faith without reason is dead
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Here’s a revolutionary thought!
What we know from the scriptures is that faith without works is dead, but works without reason borders to stupidity and faith without reason borders to folly! For this reason, I suggest that faith without reason is dead. In a post-modern era, where the tendency is to deconstruct all human thought constructs by applying critical thinking, we find ourselves left with very little concrete. The more you deconstruct, the less you have. Or is it so? Enter the creative age! With deconstructionism follows new constructions, better designs, improved results.
What many young development professionals have inherited today is the end-road of an era where the secularization of societies in the West was the budding sign of the end of God and the end of religion. Many still argue and hope for this. In fact, many believers used to be embarrassed to say to friends that they are religious or that they have faith. “Why on earth do you go to church?” There is something backwards about it, something regressive.
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God is not dead
But go to Africa for example or any other developing country in the South, and the reality is much different. Faith has come to stay! In Africa, religion is the single thread of the tapestry of your existence. Religion is perfectly natural. Anything else would be worthy of critique. It is good business for faith-based organizations to operate in the South: there is a lot of goodwill there. No danger of being dismissed as irrelevant if you have the Church-word in your name logo. In fact, many northern aid agencies in partnership with agencies in the South are working within a culture that does not question religion at all!
Religious traditions have done a great deal to motivate people – faith without works is dead – for both good and evil. One must admit that religion has results to show for and is influencing both the lives and the living conditions of most human beings on earth. Missionaries throughout all ages have contributed immensely to basic service delivery (and still do!): building schools, health clinics, relief work, vocational training, etc. Religious institutions and organizations are present in every community of the world and in that sense are legitimate advocates as to defending the cause of communities every where. The main problem here being that religious leaders often speak out of their own opinion (LDS prophets often do) without getting a mandate from the communities they represent.
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Religious leaders should stop shouting and start coming up with better solutions
But religious leaders have it within them to propose a more holistic and futuristic view of development! Economic development is not holistic enough. What about cultural, intellectual and emotional development to name a few? In fact, religious leaders should speak out against the current economic order and suggest a more holistic approach to life that is informed by the wisdom found in religious traditions. It should not be about prophetic shouting (Hinckley said he did not want to be an alarmist), but prophets and faith leaders should rather propose and come up with better solutions.
If you are impatient with the Churches, it is quite understandable. There is a lot to be impatient about. Many of them seem to be taking money only to maintain their own (dying) institutions. But wait a moment: Churches happen also to be the birth-parents of development agencies today, and even secular agencies have been inspired by faith cultures. Actually, when you think of it, churches are the most reliable allies in development work. They may in fact be the greatest resources of faith-based development agencies: who come in the thousands and thousands to knock on doors and participate in fund-raising activities for the poor? The churches. Who filled the ranks of the Jubilee campaign? the churches. The vast majority of those who marched for a fairer and more equitable world were church-goers. So don’t write them off!
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What should be our role?
If churches are not working well, if they are not ‘anxiously engaged in a good cause’ (or in building an economic Zion), what should be our role, as specialized ministries or as diaconal organizations and individuals? Our call is to build the capacity of the churches to respond to the work that we need them to do! In order to work with the churches, aid agencies need to recruit and staff their organizations with people who will understand the churches, who are able to speak the language of the churches, and by using the action-reflection cycle, you can draw on spiritual and religious traditions and have them enrich your thinking about development. Our theology must and cannot be superficial! It must be engaging, challenging and ‘cutting-edge’. There must be a creative tension between theology and reality.
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and why bother with faith?
It is true that in development work, many elements must be technical. It would be difficult to grow corn without speaking to an agriculturalist or to establish a community bank without talking to an economist. If you want to “love your neighbor”, you must understand what their real needs are and you must know or at least understand how you may best meet those needs. Otherwise, love becomes an unintelligent and a harmful thing! You must be a professional. There must be technical expertise. But technical disciplines are not enough by themselves. Look at the following video-ad prepared by Christian Aid on ending poverty:
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YES, WE CAN!
This is a great video to get people on board! The video actually shows that professional disciplines are important. In order to rid the world of smallpox, you needed medical knowledge (technical know-how), and for changing tax-regimes you need legal know-how. However, to say that we got rid of apartheid or fascism or slavery is misleading, if not outright wrong! The economical apartheid in South Africa is far from over, fascism is real and alive, and modern slavery is – and some argue – far worse than what it has ever been. And when it comes to changing things, most people would actually disagree on the how. Should we have used violence against fascism? Should we have enforced sanctions on South Africa?
If we have known the theory, that we have had the technical know-how for all those years, why haven’t we done it before? The world is in fact not changed. Poverty is still around. The gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening. And yet, Christianity is imbued with the idea of progress, of development: on we go and upwards! So what should we base our hope for the future on:
- on one hand there is reality: will we ever turn our global community into the Kingdom of God or will the Kingdom ever be established? and;
- what is Christian hope all about? There is no situation that is completely void for good or for change. But can we, as a collective, get rid of the deep-rooted problems in our lives?
