Monday, November 17, 2008

A Rational Faith?

I continue to read Pagan Christianity? This is a book that I read about 2/3 of the way through this summer and am now working through the last 1/3. Last night, I read about Christian education. This chapter addresses something that puzzles me about contemporary Christianity. The first sentence of the chapter:

"In the minds of most Christians, formal Christian education qualifies a person to do the Lord's work."

Although this is a pretty sweeping generalization, there is certainly a lot of truth in this statement. In my on journey, I tend to think that surely if I read another book or study some more things will make more sense. I also tend to feel pretty intimidated by those who have undergone formal Christian education. It seems like they must be Super-Christians or something.

However, another sentence stood out in the chapter:

"As products of the Reformation, we are taught to be rationalistic (and very theoretical) in our approach to the Christian faith."

I laughed when I read this statement.

I wonder how many people thought Jesus was a particularly rational guy.

How rational was it for fishermen to just drop what they were doing and follow some random guy just because he said, "Come, follow me."

The authors shared a quote from Blaise Pascal:

"It is the heart which perceived God, and not the reason."

The Heart!

1 comment:

Abby Miller said...

I learned in my philosophy class that it seems like the more we learn about something, the more we realize how much we don't know about that same thing. Sometimes I think that's how Christianity is for me. The more I learn about the Christian faith, the more I realize that there is so much more to learn. Kind of disappointing. But I'm okay with that. I don't think we're supposed to know EVERYTHING about Chistianity. "Have faith like a child," right?