic arithmetic geometry music and astronomy the Seven Liberal Arts so called because in ancient Rome their study had been reserved for the laber the Freeman the the few texts available were writings of a handful of Scholars of the Early Middle Ages so students learned from Codorus boethus Augustine Pope Gregory the Great and a handful of church fathers that the medieval student dared not question [00:04:14]

the first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning for by doubting we come to inquiry and by inquiry we arrive at the truth unquote this idea of using doubt to fuel the Quest for knowledge was commonplace to the ancient Greeks but it was Dangerous Ground to the medieval Europeans abelard had a few fans but many more detractors who were alarmed by his bold questioning of what were considered unimpeachable authorities [00:06:50]

Scholastic disputations often caused heated clashes and bitter feelings Wars of logic could run for years between different Scholars was supporters of each side cheering their hero with loud whistling and stomping of their feet the point was students were learning to think the unquestioned acceptance of traditional authorities was no longer assured now conclusions had to square with Christian doctrine which itself was being subjected to the challenges of reason and faithfulness to scripture [00:10:52]

scholasticism was less a philosophy or theology as it was really a method of learning the emphasis was on harmonizing faith and reason the Scholastics used the ancient Greek practice of Relentless questioning of traditional authorities truth would no longer be accepted just because those in Authority said so it was to be rigorously analyzed and brought over into the realm of Reason after all didn't the bible say that we are to love God with all of our minds [00:11:25]

anzel spent most of his time devising reasonable Arguments for theological propositions that he already accepted as true by faith Faith his goal was not to justify Faith by reason he just wanted to better understand what he believed and he saw reason as the servant of Faith rather than the other way around Faith came first and guided reason in fact he wrote quote I believe in order to understand unquote [00:13:21]

he thought that spiritual things had to be a matter of experience before they could be comprehended by the intellect he said qu he who does not believe has not felt and he who has not felt does not understand understand un go he contended that Christ must come to the intellect through the Avenue of faith and not to Faith through the intellect he declared himself against blind belief and called it a sin of neglect when the one who has Faith doesn't strive for knowledge [00:13:47]

anel gave reasonable proofs for God's existence and compelling reasons for God as a self-existent immaterial all powerful compassionate just and merciful deity in his book why the God man anel demonstrated the relationship between the Incarnation and the atonement his argument that Christ's atonement satisfied God it had a powerful impact centuries later on both Calvin and Luther he wrote on the nature of the Trinity original sin free will the harmony of forn knowledge and for ordination and why Satan fell [00:14:14]

anel's two sources of knowledge were the Bible and the teaching of the church which he maintained were in total agreement with each other and with all true philosophy he had the deepest admiration for Augustine and his agreement with him earned anel the titles the second Augustine and the tongue of Augustine now besides being a man of genuine piety and Devotion to God church historian Philip scha says that anzel was probably the most original thinker since Augustine [00:14:59]

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