Faith, Reason, and Natural Theology

This topic concerns the relationship between religious faith and human reason, and the project of natural theology, the attempt to know God by reason apart from special revelation.

Definition

The doctrine of the relation between faith and reason and of the possibility of knowing God by reason alone.

Scope

This topic examines models of the relation between faith and reason (conflict, independence, harmony, synthesis), the classical arguments of natural theology (cosmological, teleological, ontological, moral), the criticisms of natural theology from Hume, Kant, and Barth, and modern alternatives such as Reformed epistemology, which treats belief in God as properly basic. It includes Augustine's 'faith seeking understanding' and the rationality of religious belief. The presentation is descriptive, comparing the positions.

Core questions

• How are faith and reason related, and can they conflict?
• Can the existence and nature of God be demonstrated by reason?
• Is belief in God rational without supporting arguments?
• What is the place of natural theology in Christian thought?

Key theories

Faith seeking understanding

The Augustinian and Anselmian principle (fides quaerens intellectum) that faith is the starting point that seeks to understand what it believes, so that reason operates within and serves, rather than grounds, faith.

Reformed epistemology

Alvin Plantinga's argument that belief in God can be 'properly basic', warranted apart from inference from other beliefs, so that theistic belief need not rest on the arguments of natural theology to be rational.

History

The relation of faith and reason was a central question for the Fathers (Justin, Augustine) and the scholastics, with Aquinas integrating Aristotelian reason and Christian revelation and offering his 'Five Ways'. The Enlightenment critiques of Hume and Kant challenged the proofs and natural theology. The twentieth century saw Barth's rejection of natural theology and, later, the rise of analytic philosophy of religion and Reformed epistemology defending the rationality of belief.

Debates

Legitimacy of natural theology

Whether reason can establish or support knowledge of God independent of revelation, defended in the Thomist tradition and at Vatican I, and rejected by Barth as compromising grace and the priority of revelation.

Evidentialism versus proper basicality

Whether religious belief requires evidential support to be rational (evidentialism) or whether it can be properly basic and warranted without argument (Reformed epistemology).

Key figures

• Augustine of Hippo
• Thomas Aquinas
• Karl Barth
• Alvin Plantinga

Seminal works

• aquinasST
• plantinga2000
• barth1936

Frequently asked questions

What is natural theology?

Natural theology is the attempt to establish truths about God, such as God's existence and attributes, by reason and reflection on the natural world, without appealing to special revelation or scripture.

Are faith and reason opposed?

The mainstream Christian traditions deny that they are inherently opposed; many hold that faith and reason are complementary, with reason clarifying and supporting faith, though theologians differ on how much reason can establish on its own.