For some Christians it has become stylish to reject reason in favor of “sticking to what the Bible says.” The great reformer Martin Luther once said, “Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore.” The idea that Christian faith and reason are at odds has been a major feature of Protestant theology ever since. As a life-long Lutheran I have always been uncomfortable with Luther's demonization of reason, but how should Christians think about the role of reason in faith? Is reason, as Luther argued, the enemy of Christian faith? Or is there a sense in which faith and reason can serve as complementary tools for the Christian life?Luther’s lack of appreciation for reason can only be understood within the context of his rejection of a branch of theology called scholasticism. Scholasticism was a dominating philosophical movement of Luther’s day which attempted to use reason to harmonize classical Catholic theology with the philosophies of Aristotle and Neoplatonism. Though these philosophies initially attracted Luther, he eventually came to the conclusion that they failed to provide what was most essential, namely the promise of a loving God. Luther claimed that we can never reason our way to knowing God’s love. Rather God is only made known through self-revelation, which can only be found in Scripture. Hence when Luther was calling on Christians to reject reason, he was primarily encouraging people to search for God in the gospel of Jesus Christ rather than in the philosophies of reason.
In a sense I believe Luther was right. If God really is most fully revealed in Jesus, then reason is not the best instrument for discovering God. After all, one could never deduce the story of Christ crucified by philosophizing in an armchair. The problem with Luther’s comments on reason is that they were probably overstated, as he was prone to doing. Even if we accept that God cannot be initially discovered through reason, this does not mean that reason has no role to play in faith. In fact Jesus himself gives us some examples of how reason can enhance our understanding of God.
Take for example the story of Jesus’ healing of a man that he encountered on the Sabbath. According to the letter of the Mosaic Law, no significant activity was to be done on the Sabbath, and many believed that this would include healing. And yet when Jesus encounters a man with a deformed hand he breaks the literal interpretation of the Law and heals him. When some of the hardliners accuse him of unlawfulness Jesus responds: “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” Mark 3:4
I think what Jesus was basically saying in the above story is, “Use your brains people!” He’s arguing that if God really loves his people then God is probably more concerned with showing compassion to someone in need than abiding by a strict Sabbath legal code. He's challenging religious people to have a better appreciation for the Spirit of God in Scripture, which at times overrides the more literal meaning of Biblical texts. In other words Jesus is asking them to use their reason to learn something new about God’s will. God gave us our brains, so maybe using our reason in service to our faith is actually what Jesus wants us to do. After all, if using reason was good enough for Jesus Christ, shouldn’t it be good enough for Christians?
