The Interconnection of Faith and Reason

The Interconnection of Faith and Reason
Submitted by: Student’s Name
Submitted to: Prof Name Intro to Phil 100: Intro to PhilosophyInstitution Name:Due Date:
Abstract
Faith and reason are two common terms that renowned philosophers have had to expound on over the past couple of centuries and even in ancient times. Some strict rationalists have argued in favor of reason as the main source of authority while others, mainly the strict creationists, believe in the superiority of faith. The work of some philosophers, in particular St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and lately John Paul II have played a significant role in asserting the interrelation between the two terms that some have considered contrasting. The proponents of the interdependence of faith and reason have validly expressed their arguments and this paper purposes to strongly assert the fact that faith and reason are more of allies rather than foes. The paper takes into account the different understanding of the terms in question and the perspectives of the different philosophers, from the ancient times of Aristotle and Plato. The contributions of St. Augustine, St. Thomas’s, and John Paul II are also taken into account.
The Interconnection Faith and Reason
Introduction
The human species have adopted various strategies and techniques through which a concept can be understood or rather to acquire knowledge. The various strategies and techniques represent the different sources of authority. Faith and reason are the two primary sources of authority, and philosophers and theologists have come up with all sorts of arguments to back up the authority that these two concepts exert on beliefs and knowledge. Faith can be defined as the tendency to strongly believe in some proclamation that is not backed up by a rationale. From a religious perspective, faith can be of two categories: evidence sensitive and evidence-insensitive to denote those that rely on demonstratable facts and those of which are purely reliant on the subject’s faith alone respectively (Swindal, 2001). Reason, on the other hand, justifies a claim based on certain principles of inquiry that are adequately demonstrated or based on experience.
Faith and reason are probably the two uniting concepts between religion and philosophy. The role of the two concepts in the area of epistemology has brought about intense attention by philosophers and theologists trying to figure out the relationship between the two terms. Some philosophers and theologists have come out strongly to argue that faith and reason are never in conflict; that infact, the two concepts complement each other. Others have strongly disagreed, arguing that the two concepts can be conflicting and have varying outcomes depending on domain areas in question. The opposers of the interdependence between faith and reason present some valid arguments. However, the proponents who claim that the two terms are more of allies than foes give more convincing arguments that deserve the backing of this paper. The interaction between faith and reason is best described as an element of the philosophy of religion as well as by taking into account the different schools of thought by the philosophers of ancient times, the medieval period, the enlightenment era, and even the 20th century.
The Concept of Faith
Faith is quite a complex term that can be perceived in two different forms: biblical perspective derived from ancient Israel and Plato’s view of faith associated with Ancient Greece (Hoitenga, 1991). In Plato’s perspective, emphasis is in the difference between knowledge and belief, whereas in the biblical perspective, knowledge is recessive. Nonetheless, faith is of the essence regardless of the divergent views. According to Hoitenga (1991), faith in the religious perspective constitutes three elements: trust, obedience, and belief. Trust that is the key constituent of faith in the biblical view is lacking in Plato’s theory of knowledge whereas the remaining elements: obedience and belief to denote virtue and the intellectual element are present in Plato’s theory.
Rationalism
Rationalism is a school of thought that regards reasoning as the only source of authority or knowledge, disregarding the idea that knowledge is acquired through empirical interventions or religious beliefs such as faith as is the case with other philosophical theories. The first well-known pioneers of rationalism include Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza who were up in arms against the earliest philosophies such as scholasticism and empiricism (Ezebuilo, 2020). Descartes subscribed to the idea that all beings are born with an innate knowledge of Self, God, and the World while any other additional knowledge is acquired by virtue of reasoning. Leibniz, on the other hand, held that all the ideas and knowledge are present and birth and not necessarily acquired through learning. The notion that all things in the world are independent of each other substantiates Leibniz's idea that everything that happens to the human species is upon themselves but not acquired through experience as is the case for the empiricist, a concept best described by the term Leibniz monadology (Strickland, 2020).
Ancient Philosophy
Aristotle and Plato, the most famous ancient philosophers who got their inspiration from Socrates, both believed in the idea of rationality as a main source of authority. Although the two philosophers had divergent views in some instances, the two seemed to agree on the role of rationality in the emergence of religious belief that is based entirely on reality. From Plato’s perspective, the concept of rational thinking is depicted in his theory of forms, in particular, the form of the good, where Plato argues that whatever the good that one is pursuing, reasoning plays a part in the realization of success (Hoitenga, 1991). Aristotle, on the other hand, whose philosophy centers around metaphysics, argues from a different perspective with Plato by introducing the idea of unmoved movers (Bodnar, 2018).
Christian Apologists
Early religions, particularly Christianity, held a strong perception of the interrelation between faith and reason as opposed to the early philosophers. Although some of the early Christian apologists expressed skepticism about ideas of reasoning, most notable apologists, both of the ancient and modern times, strongly expressed their esteemed support for the interrelation between faith and reason (Mathison, n.d.). Faith from a Christian perspective can be used to refer to the strong beliefs that Christians have subscribed to or the response that Christians have towards God and the gospel (Mathison, n.d.).
St. Agustine
One of the earliest Christian apologists to strongly defend the Christian faith and express the interrelation between faith and reason was St. Agustine whose reign was from 350 A.D. to 430 A.D. and is currently regarded a the pioneer for the catholic and protestant theological theories (Hansard, 2018). St. Agustine held to the notion that one can be able to understand a concep...