23 August 2009

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

We must acknowledge, worship, and invoke God in the way that He reveals Himself in His Word, and we dare not listen to the shrewd arguments of human reason contrary to this revelation given in the Word.-- Johann Gerhard, On the Trinity, par. 167

2 comments:

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

It's with our human reason (Spirit-aided, of course) we are able to receive the revelation, and it's by our same human reason, still Spirit-aided, that the Church is able to interpret it.

One cannot not listen to human reason! Cannot, even if one wants to. It's impossible. The only question is whether to listen to sound or unsound rasoning.

It's man-made philosophies, myths and unspiritual kinds of thinking Christians should beware of.

Rev. Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes said...

Notice Gerhard's wise words: "of human reason contrary to this revelation given in the Word." He's not saying that reason is always contrary to the Word, but that it sometimes is, and so it must be governed by the Word, not the Word by unfettered reason.

Or perhaps Anastasia is thinking of reason as intellect or the soul in the broad sense. Here, Gerhard is probably using it in a narrower sense, as ratiocination. Rest assured, Gerhard is not a foe of reason, just of unfettered reason.