A different sort of knowing

Augustine, Aquinas, Pascal, Kierkegaard, C. S. Lewis. All guys who defended the faith, but also all guys who would readily admit that the basis for their faith wouldn’t be found in apologetics or any deductive argument.

Augustine believed because he experienced God; he was brought to tears in the garden as he read from the book of Romans. Aquinas famously asserted near the end of this life that all of his philosophy and theology were apparently nothing more than straw when seen by the light of the reality of Heaven. Pascal experienced God in a way that he basically summarized as “Fire!” Kierkegaard made the leap of faith; it wasn’t logical, but it was real. And Lewis was, in his own words, “surprised by joy.”

There’s a basis for faith that doesn’t fit into the world of derivations and modus ponens. It’s the most logical thing in the world for those who experience it; but it can appear awfully foolish to outside observers.

We know God in the sense that we know that we fall in love with a man or a women, or we know that we love our children. I don’t need a rational construct; I know it to my very bones. And that’s the basis for the leap; that’s the part a nonbeliever will never really understand. All of our explanations and arguments for why Christianity is the truth actually take a backseat in our actual lives. Christianity is something believed or disbelieved on an experiential basis.

This really isn’t all that surprising. Jesus said to believe in him on his testimony, but if not that then believe on the basis of the miracles. The Old Testament seems like a constant refrain of, “Look, I’m the real God. Look what I just did for you! Now get your act together and serve me- and remember, I’m the God who saves. The God who actually does things!”

I am sure that Christianity is true. But I know it on the basis of my experience of God- experience that ranges from me seeing God in direct, Pascalian moments, or just seeing God in nature or in my personal history, or in the lives of the people around me. So I am sure Christianity is true because it works. I have accepted it, and what’s happened to me since then lines right up with what the Bible says should happen. It works too well to not be true.

~ by Michael on June 6, 2008.