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If you’ve been paying attention, we’ve been exploring the four sides of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral this past month! We started with Tradition, then explored Scripture and Experience, and this week we take a peek at Reason. I’m no philosopher, but I’ve been interested in the ways philosophy influences our presuppositions about truth. Plato and Aristotle had nothing to do with the Judeo-Christian world, but their language around soul and body, their ideas around perfection and idealism became the litmus test for reasonable interpretation of scripture. For example, you probably believe that God doesn’t change. You probably did not get that idea from reading the Bible, where Moses changes God’s mind (Numbers 14), or where God repents (changes his mind) about creating humanity in Genesis 6. Oh yeah, also where God repents of choosing Saul to be king over Israel (1 Samuel 15), or approximately 10 other places in the prophets where God’s mind changes about punishing or blessing Israel.
No, you came to the belief that God doesn’t change because, whether you knew it or not, you have been influenced by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, whose philosophy presumes the immutability of God. And that philosophical pre-supposition goes with you as you read the scripture, causing you to justify all these times God’s mind changed in scripture. You’re using reason. You’re using your brain. But your brain is not a blank slate. You approach the Bible with presuppositions about how we arrive at truth. Even if you have never taken a philosophy class in your life.
René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French mathematician and is considered the father of modern philosophy. You know him as the “I think therefore I am” guy. While it’s true, major philosophers before him also elevated the soul or mind above the body, Descartes was influential in expanding the idea that the senses can’t be trusted. The mind/soul does not need the body to exist. This means the mind/soul can and does continue on after the loss of the body. The emphasis on “I think, therefore I am” made room for a greater individualism than previously experienced in the West. Descartes became fundamentally skeptical of everything outside his brain’s interpretations of reality, going so far as to accuse a demon of attempting to deceive him.
When we approach the Scripture, many of us think that we can somehow empty ourselves, step away from our experiences and feelings, and have a completely rational reading of the Bible. We have been taught that feminist, black, latino, and queer theologies are lesser than orthodox theology because they are relying on their physical experiences within the world to inform their interpretation of scripture. We have been taught to believe that even though the orthodox Christianity we have been handed was largely, if not entirely, shaped by white European men, it is somehow purely rational and devoid of the lesser interpretations that come from our physical context. We bring these assumptions with us when we approach the Bible. They feel true. They feel reasonable. We’re using our unpolluted minds here to help our souls connect with God, right?