Faith and Reason at Baylor

A good friend sent me this link from Christianity Today. Without explicit reference to Catholicism, it describes pretty succinctly the issue we've experienced over the past forty years -- and particularly since the promulgation of Ex Corde Ecclesia -- in the titularly Catholic institutions of higher learning.

One of the first things I learned about Catholic Christianity when I got to the seminary was that our faith is eminently reasonable. There is no dichotomy between faith and reason, as both are gifts of the One True God, from Whom only Truth flows.

The secular "problem" begins and ends with the theory of evolution, I think. While it must be granted that the human history of our Church is replete with incidents of dismissal of learning and scientific progress, there are (to my knowledge) no current scientific debates that would provoke us to question the validity of our faith. Nor are there any Church doctrines that prescind from scientific data (with the caveat that belief in a personal God demands belief in His miraculous intervention within human history).

Interestingly, though, I think popularly there is a conception that scientists cannot be men or women of faith at the same time. Although we know that not to be the case (doctors, especially, are often deeply faithful), it is a common misconception.

When 'catholic' colleges like Boston College or Notre Dame or Fordham claim the doctrine of "academic freedom" (or the more recent non-proven dogma that "diversity" in and of itself is an absolute good) in support of hiring a non-Christian faculty, there is a fundamental dishonesty at work. For the administration to say that non-Christians are better because they are non-Christians is to dismiss the idea out-of-hand that faith and reason can coexist. This prescinds completely from the question of whether the two should coexist.

I applaud Sloan's efforts. He's batting for the wrong team, I think, as a Baptist, but he's in the right league and he's putting his money where his mouth is. In addition, toward the end of the column comes the reality that gives us all hope -- the old regime is fading away, and the new and vibrant Christians are taking over. Praise Him!