Faith and Reason: a Hebraic-Christian view.
Faith and reason are entirely compatible. Don’t believe the hype that says otherwise.
Not that they’re the same thing. Defining terms is important.
So, what is faith? “Faith” means trust—or, better yet, belief based on trust.
And what is reason? Does reason mean being able to wrap our brains fully around a topic to understand it? If that’s what “reason” means, then “faith and reason” can’t be the same thing. You should never expect fully to understand the doctrines of the Trinity or the Incarnation! We don’t believe these doctrines because we understand them fully; we believe them because they are taught by a reliable authority. We take them on faith.
But what if reason only means being the proper operations of our minds towards getting to the
truth? If that’s what “reason” means, then trusting in the testimony of a reliable authority is an
act of reason. A lot of what we know in geography, history, and medicine is by trusting in reliable authority, as Augustine explains (Confessions, Book VI, chapter 5, here).
Even what we know from science we generally know by relying in authority. Trusting in a reliable authority is exactly what Christian faith is.
The biblical teaching that our faith is based on “God, who never lies” (Titus 1:2), and concerns things “in which it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). It’s a revelation from a God who has proven himself through his mighty acts of redemption (Psalm 136, Joshua 23). So “reason” in one sense of the term is not easily mixed with faith: If you believe something because you understand it firsthand to be true, there’s not much room for believing on the basis of trust.
But “reason” in another sense of the term overlaps with faith: Trusting reliable authority is a very proper way of using our minds to gain knowledge.
Dr. Mark Boone (PhD Baylor University) teaches at Hong Kong Baptist University. Dr. Boone has 2,400 followers on his YouTube channel (here).