Faith Seeking Understanding: Theological Paradigms for Lutheran Universities
by Joshua Hollmann
Flowing from the central Biblical doctrine that faith alone justifies, Lutherans have traditionally focused on credere Deo (trust in God and faith as gift of God).[i] While, as Lutherans chime, this is most certainly true—and there should be no doubt about faith alone in Christ alone—the Lutheran theological tradition has also affirmed the related aspect of fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeking understanding, or viewed from a Lutheran lens, understanding in, with, and under faith.[ii]
Faith as articulated by Christians is a complex concept with many attributes. Fides qua creditur signifies the faith or trust by which Christians believe. Fides quae creditur means the faith which is believed or the content of faith, the regula fidei as found in Scripture and the ecumenical creeds. The fides qua creditur receives and confesses the fides quae creditur.
Reason, or the act and agency of perceiving and thinking, is a gift of God. Both faith and reason are given by God. In the explanation to the first article of the Apostles’ Creed, Martin Luther explicitly affirms that God has given us our reason and our senses. While human reason is fallen in sin and cannot in any way achieve the enlightenment of salvation, the Holy Spirit resurrects and renews reason in Christ, the knowledge and wisdom of God.[iii] As the apostle Paul proclaims in Romans 12:2, Christians are to be transformed by the renewal of their minds so they may prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
The word paradigm may literally mean to exhibit patterns that reside side by side, against one another, or one under the other. Now, the dominant paradigm today of faith and reason is reason against faith. Reason becomes weaponized to discredit or even disprove faith. But, in addition, reason may also be seen as side by side with faith, and reason and faith are left to coexist as coequals. For example, faith is affirmed on Sunday at church while ignored on Monday at work. Over against these—instead of reason against faith, and faith and reason essentially canceling each other out—the following paradigms of faith and reason for Lutheran universities follow the classic Christian structure of reason under faith and reason seeking faith: I believe so that I may understand (Anselm), and I understand so that I may believe (Abelard).[iv]
The Lutheran University
Lutheran universities, notably the Concordia University System of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, are unique institutions to explore the interplay of faith and reason. While Lutherans affirm that credere Deo or faith alone in Christ alone does not require reasons and stands firmly on the Word of God, they also often seek to make sense of their faith. The college years in particular are significant times for believing students to begin to wonder more deeply about what their faith means. Lutheran universities also welcome students from different faith and non-faith backgrounds and serve as intentional contexts where non-Christians may begin to reason or wonder about life’s existential questions: Why are we here? Is there a God or an afterlife? Etc.
In the sacred and secular context of Lutheran universities, we may think of faith and reason in two ways: reason under faith—ad-intra for Christians; and reason seeking faith—ad-extra for non-Christians. This brief essay provides two theological paradigms or models and methods for Lutheran universities in a secular age: ad-intra or reason under faith, and ad-extra or reason seeking faith. The theme of being called by name, or Isaiah 43:1, illustrates the paradigms in praxis.[v] Isaiah 43:1 serves as sedes doctrinae, or Scriptural grounding, for establishing the Augustinian and Anselmian maxim of “faith seeks” and “understanding finds” in the context of the contemporary Lutheran university.[vi]
Paradigm 1: Reason Under Faith
On the first way (ad-intra, reason under faith), Lutheran universities reason about the universe and everything that God has created, both seen (physics, nature) and unseen (metaphysics, the spiritual). The English word university comes from the Latin universitas, which encompasses the whole, total, the universe. Lutherans deny double truth or the assertion that faith (theology, revelation) and science (knowledge, reason) are both equally the summation of veracity. There is one way, truth, and life, or one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who creates and sustains the universe and all things. This singular truth of the Triune God as received in faith also transforms the minds of believers in Christ to reason in, with, and under faith through the ministerial use of reason which follows the primacy of faith.
An example of this would be examining the theme of being “called by name” as found in Isaiah 43:1. The verse proclaims a profound overview of God’s name and lovingkindness (chesed) found throughout the Scriptures. Christians apply reason in, with, and under faith to understand the fullness of Isaiah 43:1 and what it discloses about God and God’s salvation. For example, ‘name’ in Isaiah 43:1 points discerning readers in faith back to the original Hebrew title for the book of Exodus (Hebrew title: Names). Isaiah 43:1 leads seekers in faith to the exodus where God not only names his people (Exodus 1:1-4), but also reveals his name (Exodus 3:14), and identifies his name with his people (Exodus 3:16). At the conclusion of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus instructs His apostles to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. God wants to bestow His Triune Name on disciples from all nations. In light of Exodus 3 and Isaiah 43, Matthew 28 reveals most clearly in all of the Scriptures God’s Triune Name, and identifies the baptized with the Triune Name of God (Matthew 28:19). The Scriptures end with the book of Revelation wherein God writes the names of believers in the book of life (Revelation 3:5, 20:15, 21:27). By reasoning in, with, and under the stronghold of faith, Christians begin to see the plenitude of the everlasting relationship between God’s name and the names of His beloved people.
