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Faith,
Reason and Immanuel Kant Our working theme of Romans: “The righteousness of God” CHARTING
THE COURSE FOR THIS STUDY: Ø Evangelicalism, faith and Kant Ø Public Education, faith and Kant I. IMMANUEL
KANT AND FAITH
Biblical Teaching about Faith: God’s gift and supernatural empowerment to embrace Jesus Christ (cf. Eph.2:8-10). God is the source of faith and not man. God’s grace is the basis of faith and not anything God foresees in man. Reformed Protestants speak of three aspects of saving faith: knowledge (notitia), ascent (assensus) and trust (fiducia). A. Immanuel Kant's [1724-1804] understanding of faith, “I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith” (Immanuel Kant). Why don’t we allow matters of
“faith” in public schools? B. Many people try making the distinction between “beliefs” and “knowledge.” C. Anyone who shares their beliefs as if they were “truth” is considered ARROGANT, INTOLERANT AND CLOSED-MINDED. Why are people who say that
homosexuality is immoral labeled bigots, homophobes, Neanderthals, etc.? II. AS A CHRISTIAN, MY FAITH IS FOUNDED UPON
CERTAIN OBJECTIVE TRUTHS (NOT PERSONAL OPINIONS) ABOUT JESUS CHRIST A. If Jesus did not die on the cross and if Jesus did not rise again from the dead then I would not be a Christian. If it could be demonstrated
that Jesus did not die on the cross and He did not rise again from the dead
would you still be a Christian? Ø Why would anyone believe in Jesus if He didn’t live a sinless life? Ø Why would anyone believe in Jesus if He didn’t die on the cross? Ø Why would anyone believe in Jesus if He didn’t rise again from the dead? Did the Apostle Paul make a
distinction between “faith” and “knowledge”?
Did the Apostle Paul make a distinction between “faith” and “fact?” B. The Apostle Paul taught that faith is a belief in objective historical truth. 1. “if Christ has not been raised, then
our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain” (1
Corinthians 15:14) 2. “if Christ has not been raised, your
faith is worthless; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians
15:17) 3. “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19) C. What makes Christianity different from other forms of radicalism is that its central tenants are subject to the scrutiny of history and reason. What is the difference
between the Christian who dogmatically believes homosexuality is morally
wrong and the secularist who dogmatically believes that homosexuality is an
acceptable lifestyle? What is the difference
between the Christian who dogmatically believes Islamic terrorism is morally
wrong and the secular humanist who dogmatically believes t Islamic terrorism
is wrong? III.
LIBERALISM, FAITH AND KANT Why are there liberal
Christians who don’t believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus? Why bother going to church? Why bother becoming a minister and devoting
your life to something you don’t really believe? A. Bishop Spong’s call for a “New Reformation.” Martin Luther ignited the Reformation of the 16th century by nailing to the door of the church in Wittenberg in 1517 the 95 Theses
that he wished to debate. I will publish this challenge to Christianity in
The Voice. I will post my theses on the Internet and send copies with
invitations to debate them to the recognized Christian leaders of the world.
My theses are far smaller in number than were those of Martin Luther, but
they are far more threatening theologically. The issues to which I now call
the Christians of the world to debate are these: 1. Theism,
as a way of defining God, is dead. So most theological God-talk is today
meaningless. A new way to speak of God must be found. 2. Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic
terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation
of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt. 3. The biblical story of the perfect and finished
creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense. 4. The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as
traditionally understood, impossible. 5. The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity. 6. The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the
sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and
must be dismissed. 7. Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was
raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical
resuscitation occurring inside human history. 8. The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered
universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts
of a post-Copernican space age. 9. There is no external, objective, revealed
standard writ in scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our
ethical behavior for all time. 10. Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic
deity to act in human history in a particular way. 11. The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control
mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its
reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior. 12. All human beings bear God's image and must be
respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of
one's being, whether based on race,
ethnicity, gender
or sexual
orientation, can properly be used as the
basis for either rejection or discrimination. A
Call for a New Reformation Bishop Spong believes less
about Jesus than the average Muslim. Bishop
Spong probably doesn’t believe anything more about Jesus than the average
atheist or agnostic. So why does he
consider himself a Christian? 1. because of the dichotomy between faith and reason going back to Immanuel Kant. 2. If Christianity is ultimately subjective that means that “Christianity means what I think it should mean.” 3. Christianity isn’t “objective dogma” but “subjective beliefs.” Can you think of any
relationship between Kant's death in 1804 and the beginning rise of liberalism in “mainline” churches
about fifty years later? B. African churches versus American churches. 1. A little more than four years ago, a gay bishop by the name of V.Gene Robinson was consecrated in New Hampshire. The reaction in Africa was strongest: a. “The Devil has clearly entered our church” (Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya). b. “It is devilish and satanic. It comes directly from the pit of hell. It is an idea sponsored by Satan himself and being executed by his followers and adherents who have infiltrated the church.” (Anglican Church of Nigeria; African Anglicans Vent Anger at Gay Bishop) c. “The United States have declared independence” (Archbishop Gregory Venables, Anglican leader of the Southern Cone of South America).
