To What Does Faith Lead? The Two-Stranded Textual Tradition of Isaiah 7.9b
Abstract
To What Does Faith Lead? The Two-Stranded Textual Tradition of Isaiah 7.9b SAGE Publications, Inc.1998DOI: 10.1177/030908929802308007 Glen W. Menzies North Central Bible College, 910 Elliot Avenue So., Minneapolis, MN 55404, USA ~ 1. The Issue Fides quaerens intellectum ( `Faith seeking understanding') is the formal title of the famous apology composed by St Anselm of Canterbury which is styled Proslogion ( `Allocution' ) for short. Not surprisingly, 'fides quaerens intellectum' and its companion slogan 'credo ut intelligam' ('I believe in order to understand') summarize a major theme of the writings of the great theologian and archbishop. The point of these slogans is that the assent of faith must come first if proper understanding is ever to be achieved. This approach is usually seen as an alternative to two other major theories about the relationship of reason and faith: (1) the theory that understanding must precede faith (the approach of John Locke' and more recently Richard Swinburne2); and (2) the theory that faith and understanding never intersect. Tertul- lian's famous retort, 'What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What has the Academy to do with the Church?' (Praescr. haer. 1.7) conveys the spirit of the latter approach. Anselm's argument