Reason & experience?

[graceandpeace]

What role does your own reasoning & personal Christian experience play in your faith? Or does it have any role at all? In what ways (if any) can you differ from the Church's teachings?

Just curious!

 

[Lukaris]

What role does your own reasoning & personal Christian experience play in your faith? Or does it have any role at all? In what ways (if any) can you differ from the Church's teachings?

Just curious!

My basic living I try to conform my conscience to the Gospel & hopefully reflect this morally & ethically. So the 2 great commands (Matthew 2:36-40), the golden rule (matthew 7:1-12) guide my conscience & the 10 commandments guide my morality. Prayer, fasting, confession of sins etc. are the spiritual dimension to this. I do not find this to be easy & I try to not be a hypocrite.

 

[ArmyMatt]

What role does your own reasoning & personal Christian experience play in your faith? Or does it have any role at all? In what ways (if any) can you differ from the Church's teachings?

Just curious!

I think it does, but at some point reason falls away and experience takes over. you can rationalize a beautiful sunset, but even that fails and you must actually experience one to fully capture the beauty. I always see it the same.

 

[truthseeker32]

I think it does, but at some point reason falls away and experience takes over. you can rationalize a beautiful sunset, but even that fails and you must actually experience one to fully capture the beauty. I always see it the same.

Matt makes a good point here. Both reason and experience are important in the formation of faith. What is important is recognizing when to rely on one or the other.

 

[RosaryChaplet9]

Personal experience is somewhat valuable when observing teaching lessons.

 

[Mariya116]

What role does your own reasoning & personal Christian experience play in your faith? Or does it have any role at all? In what ways (if any) can you differ from the Church's teachings?

Just curious!

Where it comes to faith, I have always been more convinced with personal experiences (mine and others') than with any reasoning. I am currently reading a very good book entitled The Elements of the Spiritual Life. Here's a quote from the preface:

"...but the apprehension of truth by the mind, vital though it is, is not the essence of the Christian life. The Christian life is striving after union with God, and all this necessary religious knowledge is strictly ancillary to this end. Knowledge, study, preaching, instruction are not finally directed to the enlightening of the mind, but, through the enlightening of the mind, to the directing of the soul towards God... the knowledge of Christ which we seek is not merely the assimilation of certain facts about Him, but knowledge won by experience of Him. It is quite possible for a man by careful and critical study of the texts and arguments of theologians and thinkers to arrive at a nicely balanced belief in the Resurrection and yet to be far less en rapport with the Risen Life than a humble cottager who knows nothing of synoptic criticism."

I concur...

 

[Mariya116]

What role does your own reasoning & personal Christian experience play in your faith? Or does it have any role at all? In what ways (if any) can you differ from the Church's teachings?

Just curious!

I definitely differ from the Church's teachings but keep it to myself most of the time. I think that's what happens in churches a lot - people have lots of "disallowed" ideas but know better than to voice them.

 

[Dorothea]

Personal experience. You can read and listen for years, but not really truly comprehend what it was you read or heard until it penetrates your heart. That is personal experience to me, along with actual events in my life that I've experienced. I also do try to conform to all that Christ's Church teaches. I fail lots of the time, but keep plodding forward.

 

[Mariya116]

Just recently I had a situation where some power kept stopping me from making a very big mistake even though I continued to try to make it happen. Every time circumstances turned against me, and now I'm so grateful. Someone is looking out of me and for all of us.

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Someone is looking out of me and for all of us.

 

[Kristos]

What role does your own reasoning & personal Christian experience play in your faith? Or does it have any role at all? In what ways (if any) can you differ from the Church's teachings?

Just curious!

Experience...if I relied on my reason I would probably be some sort of humanist er sumthin. I've had 2 significant experiences of God, both on Pascha...which may or may not be significant. In any case, it keeps me going even when the going gets tough.