•Apologetics/Faith/Reason - Pocket Handbook Ch1-2 (pgs. 9-18 ) [corresponding ch in Fundamentals book = ch 1 (pgs. 13-23)]
•Apologetics
•“Be ready to give a ______for the hope that in in you” (1 Pt 3:15)
•Apologetics is the enterprise of obeying that command
•Objections to Apologetics
–It is too ______
–Not enough of the ______
–Love, morality, holiness are all more important than reason…Kreeft says this is true but those who hold this ______ that these things are more important!
•Response =
–“Apologetics gets to the heart ______ the head…the head is the gate to the heart
•Power of Reason
•Reason has ______power…we can’t believe what we believe to be untrue
•“______may not bring you to faith but they can certainly keep you from faith”
•Arguments can bring you ______ to faith like a car can bring you to the sea…but if you are going to get wet you must decide to jump in
•Concerning methodology
•We are more concerned with truth i.e. content than method at this time
•But…a few things to consider
–The larger context
•The total psyches of the persons involved
•The ______between the persons
•The immediate situation
•The larger social ______situation
–E.g you would use different methods with a Muslim than with an American teen
•Qualities of an Apologist
•“Arguments are more like ______than ______…it matters enormously who wields a sword”
•“The arguer’s tone, sincerity, care, concern, listening, and respect matter as much as his or her logic…probably more”
•The Need for Apologetics Today
•Triple crossroads/crisis
–Western Civilization is in danger of dying…it is losing its ______i.e. the Christian Faith b/c of the disease of secularism i.e. no faith, no soul
–Crisis of Truth – “the idea of ______is being ignored, abandoned, or attacked.”
–Spiritual Crisis – we pay little attention to learning how to ______…but our time is short we will die soon
•Confines of the text
•“mere Christianity” that which is core to all “orthodox” Christians
•The heart or essence of the faith as summarized by the ______
•Liberal Theologians will not like this book especially b/c of its…
–Arguments for ______
–Reliability of ______
–The divinity of ______
–The reality of ______
•CH2 – Faith & Reason
•The “marriage”
–If they are incompatible, then apologetics is impossible b/c ______is the attempt to defend the Faith w/ reason’s weapons
•Defining Faith
•Distinguish the ______of Faith (believing) from the ______of Faith (What is believed)
–Act = Fides ______= believing; adherence of man to God…the Theological Virtue of Faith. E.g. “I have firm faith that Jesus is God”
–Object = Fides ______ = The Objective content; that which is believed. E.g. “The Catholic faith holds many truths”
•The Object of Faith (Fides Quae)
•Is expressed in ______
–these are needed in order to “know or tell others what God we believe in & what we believe about God”
•*______Himself is the ultimate ______of Faith
•The Act of Faith (Fides Qua)
•Is more than merely an act of belief
•4 dimensions of religious faith:
–______faith
–______faith
–______faith
–The Heart
•Defining Reason
•Distinguish the Act from the Object
–The Object of Reason is all that reason can know i.e. all the truths that can be:
•______ by human reason
•______by human reason
•______ by human reason without premises assumed by faith
–Reason is relative to ______i.e. its correctness is dependent upon that which is true(reality itself)
–It is a way of knowing truth
•______is also a way of knowing truth e.g. we believe what others say and come to knowledge that way.
•Relation b/w the Objects of Faith & Reason
•How are they related?
–3 Different kinds of Truth
•Truths of Faith and ______ of Reason
•Truths of both Faith ______ Reason
•Truths of Reason and ______ Faith
•______holds that everything we know by faith can also be understood, or discovered, or proved by reason.
•______holds that the only certain knowledge we can have is by faith.
•This claims that everything we know by faith can also be known by reason and vice-versa.
•______is very popular today because it reflects the “separation of church & state,” religion & philosophy, sacred & secular.
•Reduces reason to scientific, mathematical, & empirical reasoning.
•Reduces faith to a personal, subjective attitude.
•a = Revealed by God but not understandable, discoverable, or provable by reason (e.g., the Trinity or the fact that Christ’s death atoned for our sins).
•b = Revealed by God & understandable, discoverable, or provable by reason (e.g., existence of one God or objective moral law).
•c = Not revealed by God but known by human reason
(example, E = mc2, F = ma, Quadratic formula)
•The Christian apologist admits that he cannot prove the propositions in a; however, he can ______all the ______to them.
•E.g., the mathematician might argue against the Trinity by saying that it is a contradiction to call one three (i.e., 1 ≠ 3). We can reply by defining “nature” and “person” see Theology and Sanity chs. 6-8
•Why F & R can never contradict each other
•Aquinas
–Only the ______is opposed to the ______
–We are sure that rationally self-evident propositions (e.g. the whole is greater that than the part or effects have causes) are ______.
–God cannot ______
–So if truths gotten by human reason are true and propositions of faith are from God then…these two kinds of truths are not opposed…they must both be ______
–No contradiction continued…
•Even the principles known to us naturally (e.g. the whole is greater than the part…etc.) are implanted in us by ______…for God is the Author of our ______.
•“Whatever arguments are brought forward against the doctrines of faith are conclusions ______derived from the first & self-evident principles embedded in rational human nature”
Self-evident truth Mistake in reasoning Doctrine is false
“Every possible argument against Christianity has a rational ______in it somewhere”
•John Paul II said:
•“Faith and reason are like two wings in which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of ______.”Fides et Ratio, JPII, 1998
•And so, we must echo the words of Pilate and ask, “what IS truth?”