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Caught between faith and reason

Don Ratzlaff

The work of the church may face no greater battleground than the one between faith and reason. By that, I don’t mean the fundamental struggle between looking to God and looking to human knowledge for salvation. Rather, I refer to the battle within the faith community to understand and pursue “the will of God”.

In the “faith” camp are those who focus on God’s infinite power to accomplish great things. They point to the delivery stories of the Old Testament, where God miraculously acted on behalf of His people to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. They talk about “stepping out in faith”, and remind us of great things that have not been accomplished presumably because God’s people were too timid to rely on the Almighty’s help.

In the “reason” camp are those who see God speaking through the wisdom and common sense He gives to His people. They point to the Old Testament stories where the children of Israel talked themselves into doing unwise and even evil things in the name of God – and suffered the consequences for it. They talk about “understanding the times”, and remind us of the danger of confusing the goal of building God’s Kingdom with the desire to build our own.

The key weapon in this battle of faith and reason is the “sword of the Spirit”, which is the Word of God. Both sides swing it adeptly.

Faith: “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Reason: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?” (Luke 14:28).

Faith: “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Reason: “Come now, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18).

Faith: “The righteous will live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

Reason: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:3).

Faith: “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

Reason: “Do not test the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 6:16).

Faith: “And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Matthew 13:58).

And so it goes. Truth be told, the “reason” camp carries a great disadvantage. “Faith” folks can always point to the immeasurable power of God. It’s tough to argue that one. God can always do more than we think possible. The “reason” camp, meanwhile, can make the case that God’s knowledge is as limitless as His power – but they have a tough time proving that they possess more than a pauper’s share of it.

Ultimately, “faith” acts upon what God could do in the future. “Reason” tends to base its conclusions on how God has worked in the past. Against that argument, “faith” can always deliver a final, silencing thrust: “Don’t put God in a box. Maybe God wants to do a new thing among us.”

If you’ve ever experienced this battle in your life or in your church, you may be hoping to find a word of wisdom here, a conclusion that brings these two perspectives together in a clearly discernible way.

Forget it. Someone else may have a clear word about this, but not me. The best I can do is to suggest that this tension will always be with us. And it should be.

Faith and reason are the yin and yang, if you will, of Christian discipleship. It’s not so much that they compete with each other, but that both forces are needed to produce all that God might want to accomplish in and through us.

If I have a more definitive word to say about this subject, it might be in the form of a plea: Let’s try harder to avoid the casualties that so often result from the battle. “Faith” people categorize “reason” people as dead weight to unload, or as obstacles to overcome on the way to God’s ideal. “Reason” people, meanwhile, peg “faith” folks as hot air balloons who foolishly float ever higher without accepting God’s laws of limitation.

In making those judgements, we effectively – and foolishly – use one arm to cut off the other. That’s an imbalanced and ultimately debilitating way to live.

Don Ratzlaff lives in Hillsboro, Kan. and is a former editor of The Christian Leader, the US MB periodical, where this article first appeared as an editorial in April 1998.

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Last modified May 4, 2000.

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