J.H. Heidegger's Corpus of Christian Theology: Theology in General: Reason and Revelation, Part 2

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36.  Yet faith does not remove, but perfects, the sobriety of the mind, and truth naturally known.

But faith constrains reason, and takes all reason captive to the obedience of Christ;[1] yet in such a way that it does not take away the sobriety and light of the mind, and truth naturally known, but through that very thing, and by the guidance of the Spirit of God and His word, finds success.  For the revealing God does not impel men like ζῶα ἄλογα, irrational animals, or automata, but He speaks to φρονίμοις, wise men, 1 Corinthians 10:15.  Faith does not destroy reason, but excites it; does not entangle reason, but directs it; does not blind the mind, but illuminates it; does not oppress, but liberates from lusts, errors, ignorance, rash judgments, and murmurs against the truth of God, as the snares of Satan, whereby it was taken captive to do his will, 2 Timothy 2:25, 26, by elevating it above itself unto God, to know and receive those things that it was not previously able to know and to receive, because they were foolishness to it.[2]  The ways and thoughts of God are above the ways and thoughts of men; but they are not contrary, except in crooked ways and depraved thoughts.[3]  God is never contrary to God, nor truth to truth.  Jesus Christ, who was preached among you, was not ναὶ καὶ οὔ, yea and nay, but in Him was ναὶ/yea, 2 Corinthians 1:19.  God is ἀψευδὴς, unable to lie, Titus 1:2.  But He hath revealed γνωστὸν, what is able to be known, concerning Himself, Romans 1:19, and hath written the work of the law on hearts, Romans 2:15.  What is of the truth, or follows from it, is true; and no lie is of the truth, 1 John 2:21.  Thus therefore, as Tertullian[4] beautifully writes in his libro de Resurrectione Carnis, God sent nature ahead as a Teacher, being about to send forth Prophecy also, whereby you, as a student of nature, might all the more readily believe the Prophecy.  In which sense also Clement of Alexandria,[5] in his Stromata, book VI, calls Philosophy ὑποβάθρον τῆς κατὰ Χριστὸν φιλοσοφίας, the stepping-stone to the philosophy which is according to Christ, namely, not as a foundation, as a Translator ignorantly renders it, but rather as the lowest rungs of Christian Philosophy.  And Basil,[6] in his Hexæmero, with understanding called the world τῶν ψυχῶν λογικῶν διδασκαλεῖον, καὶ θεογνωσίας ἐστὶ παιδευτήριον, the school of rational souls, where they are trained up in the knowledge of God.

37.  The error of the Fanatics, proscribing the use of reason.

Therefore, we have no kinship with the fanatics, among whom are the Weigelians,[7] Anabaptists, the Rosicrucian Brethren,[8] mystical Theologians, arrogantly banishing the use of Reason from Theology, because they did not believe that they would be able to uphold their Enthusiasms or crass ignorance, unless reason were taken out of the way.  For Saint Paul did not think, that whatever was natural wisdom, or whatever was the dictate of sober reason, was that spoiler of faith and piety, that Philosophy and κενὴ ἀπάτη, vain deceit, mentioned in Colossians 2:8; since elsewhere, Romans 1:18, 19, he called it the ἀλήθειαν Θεοῦ, truth of God, and γνωστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, what is known of God, revealed by God, and he himself, making use of it, frequently reasoned, and gathered one thing from another:  but rather wisdom ψευδώνυμος, falsely so-called, and vain, which James in James 3:15 calls ἐπίγειον, ψυχικὴν, δαιμονιώδη, earthly, sensual, devilish, which is not κατὰ Χριστόν, after, or according to, Christ, Colossians 2:8; the fulfillment of which he makes the θρησκείαν Ἀγγέλων, worship of Angels, Colossians 2:18.  Neither does it make any more for the matter, that the same Saint Paul in Romans 1:22 called the Wise fools, and in 1 Corinthians 1:20,  the Wisdom of this world foolish.  For the Gentiles were made fools, not by the use of sober reason, but by the abuse of reason, because they, knowing God, glorified Him not, and changed the invisible Majesty and glory of God into the visible forms of animals, Romans 1:21, 23; and because they set their reasonings against the Gospel, which had begun to be preached, regarding the preaching of the cross to be μωρίαν/foolishness, 1 Corinthians 1:18, but God, as Tertullian famously asserted, chose the foolish things of the world to the confusion of Philosophy.[9]  And whoever would be made wise in Aristotle, he ought first to become foolish in Christ, said Luther[10] by no means ignorantly.  Finally, I acknowledge that the Apostles were generally not Philosophers, but they were taught through singular and extraordinary ἔλλαμψιν/illumination, without art, John 16:13; Acts 2:1, 2, etc.  But we are educated through the medium of instruction and meditation, 1 Timothy 4:13, neglecting the help of Philosophy no more than that one talent ought to be buried, Matthew 25:24.

38.  And the error of the Papists, and others, who, discerning their errors to be uprooted by reason, abuse reason.

And it is evasion, not zeal for the truth, that the Papists, and some others, when they see their errors concerning Transubstantiation and others to be uprooted by reason, do not hesitate to make a mockery of reason.  Whom the Apostle by no means defends, commanding to cast down λογισμοὺς/ imaginations/reasonings and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5.  Obviously reasonings that exalt themselves against the faith clearly testified and demonstrated out of the word of God ought to be cast down, and the mind to be taken captive to the obedience of Christ, so that what God testifies to be true he believes to be true, even if he does not fully comprehend how it is so.  But we ought not, therefore, to take the mind captive to believe that which is not able to be demonstrated to be revealed by God in that aforementioned sense, and also stands in opposition to that which by nature is known of God and His works; and pertains in no manner to saving wisdom.  For this is not αἰχμαλωτίζειν τὸν νόημα, to bring the mind into captivity, that is, to compel to voluntary and necessary assent, but rather to deny, to cast down, and to trample upon the light of the mind, and whatever by nature is known of God and His works.

[1] 2 Corinthians 10:5.

[2] 1 Corinthians 2:14.

[3] See Isaiah 55:7-9.

[4] Tertullian was a Latin Father of the second century.  He labored as an apologist during times of persecution, and was important in the development of the Trinitarian vocabulary in the Latin-speaking West.

[5] Titus Flavius Clemens Alexandrinus (died c. 215) was the head of the Christian catechetical school in Alexandria, Egypt.  He was trained in pagan philosophy before his conversion to Christianity.

[6] Basil the Great was a fourth century Church Father and stalwart defender of Nicean Trinitarianism.

[7] Valentin Weigel (1533-1588) was a German theologian and mystic.  He served as a Lutheran pastor at Zschopau, and wrote voluminously.  He kept his more radical ideas to himself, and lived peacefully.  Contrary to the dogmatic tendency of the age, Weigel believed internal illumination to be superior to all external means of spiritual knowledge.

[8] The Rosicrucians (or Fratres Roseæ Crucis, Brethren of the Rosy Cross) were a spiritual and esoteric movement, beginning in the early seventeenth century, blending Hermetic, alchemic, Christian mystical, and Kabbalistic elements.

[9] Prescription against the Heretics, chapter 7.

[10] Heidelberg Disputation, thesis 29.