Faith not Opposed to Reason.
By Fenelon
We should be careful, in stating the doctrine of faith, not to place it in opposition to reason. On the contrary, we only say what is sustained both by St. Paul and St. Augustine, when we assert, that it is a very reasonable thing to believe. Faith is a different thing from mere physical and emotive impulse: and it would be no small mistake, to confound those who walk by faith in the true sense of the term, with thoughtless and impulsive persons. Faith is necessarily based upon antecedent acts of intelligence. By the use of those powers of perception and reasoning which God has given us, we have the knowledge of the existence of God. It is by their use also that we know that God has spoken to us in his revealed word. I illustrate the subject in this way: I suppose myself to be in a strange country. There is a wide forest before me, with which I am totally unacquainted, although I must pass through it. I accordingly select a guide, whom I suppose to be able to conduct me through these ways never before trodden by me. In following this guide, I obviously go by faith; but as I know the character of my guide, and as my intelligence or reason tells me that I ought to exercise such faith, it is clear that my faith in him is not in opposition to reason, but in accordance with it.—Fénelon, translated by Upham.