Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 48
EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY appearance of a long, northerly dawn interrupted only by an occasional flurry of aurora. . The rationalists gave preference to reason over all other means of attaining knowledge and truth. Yet among the rationalists too, we find both believers in Christianity as well as non-believers. It was the latter, however, who consistently gained the upper hand. During the age of rationalism, the Church had to defend Christianity somehow with whatever logical arguments it could muster. . But this proved a strategic mistake on its part, to be lured into the battleground of reason and rationality. . The most prominent theists of this period were. Kierkegaard, Jaspers and Marcel. Of them, it was. Kierkegaard who first rang the bell of alarm warning the. Church not to commit suicide by entering the arena of logical debate between faith and reason. Referring to. Kierkegaard's efforts to salvage faith from the onslaught of reason, Coppleston writes in 'Contemporary Philosophy': 'For Kierkegaard, however, this procedure was simply a dishonest betrayal of Christianity. The. Hegelian dialectic is an enemy within the gates; and it is not the business of any Christian writer or preacher to dilute Christianity to suit the general educated public. The doctrine of the Incarnation was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness, and so will it always be. For the doctrine not only transcends reason but is repugnant to reason: it is the Paradox par excellence, and it can be affirmed only by faith, with passionate inwardness and interest. The substitution of reason for faith means the death of Christianity. ". What Kierkegaard did not further elaborate was that the converse was also true. It nearly implied that the. Christian faith was completely empty of reason and 48