So here is all the thinkers we have discussed so far put into one blog. So get ready this might be long but I will try to condense it.
St.Augustine believed that the foudation for Christianity is authority. Since the Bible is the Word of God is must be believed, since it came from God it must be true. Then he asked himself well many books claim to come from God how do we know which one to choose? He argued that miracles and prophecies make it evident that the Bible is the correct one. But if one keeps on questioning he asked how do we know the miracles even took place? Since the knowledge of the past was accepted on the basis of authority (meaning we accept the testimony of the witness as valid) he said one must accept the testimony of the author of scirpture. But he asked why should one just accept it? He had no way of answering this to avoid cicular reasoning which would be the Bible has authority so the miracles must be true when the miracles are supposed to show the Bible is true. So he appealed to the present day miracle of the Chrurch. He argued even if one rejects all the miracles in the Bible he still has this miracle of the Chruch which is evident. So the Bible must be true because why would anyone believe it only by divine will.
Thomas Aquinas thought that there are 2 types of truths. The truths of reason and the truths of Faith. The truths of reason are truths which can be discovered by inference or philosophy etc. One such of these truths are God exists. Something reason can discover. Then there are the truths of Faith. That reason cannot discovered. This is not to say that they are unreasonable or incoherent. But what this does mean is that these truths cannot be infered or discovered by some argument. For example one can know God exists from the cosmological argument but does the cosmological argument prove that God is triune (three personhoods in one being. Trinitarian concept of God taught in Christianity). Well obviously not. So Thomas said we cannot know the truths of Faith directly but indirectly. How? Well authority. Since the Bible is from God everything it teaches must be true. So when the word of God taken as a whole prove the truths of Faith indirectly. But then again how do we know the Bible has the authority? He said miracles and prophecy made it clear the Bible is true. How do we know the miracles and prophecy took place. He appealed the miracle of the Church as the way of knowing. Thomas also made the important contribution of the reduction of faith to mean a mere trust or commitment of the heart. Faith used to be a way of knowing but Thomas correctly defined the word Faith.
John locke said that every religion must have a foudation based on evidence. This is what we call theological rationalism. He argued that if a belief has no evidence it should be discarded. So Thomas thought the existence of God was a very reasonable thing to believe so he gave arguments for behalf of this. But when he moved into revelation and theological doctrines. He said that revealed truths (revelation) cannot contradict reason. That is to say if a revelation is contradictory to expirence or reason or common sense. Than it is more than likely this revelation is false. He said that revelation cannot contradict reason because we can always be sure of reason than some revelation claiming to be from God. Locke thought any revelation that came from God is always true but it lies within the scope of reason to examine if it really is from God and determine it's meaning. He gave criteria to determine if a revelation is truely divine. 1. It must not contradict what has already be revealed. 2. It must not inform us of anything that is contray to God or the moral law or something easily discovered ( e.g rocks are hard) 3. It must be confirmed by supernatural signs. If the revelation satisfied the criteria than it could be said that the revelation is true. So Locke thought that Jesus fufilled the criteria so we can be sure that Christianity is true.
Henry dodwell going against the prevailing thought of his time argued that how can God expect something as human reason to lead us to faith? He basically said the way one know Christianity is true is not by reason but authority. But not authority of scirpture but the authority from the inner witness of the Holy spirit. This assures us that Christianity is true because the Holy spirit comes from God and since it is from God himself the spirit must be telling the truth.
Well that is it for now as for the two other people I neglected to mention well just look at my last blog for that. Well till next time!
St.Augustine believed that the foudation for Christianity is authority. Since the Bible is the Word of God is must be believed, since it came from God it must be true. Then he asked himself well many books claim to come from God how do we know which one to choose? He argued that miracles and prophecies make it evident that the Bible is the correct one. But if one keeps on questioning he asked how do we know the miracles even took place? Since the knowledge of the past was accepted on the basis of authority (meaning we accept the testimony of the witness as valid) he said one must accept the testimony of the author of scirpture. But he asked why should one just accept it? He had no way of answering this to avoid cicular reasoning which would be the Bible has authority so the miracles must be true when the miracles are supposed to show the Bible is true. So he appealed to the present day miracle of the Chrurch. He argued even if one rejects all the miracles in the Bible he still has this miracle of the Chruch which is evident. So the Bible must be true because why would anyone believe it only by divine will.
Thomas Aquinas thought that there are 2 types of truths. The truths of reason and the truths of Faith. The truths of reason are truths which can be discovered by inference or philosophy etc. One such of these truths are God exists. Something reason can discover. Then there are the truths of Faith. That reason cannot discovered. This is not to say that they are unreasonable or incoherent. But what this does mean is that these truths cannot be infered or discovered by some argument. For example one can know God exists from the cosmological argument but does the cosmological argument prove that God is triune (three personhoods in one being. Trinitarian concept of God taught in Christianity). Well obviously not. So Thomas said we cannot know the truths of Faith directly but indirectly. How? Well authority. Since the Bible is from God everything it teaches must be true. So when the word of God taken as a whole prove the truths of Faith indirectly. But then again how do we know the Bible has the authority? He said miracles and prophecy made it clear the Bible is true. How do we know the miracles and prophecy took place. He appealed the miracle of the Church as the way of knowing. Thomas also made the important contribution of the reduction of faith to mean a mere trust or commitment of the heart. Faith used to be a way of knowing but Thomas correctly defined the word Faith.
John locke said that every religion must have a foudation based on evidence. This is what we call theological rationalism. He argued that if a belief has no evidence it should be discarded. So Thomas thought the existence of God was a very reasonable thing to believe so he gave arguments for behalf of this. But when he moved into revelation and theological doctrines. He said that revealed truths (revelation) cannot contradict reason. That is to say if a revelation is contradictory to expirence or reason or common sense. Than it is more than likely this revelation is false. He said that revelation cannot contradict reason because we can always be sure of reason than some revelation claiming to be from God. Locke thought any revelation that came from God is always true but it lies within the scope of reason to examine if it really is from God and determine it's meaning. He gave criteria to determine if a revelation is truely divine. 1. It must not contradict what has already be revealed. 2. It must not inform us of anything that is contray to God or the moral law or something easily discovered ( e.g rocks are hard) 3. It must be confirmed by supernatural signs. If the revelation satisfied the criteria than it could be said that the revelation is true. So Locke thought that Jesus fufilled the criteria so we can be sure that Christianity is true.
Henry dodwell going against the prevailing thought of his time argued that how can God expect something as human reason to lead us to faith? He basically said the way one know Christianity is true is not by reason but authority. But not authority of scirpture but the authority from the inner witness of the Holy spirit. This assures us that Christianity is true because the Holy spirit comes from God and since it is from God himself the spirit must be telling the truth.
Well that is it for now as for the two other people I neglected to mention well just look at my last blog for that. Well till next time!
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