People of “the Logic”

“Faith in reason is the most significant feature of Western Civilization,” writes Rodney Stark in his book, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (Random House, 2005).

Stark’s thesis is that this “faith in reason” is why Western Civilization has dominated so decisively when it has come into contact with other cultures. Against it, magic, superstition, archaic customs, and irrational authority structures simply withered and died.

Not everyone will agree that Western dominance is a good thing, but for Christians, Stark makes a very intriguing argument, one that many will find startling. The American sociologist argues that Christianity is the source of this faith in reason. “While the other world religions emphasized mystery and intuition, Christianity alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guide to religious truth.”

Many modern Christians will find this argument odd. Isn’t Christianity best known for dogmatic faith placed in opposition to reason? Wasn’t it the church that restrained scientific inquiry and silenced Copernicus? Didn’t the re-discovery of Plato and Aristotle launch the Renaissance and then the modern age of science? If you have lived under any of these or similar myths, you will find Stark’s book very interesting.

Stark draws much of his evidence from the great writers of Christian theology – Augustine, Aquinas, John Calvin, and others – who wrote meticulously argued theologies and who lived and died by what they considered logical. He quotes a few earlier Christians, but could have spent even more time with the earliest post–New Testament writers. The Christian writers of the second and third centuries were preoccupied with the reasonableness of their faith. The mark of the “apologies” was their attempt to be logical.

But is this simply a historian’s debate? For biblical Christians the important question is not how theology developed over time but rather, what is biblical? Does the Bible encourage God’s people to embrace reason and logic rather than mystery and intuition?

I believe that the answer is Yes. Aside from Stark’s cultural and economic arguments, he is right in this: Christianity embraces reason above mystery and intuition.

Already in the Hebrew Scriptures the foundation is laid for a faith that is solidly built on reason and logic. God sets the cosmos into motion to be operated by consistent and discoverable principles. The rains fall on the just and the unjust. The universe is not capricious and as God’s people study its patterns and rhythms they are studying God’s handiwork, laid out for our enjoyment.

It is the New Testament, however, that takes this principle to a whole new level. It does so with the use of the Greek philosopher’s word “logos.” In most Bibles this Greek word is translated “Word.” We know it from John 1:1 – “In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word (logos) was with God, and the Word (logos) was God.”

And what is logos? It is the root word of our English word “logic.” In early translations of the New Testament from Greek to Latin, logos was rendered “ratio,” the root of our word “rational.” It is a great irony that in the history of theology, logos has come to be associated with a vast hodgepodge of theologies and sales pitches that have little to do with logic.

But for the earliest Greek-speaking Christians who used logos rather than Word, its meaning was not lost – we serve a God who has designed an orderly universe and whose message and essence is “the Logic.” Is it any wonder that early Christian writers worked so hard to explain their gospel?

Virtually from the beginning, segments of the church looked for alternatives to the priority of reason in the expression of the gospel. Mystics emerged late in the second century, teaching that the gospel could not be understood by those living in ordinary society. They retreated to the mountains, deserts, and caverns, and through contemplation, fasting, and prayer tried to advance the strength of their faith. At the same time, Gnostic teachers taught that there were secret magical keys, given to chosen teachers, which would open hidden mysteries that conventional reason was inadequate to explain.

Both trends remain alive and well within Christendom. Like the early church, however, we must consistently and persistently go back to reason, built on the foundation of the Scriptures, as indispensable to our faith. Our faith is mysterious, yes, and moments of insight inspire us, but we are the people of “the Logic.”

James Toews is pastor at Neighbourhood Church, Nanaimo, B.C.

Note: this column is the first of two complementary parts. Next issue: “On the other hand . . .”