Jan 28

It is a frequent misconception that religious faith and reason are mutually exclusive, that to commit to one requires the surrender of the other. To illustrate the unavoidable nature of faith, Wilken uses the example of when Augustine was a follower of the Manichees. Augustine is intrigued by their claims of being able to “put aside all awesome authority, and would by pure and simple reason bring to God those who were willing to listen to them.” However, he realizes that without any reliance on faith, the Manichees cannot answer the difficult questions that arise from religion and focus much more on ridiculing other religions, rather than explaining their own beliefs. Wilken also illustrates the impossibility of living according to reason alone when he says that “belief, that is, faith, is a constituent part of historical knowledge.” Events of the past, even if witnessed by others, cannot be demonstrated so as to prove that they really did happen. People must instead make a judgement and choose whether to believe the word of the witness or not. It would be absurd for people to only trust information that they can prove for themselves, such as the example Wilken provides of trusting your mother’s word that your father is your father. Having faith of course does not simply apply to a belief in God, but rather is something we exercise in all aspects of our lives. Everyday we are required to rely on the authority of others and place our faith in them, whether that be in studying calculus or scripture. Learning in any capacity is made possible through trusting the instructions of another, through which we exponentially expand our knowledge potential as opposed to what understanding we could have achieved on our own.