Before I embraced the Christian faith, my hero was Mr. Spock from Star Trek. For Mr. Spock, logic was supreme. The Vulcan race from which Spock descended on his father’s side had subjected all emotion and passion to the rule of logic. Even though Spock was half human, he also subjected the emotions of his human side to the rule of logic.

However, in my latter teen age years, I began to doubt the techno-utopian vision of Star Trek, and looked for a spiritual reality that transcended our physical existence. With the help of some Evangelical friends, I soon came to the conviction that the Bible was a supernatural book, and I entered the Evangelical world perceiving that they were the people who most respected the truth of the Bible. As it turned out, though, most Evangelicals favored a practice of relying on specific literal statements of the Bible, and tended to distrust significant use of logical argument and techniques of philosophy as a basis for theological statements. This did not gel with my Star Trek sensibilities, but I had discovered a new reality, and I was willing to set aside my Vulcan ideals for the truth of the Gospel.

Over the years, I was unable to shake off my concern over this apparent conflict between faith and reason. Since God created the universe and created our minds, why wouldn’t the ways of reason which were so successful in understanding the mechanisms of God’s creation be of some help in understanding God himself? I conceded that the greatness and holiness of God meant that our puny minds could not completely comprehend him, but that is not the same as saying God is completely contrary to human reason. Along the way, I did run into some people in the Evangelical world, such as C. S. Lewis, who did seem to marry faith and reason, but they were on the fringe of the mainstream thought.

When I decided to convert to the Catholic Church last year, I decided to learn more about St. Thomas Aquinas. Some Evangelical apologists would reference St. Thomas, and I got a limited exposure to him in the CEC, but now I felt like I could study his work without reservation because he was a Doctor in the Catholic Church. When I was confirmed, I chose St. Thomas to be my patron saint.

St. Thomas makes use of the Analogical Principle, which says that although we cannot comprehend God with our reason, God has created us and the world around us filled with analogies that teach us things about him. We can use our reason in terms of analogies and have some hope that we can discover and communicate things about God using reason. For example, God created human fathers, and He has revealed himself through Jesus Christ as our Heavenly Father. We can use our understanding of human fatherhood to help us understand God’s relationship to us. These analogies are always imperfect because nothing in this world is completely like God, but the analogies are useful, and we should not be afraid to make use of them.

Using this analogical technique, Aquinas was able to make use of the powerful philosophy of Aristotle in a Christian context. Although Aristotle did not know the revelation of God that we as Christians have, he did study God’s creation, and had a good understanding of the logic of creation. We believe that God has revealed himself in creation, so Aristotle’s philosophy can tell us some things about God through the analogy of creation.

My understanding of all of these things is still at a beginner’s level, but I believe I’ve seen enough to have some confidence in this approach. I’m also encouraged by the saintliness of Thomas Aquinas and the tremendous impact he has had in the centuries since he lived. Not only am I in a church now that embraces St. Thomas, but our Pope Benedict is teaching that reason is the key to interreligious dialogue and the resolution of the great conflicts in the world today. Christians, Atheists, and Muslims can shout at each other about how right their position is, but no progress can be made unless there is a common language of reason between them. We believe that the Christian worldview is the true way to understand reality, so we should be able to communicate that truth to unbelievers by way of reason.