One of my favorite authors is Robert L. Wilken, who is Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He has an article in the Feburary 2011 issue of First Things in which he reflects on the ability of the Christian faith to incorporate and transform elements from Latin and Greek culture, thereby enriching the Christian civilization. He draws on a recent title by Remi Brague, Eccentric Culture: A Theory of Western Civilization. Wilken's essay is marvelous, citing the Christian poet Prudentius and the bishop Isidore of Seville as examples of appropriating and enriching earlier cultural achievements.
By all means, read the article.Here are some thoughts to ponder:
In an individual believer, faith can exist without reason. God does not measure out the supernatural gifts of grace according to IQ. Yet, as a community, the Church needs reason to give faith cultural heft and the density of varied expression in language, whether it be the disciplined, imaginative reasoning that poetry requires, or the elemntary, conceptual resaoning of grammar.
Reason, for its part, needs faith because the natural powers of the human intellect easily lose sight of their goal, which is the fullness of truth, and can become susceptible to various forms of authoritarianism and intolerance.
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