Use and Abuse: The Proper Role of Reason in the Christian Faith

By Rev. Steven R. J. Parks

Ever since the so-called “Enlightenment” of the eighteenth century, Christians have been repeatedly painted with the broad brush of anti-intellectualism. That is, the world around us constantly seeks to portray us as backward-minded people who stand against the sound principles of reason, scientific discovery, and overall progress. In the 2008 film “Religulous,” for example, comedian Bill Maher interviews a United States senator who contends that the Bible’s account of creation is a legitimate possibility. Maher’s caustic response is: “It couldn’t possibly have been Adam and Eve five thousand years ago with a talking snake in a garden.” With a smug wave of his hand, Maher summarily dismisses the claims which Christianity (and Judaism) have made for millennia. Of course, Maher is not alone in his crusade to portray Christians as dim-witted and brainless. The so-called “new atheists” (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Cook, et al.) have united, with the common cause to unmask Christianity for what it allegedly is: a collection of fairy tales for people uninterested in truth.

So what should a Christian’s attitude toward logic and reason be? Do we reject it completely, as Maher and the “new atheists” contend we do, or is there a place for reason within the Christian faith? To be sure, Christians have always acknowledged that truth is of the greatest importance. After all, we worship the God who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1-2). We worship the author of reality who justly takes offense when people believe things contrary to what He has said. It is this God who became incarnate, took on human flesh and blood in the person of Jesus, and claimed: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). In short, we are interested in truth because we have been created and redeemed by the One who is truth!

Traditionally, Christians have recognized reason as one of the many gifts God has given to mankind. Martin Luther says as much in his explanation of the First Article of the Apostles Creed: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.” All of God’s gifts, however, can be misused or abused. A man who uses his eyes to guide his children safely across a busy intersection is using the gift of eyesight properly. A man who uses his eyes to view pornography is misusing God’s gift. A woman who uses her ears to respond to her baby’s cry of distress is using the gift of hearing properly. A woman who uses her ears to listen to gossip and slander is misusing God’s gift. Likewise, a person who uses his brain to seek to understand and comprehend revealed truth is using the gift of reason properly. A person who uses his reason to twist, misinterpret, or mock truth is misusing God’s gift—so much so, in fact, that when used in this way Luther taught that reason was the “devil’s prostitute,” enticing sinners away from the truth of God revealed in Scripture. Reason, then, is to be the servant, not the master, of God and His Word.

In short, reason is a divine gift to be enjoyed in its proper context: in service to God and neighbor. It is abused when twisted or misapplied with the goal of separating creation from the Creator, morality from the Lawgiver, or redemption from the Savior. In point of fact, there is no rationality or meaning to reality without the God who reveals Himself in Scripture! When reason is used in service to God and neighbor, we remember what Christ taught us in the Law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). When used to destroy or undermine what our Lord has revealed in His Word, we would do well to heed His warning: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).

Rev. Steven R. J. Parks served as a research consultant at the Christian Research Institute from 1994-2001. He received his B.A. from Concordia University, Irvine in 2002 and his M.Div. from Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana in 2006. He is currently an S.T.M. candidate at the same institution. Rev. Parks also serves as the sole pastor of University Hills Lutheran Church in Denver, Colorado, where he resides with his wife, Robin.