1. We treat scripture as a conversation instead of ideology
2. We realize tradition as creative instead of nostalgic
3. We hold reason as balance instead of inevitability
4. We pursue evangelism using desire instead of shame
5. We realize transcendence through affection instead of fear
3. We hold reason as balance instead of inevitability
Confucius’ Analects state: “Painting ghosts is easy, because no one knows how they look; painting people is hard, because everyone knows.” Christian theology struggles to avoid painting theoretical ghosts, while engaging in hard tests of what everyone claims to know. For instance, the finest logic by itself begs this question by promising inevitable conclusions it cannot deliver, since Christian reason works with irreducible ignorance. Gregory of Nyssa wrote that looking into darkness is the only place we can see God; our human reason must guide us to live virtuously with what we cannot know, or know only in part.
Until the last century western thinkers separated reason from feeling, in the service of unencumbered logical choice: for example, in Darwin’s theoretical calculus of sexual selection, whose workings are still debated. Fundamentalist polemic operates much the same way, as a self-contained logical exposition of selected bible texts. But from Freud to modern anthropologists, more recent research has found emotion at the foundation of all human stories and life decisions, making what “everyone knows” more complex and critical to define. Modern reason embraces and explores a darkness within human life, as well as where God dwells.
And reason’s close relation with ignorance has proved risky for the wise. The Delphic oracle said “No man is wiser than Socrates.” Socrates replied that could only be true because he did not know, and knew he did not know, whereas his enemies did not know but did not know they did not know—and these sentenced him to death. Jesus’ ministry likewise contradicted certainties upheld by other teachers, so that the haunting inevitability of his execution colors all our gospel stories about him. During later centuries his Church pretended to know dark mysteries and condemned whoever disagreed, until our history filled with schisms, inquisitions, and bloodshed. In protest, both the Reformation and the Enlightenment turned reason against what they called “superstition” in the Church.
No wonder eighteenth century French and German champions of the Age of Reason distanced themselves from official church doctrine! But the Enlightenment really began earlier, among seventeenth century English bishops who supported scientific innovation while both Catholic and Protestant continental divines condemned it. Those bishops set a distinctive Anglican course through all territory crossed since, from abolishing slavery to ordaining women and blessing same sex marriages.
Logic has both advanced and opposed these changes. Therefore like gymnasts, we must step or leap along a balance beam, avoiding disastrous falls to either side. A balance beam demands surefootedness rather than compromise, and instead of settling for some fictitious “Anglican middle way,” in fact our most innovative thinkers have always led our church’s real progress forward. Therefore as Confucius’ Analects suggest, we seek out truth among the hard realities “everyone knows.” And we hold onto the darkness none can know, living with ambiguity in place of painting ghostly certainties. Were Anglicans to choose among Reason’s modern heroes outside our church, most of us would sooner walk along lines sketched by Voltaire or Freud than crystalline engravings, say, by Thomas More.
This is part 3 of 5 in Rick Fabian's Core Values Series describing the theology behind All Saints Company, the founder of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church.
