Faith - Beyond the Power of Reason

The classic definition of Christian faith appears in 11th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Many Christians draw a distinction between 'natural human faith' and 'faith in God'. The former includes things like faith in natural laws such as gravity and inertia, so that we can assume that they will not suddenly stop working, causing us all to fly off into outer space. And we trust that vegetables and animals and even, to some extent, human beings, will grow and behave in accordance with these natural laws.

But Christians believe that faith in God is a gift from God. So far as I, an outsider, understand it, the central requirement of becoming a Christian is to have faith in the fact the Jesus is your Saviour, who by his death on the cross somehow atoned for the sins of humankind, and enabled us to be reconciled to God. This was an unmerited gift from God, made by His grace, and the human part is to accept it with gratitude, and try to be worthy of it. It is not a path that most Unitarians can take.

And yet, Unitarianism is often spoken about by Unitarians as a "faith" rather than a "religion". In his book The Unitarian Life, Stephen Lingwood calls us "a faith community for those on a spiritual journey, for those who believe there is still more to be discovered in religion. We believe in religious exploration - through the intellect and through the spirit. Through the intellect we explore religious questions in sermons, lectures, workshops, and dialogue. Through the spirit we explore through worship, music, ritual, meditation, and prayer." 

I rather like his distinction between intellectual and spiritual exploration. For me, having faith involves trust, whether it is the "natural human faith" mentioned above, or faith in Someone or Something beyond the natural world. It is not the same as belief, which you can do with your intellect. It is not by accident that people speak of "a leap of faith" - it involves jumping into the unknown and trusting that you will be caught. As in the Martin Luther King Jr. quotation above. "Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase." Yes.

I appreciate that many Unitarians would not agree with this view, as they do not believe that there is Someone or Something beyond the natural world. But faith is, by its very nature, beyond the power of reason, something that can only be discerned with the heart, not the mind alone. And on those grounds, I, an individual Unitarian, have faith in the divine, the numinous, the sacred other.

Reason and Beyond

Reason, the second tenet of British Unitarianism, is strongly and fundamentally linked to freedom of religious belief – freedom requires responsibility, and responsibility requires reason. Humankind must accept responsibility for their choices and their acts. Every time we come across a new person, or a new situation, or a new way of thinking, we find that some things are better and others worse, by trial and error, by measurements of happiness and welfare, by comparison and reflection. This is how we cultivate responsible behaviour – by using reason as our guide.

image: catholic.org

But we need to be aware that it is not an infallible one. We are human beings, not automatons, so our reasoning is rarely completely based on logic; our desires will also influence our beliefs. In other words, we might believe that we are making an entirely reasonable decision about what to believe and how to act, but our reasoning mechanism can also be seduced by what we want to believe. We are also influenced by external factors - by advertising, by persuasive articles in journals and magazines and on the internet, by the desire to fit in with others, and so on.

And of course there are irrational elements in our experience of ourselves and our universe. But how else can we comprehend them, or understand them, at least in part, unless by using our reason?

The process is like this: find out what commends itself to your reason as truth and then accept that as your authority. If you work at it faithfully, your whole life long, with help from fellow pilgrims, you might become a better, wiser and more loving human being. If enough of us do the same, and put our beliefs into action, it might even lead to a better, wiser and more loving world.

But I also believe that there is more to life and how we respond to it than being perfectly reasonable and logical. I agree absolutely and completely that the final authority for an individual's faith should be their own conscience. But I think that this involves our hearts as well as our heads.

When I first became a Unitarian, I was "converted" if you like, by reading the first section of Alfred Hall's book Beliefs of a Unitarian, when he wrote: "Unitarianism is ... more than anything else an attitude of mind. It is a fresh way of looking at life and religion. ... Its method is that of appeal to reason, conscience and experience generally, and above all to elemental principles of truth and right which are implanted in the human heart at its noblest and embedded in the universe."

So Hall was saying that what is in our hearts is as important as what is in our heads. Yes. There are some things in life that are beyond reason - how we love, how we feel compassion for others, and also, to some extent, what we believe, what gives our lives meaning.  I believe that both reason and passion are important - I am increasingly finding that while I can reject beliefs on the grounds of reason, there are also some aspects of "doing religion" or having faith that are beyond reason. For example, I have a growing awareness of God or the Spirit at work in everyday life. This is on the basis of intuition, not reason, but I believe it is real, in so far as it makes sense to my deepest self.

Heart and mind together, reason and passion. We need to use all our faculties to find wholeness and completion and meaning in our lives.

The Unitarian Trinity

We Unitarians often refer to ourselves as "the faith without a creed." This is because we have always insisted that it is not necessary for the members and attenders of our churches and chapels to agree with a particular set of theological beliefs, in order to be accepted as Unitarians. So in the absence of a commonly-held creed, what is it that holds us together as a denomination?

image: all-languages.org.uk

Freedom, reason and tolerance are the underlying principles of Unitarianism, at least in the United Kingdom. They are also three pillars of a good society. A glance at any newspaper can show only too graphically how the lack of these values can lead to suppression, unreason and intolerance. What do Freedom, Reason and Tolerance mean to Unitarians?

If a British Unitarian is asked the question “What do Unitarians believe?” the immediate answer that springs to mind may be “We believe in freedom, reason and tolerance.” I’m not so sure. Our beliefs may be as diverse as ourselves: some of us believe in a personal God; some of us are religious humanists; some of us share beliefs with other world faiths; and so on, and so on.  So what is it that makes us Unitarians? What  binds us together? I would put it another way: I would rather say that freedom, reason and tolerance are the values that underlie Unitarianism, the principles and standards that make the rest possible. As Cliff Reed writes in Unitarian? What's that? “shared values and a shared religious approach are a surer basis for unity than theological propositions.” (10)

So how does this all work out within the context of a Unitarian congregation? What is it that keeps Unitarians coming together in fellowship, Sunday after Sunday, rather than attending another church, or relaxing with our families, or engaging in a touch of retail therapy?

At its best, a Unitarian congregation is a place in which each person can carry on his or her own religious and/or spiritual quest, in the company of others who not only respect, but also wholeheartedly accept, their right to believe what they will, on two conditions. Firstly, that this belief has been sanctioned by the individual's own reason and conscience. And secondly, that this belief does not cause harm to any other living beings. To be a member of such a congregation can be spiritually invigorating, and give a deep sense of belonging.

And yet, it is not an easy way to live. If you want answers, fair and square, set down in black and white with no contradictions, Unitarianism is not the place for you. Some people may find the lack of a creed, a denomination-wide accepted set of beliefs, daunting. Not me – I love the fact that Unitarians do not claim to have all the answers – every Unitarian I’ve ever known has been a spiritual seeker, just like me. We are all on the same journey, supporting each other along the way, and sharing our discoveries and spiritual breakthroughs, in our worship, and in our lives.

What holds us together is that we all have the same attitude to religion and spirituality. All of us believe profoundly in the necessity of personal freedom of religious belief  - the freedom to grow, and to act in accordance with our beliefs, to work out our own answers. We share a devotion to spiritual freedom, and find that the insights of others can enrich our own beliefs. What could be better?

Many members of other faiths find that their bond with others is in scriptural or creedal affirmations. That door is closed to us. Our bond is a belief that people can agree to work together for the deepening of spiritual life, the strengthening of moral character, and the improvement of society without agreeing to a set of theological doctrines. Ours is a fellowship in diversity, a band of pilgrims on the same spiritual seeking path, each having perfect freedom to follow the dictates of our individual reason and conscience to forge a living faith that will help us to follow the best that we know for the greater good of ourselves and the world.