Faith Seeking Understanding

This chapter considers the views of several thinkers who subscribe to the Faith Seeking Understanding response but make the compromise between faith and reason in different ways. In John Meier's view, Christian faith is directed primarily to the real Jesus, the one "existing and living now", the "risen Lord, to whom access is given only through faith" and only secondarily to ideas and affirmations about him. In C. Stephen Evans's recent book, The Historical Christ and the Jesus of Faith, he says that although "the Spirit of God" can quite independently of evidence and arguments produce faith that counts as knowledge, the Spirit can also work through evidence and arguments. Everyone who subscribes to the Faith Seeking Understanding response agrees that when expert opinion or empirical evidence conflicts with the prompting of faith, some sort of compromise needs to be worked out in which both faith and reason have to give.

Epistemology · Faith · Education and Islamic Studies · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology