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Jim's PERSPECTIVESeptember 2, 2013Credo ut intelligam (alternately spelled Credo ut intellegam) is Latin for “I believe so that I may understand” and is a maxim of Anselm of Canterbury, which is based on a saying of Augustine of Hippo (crede ut intelligas: “believe so that you may understand”) to relate faith and reason. It is often accompanied by its corollary, intellego ut credam (“I think so that I may believe”), and by Anselm’s other famous phrase fides quaerens intellectum (“faith seeking understanding”).
In 1799 a German theologian named Friedrich Schleiermacher (pronounced “Shleyer-mocker”) wrote a classic book called On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers. This title is so very descriptive and appropriate. There have always been a lot of “cultured despisers of religion” out and about, and today’s representatives are busy making noise with the best of them. What Schleiermacher wanted to do so many years ago in this book, and in his own philosophy, was to take away a purely rational means of trying to “get at” religion, or in other words, knowing, thinking, and talking about it. He aimed at “enlightened rationalists” who tended not to recognize human limitations when it comes to knowing or comprehending spirituality. I have said many times—as have many before me—that there are basically two ways to know or “get to” understanding: objective and subjective. The objective part is the analytical part, the thinking side. The other side, the subjective part, doesn’t really analyze things, but it does process reality. It just does it by means of feeling. There are a good many things we know subjectively that sometimes don’t make rational sense. We simply “feel” that something is or isn’t, and we don’t know how we know it, we just do. What Fred Schleiermacher does is to describe a third way to get to knowledge that is somewhere in the middle between objective and subjective. He writes of self-consciousness that he says is a “third special form or function of thought—which is also called feeling and immediate knowledge.” He goes on to say that “Religious feeling therefore is the highest form of thought and of life; in it we are conscious of our unity with the world and God; it is thus the sense of absolute dependence.” I like that statement, but it also has a downside. By locating religious knowledge in feeling, one’s “religion” essentially can be whatever one says it is. I cannot count the number of times I have heard someone say, “This is what it means to me.” Somehow I hear them suggesting that “how it feels” to them should be universally true. It becomes hard to say whether something is or isn’t because I don’t share or understand that feeling. And somehow I have a desire—if not a need—for something solid, something that “proves” true and would hold up rationally. But, alas, matters of faith can’t be apprehended or comprehended or perceived or discerned or proven rationally. Since becoming a Christian, however, I have always thought, similar to Freddy’s way of thinking, that there is a third way to know. But, unlike Schleiermacher, the third way for me is not by means of “feeling.” It is by means of faith. There are a good many claims to knowledge, in the Bible and outside it, through faith: “We know by faith....” Paul points out in 1 Corinthians that spiritual things must be expressed or measured by spiritual means: “...comparing spiritual things with spiritual....” I think that Augustine and Anselm (see the quote above) are conveying that same thing when they speak of “faith seeking understanding.” For me, this is the proper order: faith first, and the understanding follows. Many people have it backwards. They try to understand, assuming that understanding will lead them to faith. I don’t believe that it works that way. We read in 1 Corinthians that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God." For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness. "And again, the Lord knows that thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.” (ch.3, v.19-20). In numerous places in scripture, the term “scoffers” is used to describe what Schleiermacher calls “despisers.” People are people, and don’t change that much from age to age. The world we live in now is so very skeptical of any claims to spiritual realities. Its modern “despisers” are going to question and analyze everything. We would do well to take Peter’s advice in his first letter and “be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you of the hope that is in you...” (ch.3, v.15). We need to re-learn how to think theologically, and we need to know what we believe and why we believe it. - Jim Radford |
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©2013 Jim Radford. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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