Here is an example of questions for students at a Lutheran university on being called by name and as exercise in the paradigm of reason under faith:
How does Isaiah 43 relate to the book of Exodus? What does this relationship tell us about God’s name and God’s deliverance of God’s people?
How does Exodus 3:14-16, Isaiah 43:1, and Matthew 28:19 relate to Christian baptism and the name of the Triune God?
Paradigm 2: Reason Seeking Faith
On the second way (ad-extra, reason seeking faith), Isaiah 43:1 purposes an entry way for non-Christians to wonder or reason about the Christian faith. The ministerial use of reason under the mastership of faith has also been important in Christian apologetics or in giving a public reason for personal faith (1 Peter 3:15). In addition, the paradigm of reason seeking faith affirms that reason is a gift of God to be employed in order to lead to the gifts of the gospel given in word and sacrament. A prime example of reason seeking faith is found in the early church apologist Justin Martyr. In Dialogue with Trypho, Justin Martyr recounts meeting an old man by the sea who reasons with him about ancient Greek philosophy and the Christian faith. Through this dialogue of reason seeking faith, Justin Martyr becomes a Christian. Another pertinent example of the paradigm of faith seeking reason is found in Isaiah 43:1, which points back to Genesis 2:7 (see also Genesis 7:22 and Isaiah 42:5) where God breathes into Adam the breath or spirit of life. All humanity breathes the breath of life (Acts 17:25). The Hebrew word for breath seems to be semantically related to the Hebrew word for name. There also appears to be a connection between the Creator who names creation (Genesis 1-2) and the created Adam who names creation (Genesis 2:19-20). The human pattern, to name and be named, originates in the relationship of God and all creatures. The breath of life, which all living things partake of, inspires the seeking of God’s name just as the heavens declare the glory of the Lord (Psalm 19:1, Psalm 150:6).
While this breath-name-naming connection is more subtle than the exodus-Isaiah exegesis, it does intend possible points of contact for non-Christians to think about God and the source and sustenance of life. God not only calls Christians by name (by faith alone in Christ alone, the second article of the Apostles’ Creed), God also breathes the breath of life into everything that He creates and names (Genesis 1-2, the first article of the Apostles’ Creed). Christians serving in a Christian Lutheran university will need to connect reason to faith. Isaiah 43:1, Genesis 2:7, and related verses such as Job 12:10, 33:4, and Acts 17:25, may all function as windows to show seekers the horizon of human experience lived under the name of the sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2).
Here are some examples of questions for students at a Lutheran university on being called by name and as exercise in the paradigm of reason seeking faith:
Reflect on the importance of names. Why do we desire to be named and to name? What would it be like to not have a name? In the Christian Scriptures, why do you think that God identifies his name with his creation? What does this mean?
Why in health studies do we spend so much time and effort memorizing names of things? What do these all these names tell us about the essence of life?
Why do names and naming (branding) matter so much in business and marketing? What does this impulse to name what we create tell us about our place in the world and what we value? How might it relate to God who creates and names all things? According to the Christian Scriptures, what does God name and value, and why?
The innate desire to be called by name and to name arises from the desire of God to name all that He creates and to call all names unto Himself. As Scripture affirms, one day all names will bow down to the name above every name, Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:9-10). Since Scripture teaches that God’s name is too wonderful to fully know in this life (Judges 13:18; 1 Corinthians 13:12), Christians follow the example Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28), and point in clarity and humility to the name of the Triune God through both the first article (reason, creation) and the second article (faith, redemption).
Religion and science, theology and philosophy, are often demarcated and contested in the post-modern, secular academy. The aim of this sketch on paradigms of faith and reason is for Lutheran universities and the church bodies they represent to reflect upon and apply the ancient Christian via of faith seeking understanding. The Scriptural theme of being called by name as taught in the setting of a diverse Lutheran university operates as case study for embodying the evangelical-catholic matrix of credere Deo and fides quaerens intellectum.
Notes
[i] Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 3:28; Ephesians 2:8; Augsburg Confession, IV; Apology of the Augsburg Confession, IV.
[ii] For example, see: Augsburg Confession, XVIII; Apology of the Augsburg Confession, XVIII; Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, II.
[iii] Martin Luther, explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed in the Small Catechism; 1 Corinthians 1:24, 30; Colossians 2:3.
[iv] Both paradigms of reason under faith and reason seeking faith place faith above reason and regard reason and faith as gifts of God. The former employs reason to understand faith, while the latter utilizes reason to lead to faith. Abelard is considered the father of the western university and confessed in his Historia Calamitatum, “I understand so that I may believe.”
[v] “I have called you by name” (Isaiah 43:1) is the university theme for academic year 2023-2024 at Concordia University, St. Paul (CSP), and this essay originates in reflections for CSP on teaching Isaiah 43:1 to Christian and non-Christian students.
[vi] Credo ut intelligam: Augustine of Hippo, De Trinitate; Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion.
