FAITH AND REASON IN CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
The greatest tragedy in the world
today is that many people no longer search for truth. The actions of some
people are simply ruled and directed by emotion, feelings, visions and dreams.
Worse still some leaders rule their followers with this attitude without
adequate reflection and critical intellectual analysis. Consequently, they
exert inordinate authority on their followers because they are intellectually
bankrupt and unable to convince anybody by persuasion. Some people who take to
violence do so because they have no mental energy to ask why. My mother
Veronica once told me a story of a man who was running just because he saw the
sheep running (Igiema na, no khe eme ekhue
ema lo khu lo).
The Pontifical Council for
Interreligious Dialogue (Vatican) and the Centre for Inter-Religious Dialogue
of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (Tehran, Iran) held their
sixth Colloquium in Rome from 28-30 April 2008 under the joint presidency of
His Eminence Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council
for Interreligious Dialogue and His Excellency Dr. Mahdi Mostafavi, President
of the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization. [1]
The theme was “Faith and Reason in Christianity and Islam”. This shows the
seriousness and importance of this topic. Saint Pope John Paul II in his
Encyclical Letter FAITH AND REASON (Fides
et Ratio) states that “every people has its own native and seminal wisdom
which, as a true cultural treasure, tends to find voice and develop in forms which
are genuinely philosophical. [2]
Through natural events and
wonders of the world, African ancestors were able to arrive at a divine
transcendence that is responsible for the creation, design and sustenance of
the world and the physical realities. Morality was learnt by a critical
observation and experience of cause and effects. This was imparted to the
children and youths in stories, proverbs and riddles. The life of our ancestors
can be compared to the ancient sages of Athens. The Ionian and natural
philosophers attempted to discover reality through a thorough examination of
natural processes before Socrates.
According to “The ancient world had become an ethically arbitrary place, rife
with moral relativism and a lack of regard for the Eternal Truths when Socrates
(469–399 B.C.) came on to the scene. This dynamic and controversial Athenian
figure spent a lifetime in the public square, engaging in dialogues with the
young men of Athens”. Socrates was eager to engage in a philosophical debate
anytime, anywhere, akin to a gadfly chasing a cow or a horse. Socrates must
have studied the naturalist philosophers like Empedocles and other philosophers
before him. He arrived at the fact that truth did not lie in the natural world
by posing questions and drawing responses, which made people think. He thus
developed a philosophy called Socratic dialogue or dialectic. Socrates was in
search of truth by means of Socratic disavowal as indicated in the story of his
encounter with the Oracle of Delphi where he claimed to know nothing. His credo
was: “Man know thyself!” “Doing what is
right is the only path to goodness, and introspection and self-awareness are the
ways to learn what is right.” He was ready and willing to die for his
convictions. He actually taught people to study the signs of the times and
question all that were going on around them.[3]
Revelation cannot be separated
from reason which is the intellectual faculty given by God to humanity for the
contemplation of the wonder of creation. [4]
God reveals himself to man/woman in the context of the natural environment. The
prophets used the parables, stories, events of their immediate environments to
communicate divine revelations. The Bible was born out of the tradition of the
Church. Therefore, the Churches
labeled, “Bible Church” should know that faith and salvation is not determined
by the Bible alone. John concluded his gospel by affirming that there were so
many things that Jesus said and did. If they were written down in detail, the
whole world would not hold all the books that would be written (John 21,
25).
Al-Ghazali believed in intuition
(dzawq) in the pursuit of religious knowledge and Ibn Rusyd, a
rationalist thought that reason was crucial to religious understanding. Islahi, Amin
Ahsan in his book (Mabadi Tadabbur-i-Hadith) identified the Arabic word iman (إيمان) as the inner aspect of the religion that denotes a believer’s faith in
the metaphysical realities of Islam. [5]
According to the Quran, Iman must be accompanied by evidence of righteous
deeds, and the two together are necessary for entry into Paradise (Qur’an
95:6).
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