In Judaism faith and reason are partners. In Christianity
they are opponents. Ignorance of — or failure to fully
appreciate — this truth, has led to very upsetting
analogies.
In the Western, non-Jewish tradition, the use of reason is
traced back to the ancient Greeks. ". . . it was the ancient
Ionians who first . . . breathed the bracing air of reason"
(The Enlightenment, by Peter Gay, p. 72). Religion
— Christianity for them — is the source of faith.
It does not need to be argued that pagan Greek rationalism is
deeply opposed to Christianity — it was evident to all
from the early Church leaders to the modern Church opponents.
Hence faith and reason are seen by Christians, and the
secular West which forms its idea of religion from
Christianity, as deeply different ways of approaching the
world.
Thus, in describing his purpose in presenting a series of
television programs (on PBS, entitled "Bill Moyers on Faith
and Reason," which we read about), Bill Moyers describes "the
tug of war between reason and faith."
A critic in the New York Times (June 26, 2006)
understands exactly what he means and even complains that the
series does not explore "how Greek notions of reason and
Judeo-Christian notions of faith struggled against each other
as they shaped the mainstream of Western culture."
As a description of the development of "the mainstream of
Western culture" this is accurate and very familiar. However
the Jewish Torah tradition is not now, has never been, nor
seeks to be part of "the mainstream of Western culture."
The Jewish tradition has a completely independent tradition
of critical thinking that has been opposed to both Christian
faith and Greek pagan thinking from the start of both.
Our readers know well how thoroughly suffused a Torah
education is with critical thinking from the earliest years
and from the time of the first development of such abilities
in our developing youth. (This applies mainly to boys, whose
education follows a tradition that is thousands of years
old.) Studying works that are part and derivative of a
tradition that traces its origin to Sinai and is universally
acknowledged to be fully independent of all non-Jewish
thought — by explicit programmatic design — the
modern yeshiva bochur can boast of critical abilities
that are second to none — although he would never do so
out of modesty and lack of interest in doing so.
In Torah Judaism, both faith and reason are embraced and they
function as part of an integrated approach to life and
learning. They temper each other, and both extremes — a
Christian faith that insists on irrational beliefs, and a
Greek reason that has contempt for anything not subservient
to it — are not present.
Although we do believe in one G-d like other Western faiths,
beyond that our differences are greater than our
similarities. Thus it is not proper to lump us together with
either fundamentalist Christians or with Islam, as is all too
often done. In the Moyers series, for example, the position
of Orthodox Judaism in Israel is compared to the Christian
Right in the United States. Perhaps this is a useful way of
speaking for some, but to us it is woefully superficial.
Our approach is not to pit faith against reason, but to
develop our capacities for both to their utmost. We find that
they work very well together.