What have you done to people’s spirituality, if you haven’t dealt with the failure of human will to change? What have you done to people’s hopes, if you promise them Zion today, here and now, and you do not first recognize that people are socialized into believing that acting out of self-interest is in fact in their own interest? The problem with reason, is that just having good techniques is not enough – disciplines do not on and of themselves respond to issues of human nature. Christianity is not the only one that has insights in dealing with human nature, many other faith traditions do too.
Can we change trade regulations? How many failed WTO meetings have we had? Vested interests have to be wrestled with. One could say that a Christian understanding of human nature is that humans are definitely insecure and vulnerable, and based on these insecurities, they have learned to be (carnal, sensual and devilish) selfish, egoistic and are acting out of self-interest and self-preservation. A behavioral pattern reinforced and confirmed on a daily basis – for isn’t the natural man also the enemy of God? And if that’s reality, is there any hope for Zion? What if human nature is on the contrary definitely creative, what are the potentials?
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But if any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him
Well, here is a new thought: faith is not revealed – according to christian realism! Ideas about faith and about beliefs, as well as religious teachings and church doctrine are all human constructs, or in other words, they are human conclusions: that’s why there are so many of them and they differ so widely. Humans observe, understand and interpret. In fact, this is what the LDS official church website has said about the process of receiving revelation:
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Take time to ponder. When you take time to ponder the truths of the gospel, you open your mind and heart to the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost (see 1 Nephi 11:1; D&C 76:19; 138:1–11). Pondering takes your thoughts from the trivial things of the world and brings you closer to the Spirit.
When seeking specific guidance, study the matter out in your mind. At times the Lord’s communication will come only after you have studied a matter out in your own mind. The Lord explained this process to Oliver Cowdery, who served as Joseph Smith’s scribe for much of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord spoke to Oliver Cowdery, explaining why Oliver had not been able to translate the Book of Mormon even though he had been given the gift to translate: “Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right” (D&C 9:7–8).
Patiently seek God’s will. God reveals Himself “in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will” (see D&C 88:63–68). Revelation will probably come to you “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” (2 Nephi 28:30; see also Isaiah 28:10; D&C 98:12). Do not try to force spiritual things. Revelation does not come that way. Be patient and trust in the Lord’s timing.
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Three basic questions
Put very bluntly: all faith statements are “teachings of men mingled with scripture”. Does that make them less true? In a way, it does. It makes them less sacred, in any case – and more changeable: We observe, we understand, we interpret – line upon line, precept upon precept. All in all, faith and reason try to tackle the same things. They are trying to make sense of our shared existence by answering the following three basic questions:
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- WHAT is reality? What is true and what is truth? What am I dealing with here? What is human nature? What is the current situation?
- WHERE do we go from here? What would be more satisfactory (the kingdom of God, Zion, the ideal and just society)? What kind of society would we like to live in? Do we want a more urbanized world? A polluted and degraded planet? Do we want to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear war? No. If not, then what alternatives do we have?
- HOW do we get there? What can be changed and what cannot be changed? Forgiveness for example is a HOW answer: how to get somewhere (Zion) with irredeemable or at least with unreliable human beings.
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Following the above logic, a “true” church must be a church that has an explicit and a clear analysis of the current world we live in and of its role and potential within that world. It is a church with a vision of a better and of a just society, that gives priority to the poor and with a clear direction for how we could organize ourselves in this world. A church that bases its theology on equalizing relations of power and that is willing to learn from its own mistakes – quickly adapting to changing circumstances and recognizing the new reality. We cannot bypass the issue of power, because the only difference between a rich person and a poor person is that the rich has the ability to pursue his self-interest. The poor does not.
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Conclusions:
- Faith-based agencies have a responsibility to enable churches: give them professional know-how and engage with their faith and their beliefs. Have it inform your work.
- Religious faith is here to stay: maximize the good that is already there. Draw on the wealth of wisdom that is contained in them.
- We need a bigger discussion around the word MISSION. Development must be part of the mission of the church (its three-fold mission to come unto Christ).
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These are notes from a lecture on the role of faith in development given at the Ecumenical Institute in Geneva on Wednesday 30th September 2009 by Professor in Social Theology Michael Taylor.
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Robert 04:48 on October 9, 2009 Permalink |
Yes, faith without reason is dead!
How do we in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ever get to a point where dynamic dialogue between members and leadership will be a possibility?
I read that a definite requirement is: “a church that bases its theology on equalizing relations of power, willing to learn from its own mistakes’, and a church that has “a bigger discussion of the word MISSION.” I’m afraid that our church meets none of these criteria …