Faith – Faith Seeking Understanding

Conversion

Posted on June 12, 2015 by hlesbrown

This morning (June 11: the feast of St. Barnabas), I was thinking about the story of Barnabas of Antioch, the Christian apostle and companion of Paul of Tarsus, and how the two of them went around preaching and converting people to Christianity just a handful of years after the events of the crucifixion of Jesus. I thought about the concept of “conversion” and the sorts of proselytizing that continues to go on all around us, a couple of millenia since then. I’m reminded of the line from the movie, Princess Bride, where Inigo Montoya says, “I do not think that means what you Continue Reading →

Why ‘Faith’?

Posted on February 9, 2015 by hlesbrown

St. Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th century defined ‘Theology’ as “Fides Quaerens Intellectum” or “Faith seeking understanding.” Thus the title of my blog. Some want to dismiss this understanding as somehow superstitious and at odds with science (which we might dare to define as “observation seeking understanding”). Yet, the apparent dichotomy between faith and science is only just that: apparent. Although they have similar methodologies, the subject matter of the two are distinctly different: the scientific method gleans understanding from observations of the natural world; the theological method draws understanding from observations originating beyond the world of nature. People Continue Reading →