The Three Most Important Ideas from Faith, Reason, and Revelation

Out of all of the topics that I learned from Theology III throughout the entire first semester, I found that three particular topics struck me as the most important or most essential to the rest of the course: Plato’s allegory of the cave, the problem of evil, and faith.



Definitely the one of the first pieces of information I learned from Faith, Reason, and Revelation was Plato’s allegory of the cave. Plato, a 2nd century Greek philosopher, was the pupil of Socrates, who frequently used questioning methods to try to solve mysteries and unknowns about the world around him. Socrates’ most famous questioning was his allegory of the cave, and it was written down and named after Plato. Socrates imagined a group of people who had been chained to a cave wall for their entire lives and who had never left the cave. Their only contact with the outside world was a small wall that allowed light to enter and cast shadows on the wall in front of them. Their perception of the world existed only in those shadows. Then Plato imagined a man from the outside world who took one of the chained persons and forced them into the light. As he brought them out, the chained person struggled and fought and when the light first shone in his eyes, he screamed in pain and discomfort. As time elapsed, however, the person could see and enjoyed seeing the light so much that he did not want to go back into the darkness.

Plato’s allegory of the cave has deeper significance in that we as humans start out in the darkness and the blindness of ignorance. And then, when we are revealed to a truth or knowledge, we struggle and fight because the discomfort and the unpleasantness of that first initial reaction to that truth sting us. We would rather stay in the comfort of our prior existence. We as humans do not want to change, a result of our human condition. However, when we finally come to our senses and we recognize the world around us, we regret the prior existence we had and we realize that we were in the darkness before.

Plato’s allegory of the cave also has connections to other topics in the course. Plato’s allegory really is the connection to the struggle with faith: we do not want to leave out prior, comfortable existence to experience something new and better for us because it is hard to change. Plato’s allegory also can also connect to reason as Socrates uses reason and critical thinking to derive this allegory in the first place. Plato’s allegory of the cave definitely was a significant topic in this course.



The second topic I learned when studying about the human condition was the problem of evil. The problem of evil, which is often used as a challenge to faith, is defined as the recurring struggle that people have to believe in God because of the existence of evil in the world. The idea can come as a result of a tragic incident or the experience of some wickedness in the world. Many people then point to God, who is supposed to be all loving and all-powerful, and then they claim that he cannot exist because of the existence of evil. I know many people who have experienced the problem of evil themselves, and I have even experienced it a little myself.

However, there are six different ways to show that the problem of evil does not point to the absence of God. The course asks if evil is a privation of goodness, and if evil is a privation, then the book shows evil is not a thing and it is the result of our actions. Free will was also could be the source of evil and our actions may be the cause of evil in the world. We may be asking the wrong question, and Rabbi Kushner proposes that we should be asking God why we have such good in the world too if we ask why evil exists. The course explains that we may not be good people, and we cannot ourselves dictate whether we are good or bad. The book states that our suffering in this world may be redemptive, and we may experience eternal joy in heaven as a result of our patience in our suffering. We also cannot know God’s reasons for why bad things happen in our world either.

The problem of evil can also point to other aspects in the course, such as the challenges to faith/Faith. The problem of evil could become the root cause for someone to lose their faith/Faith and then cause them to reside in other challenges to faith/Faith such as atheism and dehumanization. However, the problem of evil’s underlying result is the challenge that it can cause to one’s faith.



Although the problem of evil can be a great struggle, faith can be strong enough to counter its attacks. Faith with a small “f” was defined as believing in something even though you do not have complete certainty that you are correct. According to Thomas Zanzig, faith is comprised of trust and belief. Faith is sometimes difficult to talk about specifically in definitions and words simply because faith can be somewhat abstract, but faith can be the result of action or the deeds of people, and thus they can inspire people to have faith.

We focused specifically on people of great faith who rise above society and impediments in their life to acquire or to try to do something great. I found that Dietrich Bohoeffer was a man of tremendous faith. He fought against the Nazi regime through speeches and radio broadcasts to tell the German people that the Nazis and Adolf Hitler were evil and should be removed from positions of power. He transcended the herd mindset and fought for what he believed to be ethical and just. Bonhoeffer was even willing to die for what he believed was to right, and for that he is considered a man of faith.

Faith was a central point and topic of this course that most of the rest of the material was a subset of faith. Faith and reason combined together can cause people to stand up strongly for what they believe is true and then they can logically defend their ideas back up by reason. Most men of faith could masterfully use this dual combination to triumph over their attackers, such as St. Thomas Aquinas. Faith can help to overcome the weaknesses caused by our human condition. Dick Hoyt and his son were both not physically fit to run in marathons and in triathlons, but they both had faith and as a result they become physically fit and now enjoy a loving, healthy relationship. Faith can help us make decisions that could save our lives. If everyone believed that seatbelts could save their lives and everyone actually used them, then hundreds of people every year would be saved in an automobile accident because of their faith in the seatbelt. Faith can be difficult as some times in people’s lives, but the rewards and benefits greatly supersede the impediments.