July 6, 2025 ·

Faith and Reason

“If Christ is the wisdom of God, if philosophy is a love of wisdom, that means philosophy, as we understand it, should be the love of Christ. True philosophy. Because Christ is the truth, the way in the life. If I love wisdom, I love Christ. So this is how we think about how do these things interact? This is how reasoning helps our faith. How does faith help my reasoning? The first thing is, I believe that faith helps give us a grounding. … I have to have faith in my brain's ability to interpret the world. I have to have faith that when I say words to you, understand it. I have to have faith that you exist. The world exists. Reasoning depends upon three to five truths that you just have to believe in. You can't prove. That's what Aristotle argued. That's why I love the pre-moderns. I think they get past postmodernism. We have to go pre-modern. There are some things that just believe. Otherwise, I can't start thinking. So faith helps ground our reasoning. I also say, secondly, faith has great explanatory power. It helps us understand the world that we live in. Why can't I believe that my mind corresponds to reality? Because God made the world, and He made my mind. It helps make sense of the world. There's a great explanation.”