Reason as a Source of Theology
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
7:53 PM
St. Jerome was a fifth century biblical scholars. He translated much of the Bible into Latin--a translation
authorized by the Pope and commonly referred to now as "the Vulgate." In Jerome's "Letter 22 to
Eustochium," he relates this experience,
Suddenly I was caught up in the spirit and dragged before the judgment seat of the Judge; and
here the light was so bright, and those who stood around were so radiant, that I cast myself upon
the ground and did not dare to look up. Asked who and what I was I replied: “I am a Christian.” But
He who presided said: “Thou liest, thou art a follower of Cicero and not of Christ. For ‘where thy
treasure is, there will thy heart be also.’” (From
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Cicero was a rhetorical scholar and politician. He is considered one of Rome's most important
philosophers. What this dream episode puts its finger on is the struggle in the early Church around how
much of what we might call secular philosophy can be understood in our theology.
About two hundred years before St. Jerome, another Christian leader by the name of Tertullian put his
finger on the debate with an often quoted question, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem." Athens
represented the center of secular learning and philosophy. Jerusalem, the Holy City, was also
considered the seat of Church authority.
By contrast, Christian theologians like St. Augustine, also a rhetorician, and much later Thomas Aquinas,
opened the door of the church to receive the benefits of philosophy. Philosophy is perhaps the most
repeated example of the church navigating this question of how much of non-religious or non-
theological thought it will engage. However, there are a host of other conversations--faith and science,
faith and economics, faith and political science, faith and sociology, faith and psychology, faith and
linguistics. And in a broader sense, Christian theologians navigate how they engage--or refuse to
engage--the culture and age in which they live.
 If we do not do some critical engagement with our time, other academic disciplines,
our own culture, and the intercultural junctures people encounter, we risk continuing to answer
questions no one is asking.