I think therefore I AM: How is Reason related to Revelation?

Christ is the ordering principle that makes reason function. He is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), and all things were created through, by and for the divine Logos (Jn 1:1-3). Hence, in the created handiwork of God, Christ is revealed in the faculty of human reason by merit of its status as a member of that created order. As bearers of the image of God (Gen 1:26), we share God’s capacity for rationality, although humanity appropriates the divine reason in a derivative rather than original manner. Humans are rational beings, capable of “argument, logic and the rest”[1] using reason “in seeing, hearing and judging…revelation…[which is] not set in opposition or sharp contrast to reason”[2]. Reason is the faculty by which revelation is apprehended, however perspectively as a function of human finitude. Thus, the created does not enjoy the same freedom of action in reasoning as the creator working through the divine logos.

This implies a broader view, an “ontological” sense, which describes reason’s capacity to grasp the very nature of reality to a greater or lesser extent[3]. It is important to avoid two extremes of conviction. The first is the over-confidence in reason inspired by the Enlightenment project, in which the faculty of reason is elevated to be the supreme authority on ultimate truth. Reason is used to lead into a rationally defensible theism or used to antagonistically deny revelation as empirically inaccessible[4]. The second conviction is the “hermeneutics of suspicion”[5] inspired by a postmodern rejection of reason as a way of knowing anything with certainty. Reason is relativised from its privileged position as final arbiter of truth, and is located as a socially and cultured constructed product rather than as a means for engaging with ‘real world’ ‘out there’.

However, from ‘general revelation’ the knowledge of God is abundantly made available to all in the created order (Ps 19:1) and in human conscience (Rom 1:20). Despite this, reason is still limited because of the effects of sin as a consequence of the fall. Reason is rightly an object of suspicion, as the human ability to rationally comprehend unaided how “general revelation” reveals the character of a saving God is ultimately limited.

It is only in the special revelation, that testifies to the saving nature and character of God made known in the person of Christ as found in the Scriptures, that reason is able to apprehend God. This revelation of God through Christ is publicly made known through the empirical emphasis of the gospel reports, the significance of which “provides grounds for believing that are within the objective capacity of human reason to comprehend”[6] Nevertheless, knowledge alone about Jesus as presented in the gospels is insufficient to compel faith on the basis of reason alone. It is indeed “foolishness to the Greeks” (1 Cor 1:23). Ultimately, the cause of personal conviction and certainty lies in the operation of the Spirit of God, testifying to Christ, who is the revealer – a saving knowledge that dispels spiritual ignorance.

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[1] Gunton, “Historical and systematic theology”, 13.

[2] Stephen N. Williams, “Revelation” in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2005), 679.

[3] Gunton, “Historical and systematic theology”, 13.

[4] Gunton, “Historical and systematic theology”, 10.

[5] Bowald, “Grace”, 269.

[6] Williams, “Revelation”, 680.