Ø If morality is not based upon rationality then you don’t need a rational defense for any behavior. 2. “Why is it that African church leaders tend to be more conservative? Why is it that African church leaders are calling bishops and archbishops in their own denominations to repent?” “The Islamic view of Faith corresponds to its view of God. For the Muslim, God stands aloof above the world and is unknowable and nonpersonal. Hence faith involves simply an intellectual acceptance and verbal confession of truth, and action in accordance with the commands of the Islamic law. Faith is essentially equivalent to Islam, i.e. submission to the truth and obligations which God has “sent down.” It means submitting to the true religion (Islam) and to the fate God has decreed for one’s self; it does not involve entrusting or committing one’s self to God as a person. It involves a vague hope in God’s mercy upon condition of adherence to Islam. Since God is free and not covenantal, it does not have the idea of taking God at His Word to keep His promises. It is thus a mental acceptance of a concept of God rather than a moral response to a personal-moral Being, active in history, who can be known in a personal relationship (the Biblical view of faith)” (H. Spencer, Islam and the Gospel of God, pp. 76-82 quoted in Samuel P. Schlorff, “Theological and Apologetical Dimensions of Muslim Evangelization” Westminster Theological Journal, Vol. 42, No. 2 [Spring 1980], p.343). A. For Muslims – faith and politics are inseparable. B. In the United States the prevailing dogma is that faith has nothing to do with reason and knowledge and therefore should have nothing to do with law, economy, or foreign policy. C. The homosexuality, murder, adultery, premarital sex, etc. of the United States is making radical Islam look more appealing in other parts of the world. 1. What is the appeal of radical Islam? The “freedoms” of America! 2. “Many Islamic thinkers and activists do not simply reject the West. They want the best it has to offer, but they do not want what they regard as the worst: secularism, unrestrained individualism, sexual permissiveness, the breakdown of the family” (The Oxford History of Islam, p. 690). D. Syed Qutb [1906-1966] – the “intellectual father of Islamic fundamentalism.” 1. Qutb was outraged at the morality of the United States in the 1950’s. 2. Qutb wrote against our nation’s materialism, individual freedom, economic system, racism, brutal boxing matches, triviality, enthusiasm for sports, "animal-like" mixing of the sexes, and lack of support for the Palestinian struggle (Wikipedia, Syed Qutb). In the United States, freedom
and liberty trumps virtue. Qutb argues
that virtue trumps freedom. Which view
is right and why isn’t this point rationally debated? What do Muslims mean by
“Western Imperialism”? E. It can easily and rationally be argued that the secularism of the United States is “radical.” Our view of freedom is “radical” and even barbaric (e.g. abortion). 1. Our nation has become the fundamentalist barbaric monster that we accuse and kill “others” for being! 2. “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things” (Romans 2:1). a. It’s not just the “others” who are close-minded; we are close-minded. b. It’s not just the “others” who are barbaric, we are barbaric. c. It’s not juts the “others” who are mindless fanatics; we are the mindless fanatics. d. We are so blind and arrogant that we can’t see that our radical freedoms, secularism and immorality is part of the problem. NOTE: Some influential people make a connection between Islamic fundamentalism and the Protestant Reformation and Puritanism, Within the Sunni tradition religious authority had been largely established through the madhhabs (schools of jurisprudence), but by the nineteenth century, “the most striking element was the widespread abandonment of taqlid (following) of the mudhhabs in favor of various form of ijtihad (independent judgment). This then, is one parallel with the European Reformation.” Clearly Qutb fits this pattern of independent judgment. His interpretation of the Qur’an is not based upon previous interpretations of medieval jurists, imams, or clerics, but of his own independent opinion…None of these twentieth century figures in the emergence of Islamic Fundamentalist thinking were trained in traditional Islamic institutions of higher learning. “{I}n premodern Muslim societies we do not find the Protestant model of scriptural interpretation – the believer along with the sacred text, without the mediation of tradition. Instead, it was necessary for the average believer to turn to qualified authorities. Experts did not attempt to read the text in an individualistic fashion but relied on the many-layered discoveries of their predecessor.” But since the nineteenth century writers increasingly used “the techniques of Protestant Christianity, {and} appealed to scriptural authority, and {as such} rejected centuries of historical tradition.” Qutb would clearly seem to be part of such a movement” (Albert Bergesen, The Sayyid Qutb Reader, pp.9,10). “For we also say
that the church is the interpreter of Scripture, and that the gift of
interpretation resides only in the church: but we deny that it pertains to particular
persons, or is tied to any particular see [jurisdiction; i.e. the bishop of
Rome] or succession of men.” (William Whitaker [1547-1595], A Disputation
on Holy Scripture [Cambridge,: University Press, 1849] p. 411).
William Whitaker was a Professor of Divinity at Cambridge and his book A
Disputation on Holy Scripture was influential on the Westminster Assembly
and chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith. “I venerate them [ecumenical councils] from my heart, and
desire that they be honored by all.” (John Calvin Institutes, IX.ix.1
“Councils and Their Authority”). F. Christianity is the only hope for the world if we are to be restored to our right minds. V.
EVANGELICALISM, FAITH AND KANT How has Kant's view of faith and
reason affected American evangelicalism? VI. PUBLIC
EDUCATION, FAITH AND KANT How has Kant impacted the
educational system in the United States? |
