Faith Seeking Understanding
By Peter H. Vande Brake, M.Div., Ph.D
 
 
Augustine of Hippo was a monk and later a bishop who lived in North Africa in the 4th and 5th centuries AD. He was a great thinker and continues to be heralded as one of the foremost theologians of the Church by both Catholics and Protestants. Trained in philosophy, rhetoric, and law, he was a very capable scholar. In his younger days, he was quite the heathen, but after his conversion to Christianity he used his formidable education to argue for the truth of the Gospel. One of the ideas he most frequently appealed to in his crusade for truth was contained in Isaiah 7:9 as he read it in the old Latin version: “Unless I believe, I will not understand.” This concept was encapsulated by Augustine into the phrase: “Faith seeking understanding.”

This phrase became the motto of Christian thinkers in the Middle Ages and continues to be an important guide for modern Christians as well. It is the affirmation that our quest for knowledge and learning begins with the sure conviction that God is the font of all truth and knowledge. Without God, there can be no truth, and if there is no truth, there can be no understanding. Thus, our only path to knowledge and understanding is through belief in the One who has created all reality and holds it together by His sovereign will. This was the opinion of the vast majority of scholars for many centuries.

Unfortunately, this perspective has not gone unchallenged. During the Enlightenment, this view of knowledge and learning began to be questioned and was even reversed so that understanding or reason became the starting point for knowledge and thought about God rather than faith or revelation. Hence, because miracles and supernatural beings were not deemed to be logical or rational, it was concluded that there must not be such things or beings. Eventually, belief in God was also abandoned because no one could come up with any hard empirical evidence (evidence that can be observed through one of the five senses) that there really was a God. This attitude of skepticism went beyond thought about God into all subjects of thought.

In the 19th century, W.K. Clifford wrote a provocative essay, “The Ethics of Belief,” in which he argues that “it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence" [(W.K. Clifford, “The Ethics of Belief”, in Lectures and Essays, 2nd ed., L. Stephen and F. Pollock, ed., London: Macmillan and Co. 1886, 346). Subsequent references to this work will be made parenthetically in the text]. He states that no belief can be left unscrutinized because if we acquire even a few beliefs on insufficient evidence, then we jeopardize our ability to test and inquire into new beliefs (343-45). He also recognizes that many of the things we believe go beyond our direct experience, and so, he proposes that “we may go beyond experience by assuming that what we do not know is like what we do know; or, in other words, we may add to our experience on the assumption of a uniformity in nature” (p. 360). The aim of his polemic was to prove that, according to the “ethics of belief,” Christianity is an unacceptable belief because there is not sufficient evidence for one to accept Christianity. His argument is helpful in that it provides us with a systematic structure for testing and acquiring beliefs; however, he ends up shooting himself in the foot.

Clifford’s ethics of belief render his own argument unacceptable because he assumes that “what we do not know is like what we know” (p. 363). In other words, he does not have sufficient evidence for this assumption, and thus, he breaks his own rules for acquiring belief and must find is own beliefs to be unethical. Clifford’s failure gives us an example of what happens when we try to base belief on something other than God.

After Clifford, others, such as Albert Camus and Friedreich Nietzsche, realized that it is impossible to begin from reason alone and come to any real truth. But, instead of turning toward God and recognizing a basis for truth, they boldly stated that there is no real truth and so every person creates truth for themselves. Consequently, relativism (the belief that there are no absolute standards) became accepted as the only possible intellectually responsible belief. Relativism taken to its logical conclusion can only lead to nihilism (the belief that there is nothing of any real value). Nihilism can only lead to despair.

Sadly, this is where much of modern society has found itself intellectually, philosophically, and spiritually. Relativism has come to rule the day in academia, politics, religion, ethics and other areas. This is the environment that is so pervasive in classrooms all across America, and it is why it is so important that we listen to Augustine and heed his words today.

It is absolutely imperative that we maintain a sure and strong faith in God and recognize Him as the only sure starting point for all learning and knowledge. We must be people with faith seeking understanding if we are to learn anything worth knowing at all. In fact, it is the only way that we can be sure that we know anything at all. This is why we have a Christ-centered curriculum at North Hills and why it is so important that we do everything in our power to nurture and preserve it.