Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley<\/p>\n
All rights reserved<\/p>\n
In our Post-Modern era it has become fashionable for certain segments of the American Church to denigrate the use of reason as an important part of living the authentic Christian life. Some voices in the \u201cEmergent\u201d movement have opined that Evangelical Protestantism has too long been captive to the Enlightenment\u2019s idolatrous elevation of human rationality during the 17th and 18th<\/sup> Centuries. The theory is that the Church has been unwittingly co-opted by the basically secular worldview expressed in Modernity. In reaction to this, a greater emphasis on emotion is sometimes promoted as a vital corrective. One might say that systematic theology is out and \u201cThe Sacred Romance\u201d is in. We are now being advised in certain quarters to think less <\/em>about God\u2019s order so that we can be free to feel more<\/em> of His Presence.<\/p>\n No doubt some of this corrective is right on target. Dry intellectualism obsessed only with \u201cright doctrine\u201d is not conducive to the holistic experience of God in all aspects of our being that He Himself desires us to know. The placement of reason above emotion has too often been worn as a sort of badge of biblical legitimacy in the Evangelical world; sometimes to the point of demonizing denominations that\u00a0endorse emotional experience as a legitimate aspect of worship. We truly have suffered from the larger culture\u2019s captivity to Scientific Modernism. Too often contemporary Christians been subtly assimilated into secularism\u2019s blind faith in the ability of human reason to capture all truth, including theological truth. It is not wrong to acknowledge the need for emotional passion in the pursuit of a God who shows abundant evidence in Scripture of being emotionally passionate Himself. Our hearts must connect with our Lord just as surely as our minds.<\/p>\n That said it benefits us to remember that human reason, even fallen human reason is derived from a God of order as well as passion. Myriad signs of a divine moral and natural order produced by supremely rational thought are no less present in the Bible than signs of divine passion. Reminders of this aspect of God\u2019s character exist all around us. The realms of mathematics, physics and astronomy (to name just a few) eloquently speak of logical intelligent design. In fact all of the applied sciences that gave rise to the astounding technologies we denizens of the 21st<\/sup> Century take for granted today are based on utilizing the rationally consistent natural order our Lord ordained in the physical universe. If God were a God only of chaotic passion, emotional or otherwise, we would not experience the fixed day to day realities that allow us to \u201csubdue the earth\u201d as Scripture commands. The natural laws of the universe are the product of a Rational Mind and it is their utilization by our derivative created minds that has given us legitimate, if limited, power over creation.<\/p>\n There is nothing wrong with restoring feelings and emotions to their rightful place in the Christian life. Jesus Christ was no Stoic, no pure Rationalist with the world-view of Star Trek\u2019s logic-obsessed Mr. Spock. The Son of God embodied both reason and passion in perfect measure. His followers should not be afraid of experiencing either aspect of the divine nature, insofar as they do not make an idol of either.<\/p>\n The famous polymath and convert to Christianity Blaise Pascal once said that \u201cthe heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.\u201d Although this is indeed a true statement, the human mind has reasons of which reason does <\/em>know something. Such reason should not be rejected simply because the Post-Modern Church is reacting against an earlier philosophical extreme. As is most often the case the truth lies in balance. The best thing the Church as a whole can do today is seek such a balance between reason and emotion while respecting the God-given value of both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved In our Post-Modern era it has become fashionable for certain segments of the American Church to denigrate the use of reason as an important part of living the authentic Christian life. Some voices in the \u201cEmergent\u201d movement have opined that Evangelical Protestantism has too long been captive to… <\/p>\n