-
9. Reasoning Faithfully: Leibniz on Reason’s Triumph of Faith and Love
- Augsburg Fortress Publishers
- Chapter
- Additional Information
79 CHAPTER 9 Reasoning Faithfully Leibniz on Reason’s Triumph of Faith and Love Lea F. Schweitz In the preliminary remarks of the Theodicy, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646– 1716) reminds his reader that ―the question of the conformity of faith with reason has always been a great problem.‖1 This essay will not solve that ―great problem .‖ However, in the face of heated disputes that claim one must choose reason or faith, science or religion, philosophy or theology, in Leibniz we find an early modern alternative. Here is a faithful, inquisitive, Lutheran thinker who proposes that faith and reason are reciprocally related. Faith and reason each have a role to play in the life of the faithful thinker, and, furthermore, each play a role in the ―other‘s‖ role. For Leibniz, faith and reason need one another. In the end, Leibniz‘s solution to this ―great problem‖ may not be fully relevant , but it provides a useful mirror for critically investigating contemporary solutions to this problem and a window into constructive questions that further open up our thinking about it.2 This essay takes up the quandary of Lutheran philosophy in the form of Leibniz‘s proposal on faith and reason. It argues that Leibniz sees himself standing in the Lutheran heritage when he argues that they are reciprocally related. In addition, this essay addresses two corollary views: Leibniz contends that the burden of proof for the Christian mysteries ultimately lies with the objector to the mystery rather than the believer; and he finds that the faithful thinker will be moved to acts of love. The essay concludes by suggesting that although Leibniz‘s views may be untenable outside of his own historical location, they raise questions to help our thinking about the ―great problem‖ of the conformity of faith with reason. Leibniz Reconsidered There was a time when Leibniz would not have had a place in a book on the quandary of Lutheran philosophy. Leibniz‘s story begins in the Lutheran city of Leipzig at the home of Lutheran parents. His mother, Catharina Schmuch, was the daughter of a respected lawyer, and his father, Friedrich Leibniz, was the vice chairman of the faculty of philosophy and professor of moral philosophy at the University of Leipzig. They were married in 1644; two years later (and two years 80 THE DEVIL‘S WHORE before the end of the Thirty Years War), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born. He was baptized at the Church of St. Nikolai, and the family chronicle reports that ―at the moment of baptism, the new-born child raised his head with wide open eyes.‖3 Leibniz‘s father interpreted this as a sign of his son‘s promise in furthering the work of the church and the glory of God.4 Despite his Lutheran origins, by the time of his death in Hanover he was called Glaubt nichts—―believes nothing.‖ He earned this unfortunate and inaccurate name because of his irregular attendance at church and Holy Communion. Leibniz also had a deeply irenic spirit and an eclectic philosophical temperament; he sought out truth wherever it could be found, including in Spinoza, French Catholics, writings from China sent by Jesuit missionaries, letters and conversations with queens and princesses, Englishmen, mystics, early modern scientists, and alchemists. Depending on the audience, any one of these interlocutors might have raised some suspicion about Leibniz‘s confessional identity. More recently, when the scholarship on Leibniz addresses his religious or theological writings, it tends to focus on his project for church reunification or his natural theology, and these interests often minimize the confessional distinctions in his work. This might suggest that there is no quandary of Lutheran philosophy for Leibniz because he is not sufficiently Lutheran to fall into this particular quandary. On my reading, such a view simplifies and undervalues the contributions of Lutheran heritage in Leibniz‘s life and thought. Take, for example, Leibniz‘s commitment to the Protestant principle: Sola scriptura! For Leibniz, revealed theology has a key role in the life of the faithful thinker. In the history of ideas, Leibniz has been handed down as a rationalist. As such, the important role of faith and religion may come as a surprise. However, Leibniz‘s soteriology is committed to the mystery of the Christian mysteries. Salvation itself depends on the mysteries of the Christian faith, in particular the Trinity, the incarnation, and the Eucharist, and these are not fully known by reason. Here one of the quandaries of Leibniz‘s...