There is more of belief than reason in the world

All instructors and masters in sciences and arts require first a belief in their disciples, and a resignation of their understandings and wills to them. And it is the wisdom of God to require that of man. He therefore that quarrels with the condition of faith must quarrel with all the world, since belief is the beginning of all knowledge; indeed, and most of the knowledge in the world may rather come under the title of belief than of knowledge.

So understanding comes more by belief than man commonly admits. Augustine’s dictum has it this way, “I do not understand in order to believe; I believe in order to understand.”

—Stephen Charnock
Adapted from, The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, 2:68.

Categories:

Comments are closed

Archives