Logic

“We often attempt to manage God, defining Him by our own logic, creating Him to suit ourselves. In response to such attempts, God consistently replies, “My counsels are not as your counsels, neither are your ways My ways…But as the heaven is distant from the earth, so is My way distant from your ways, and your thoughts from My mind” (Is 55:8-9).” (Dynamis 9/28/2020)

“Some Christian denominations use the term ‘predestination’ in their desperate need to explain the unexplainable. Logic, nevertheless, destroys faith. There is no logic in faith. There is no logic in prayer. There is no logic in God’s Existence. Don’t try to make sense of everything in life. Just experience what God gives you to experience and let the peace of your heart guide and lead you to the Truth. Logic can only get us to a certain point.” (Bishop Emilianos)

“We can (and should) strive to conform our will, our thinking, our ways to the divine will. We also have to have the humility to realize that our ways still are not the equivalent of God’s ways. Our thinking and our choices are muddled by our passions, by sins and temptations, foibles, failures, pride, hubris and a host of other human limitations. When we believe in God, we must always be humble enough to admit that we might be wrong in our actions and we might be misusing our understanding of God. Nations do this as well as individuals because nations too rely on human logic and thinking.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)

“…a lot of modern theology, despite all its variety, operates in a manner that can only be described as an odd mixture of metaphysics and mythology…The move to such an approach to theology seems to begin with St Augustine, who, having inherited the results of the fourth-century debates rather than living through them, is the first to claim that the theophanies of the Old Testament could be manifestations of any of the three persons of the Trinity, or the Trinity itself, the one Lord God, or, instead, a created mediator. By the Middle Ages, Peter Lombard, following the logic of this approach, asserted that the Father or the Spirit equally could have become incarnate; as Karl Rahner pointed out, it is difficult to say why it was the Son who became incarnate. The “Incarnation” is the becoming-human of a divine person which could have been otherwise, a way in which God chose to reveal Himself at a particular moment, for a particular, separate or discrete, work. In short, such an approach to theology undermines the very gospel itself.” (Fr. John Behr)

“Sometimes it seems to us that we believe in God deeply. But this faith may come from external awareness, from reading or hearing from others, rather than from our own real inner experience and unity with the Risen Lord. Without living communion with Christ, we are spiritually unprotected, trying to cling to the experience of those who testify that they saw God and conversed with Him. And we try to present this experience objectively, fitting it into the concepts that support our logic in order to build on the basis of this logic psychological self-sufficiency for ourselves, an “armor” that would protect us from fear and panic in the temptations and trials on the path of our faith and faithfulness to Christ.” (Hieromonk Ignaty Smirnov)

“…every created thing has a “logicity” – it is made by and through the Logos (Christ, the Word of God). The truth of any existing thing is not the truth if it is divorced from its logicity. Our effort to “speak” the truth is, properly, an effort to give voice both to the thing itself as well as its logos.” (Father Stephen Freeman)

“Another major value of Christian culture was the idea that the universe was the creation of a single, rational mind—the arché [beginning, source, principle]. The universe, therefore, was a fundamentally rational place that could be understood and investigated, something pagans often had a hard time trusting because of their belief in the capricious nature of the gods. The idea that there was a unity amidst the diversity of all knowledge led Christian thinkers to create the university system, a group of institutions where scholars and thinkers could collaborate. The universities were probably the most important invention of the Medieval period, as they rapidly became the epicenters for immense progress in science, logic, mathematics, literacy, and the arts. People often talk about the Renaissance era that followed as some sort of miraculous, sudden leap forward in academic and scientific progress, but the truth is that this period of advances was the result of centuries of groundwork laid by Medieval and Byzantine thinkers—precisely because of their religious conviction that the universe was rational. In other words—contrary to popular belief—religion was the major driving force behind the scientific advances of this era.” (Dr. Zachary Porcu)

“A man has faith according to the extent that his mind (nous) beholds God, that he touches God and hears Him, and tastes Him, and senses Him through his spiritual senses, as much as this is possible for imperfect humanity. Faith, then, is a consequence of a man’s contact with God. It is neither an intellectual accomplishment nor a blind acceptance. No one ever acquired faith because of logical proofs, for these may satisfy the intellect [mind] but they do not convince; they do not give assurance.… it is vision by the spirit that assures us.… faith alone assures man, it alone illuminates him, it alone makes him a flame of fire. It is a knowledge that does not enclose God or make Him into its object.” (Mary S. Ford)

“…skillful rhetoric, compelling arguments, and logical explanations ultimately fail to convey any true knowledge of God, who is above all human reasoning and outside all sense perception. This is why the Church does not rely on human deductive reasoning for its theology and places the highest emphasis on spiritual experience. The true theologian is the one who prays, whose words are based on direct experience of God.” (St. Gregory Palamas, Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou)

“ 1. God is love. 2. Because He is love, God gave us His Son. 3. When we believe in His Son, we believe in God’s love for us. 4. Because we believe in God’s love for us, we should love Him and one another. That’s it. That is the whole apostolic preaching in a nutshell. It is so simple, a child can understand it. It’s logic is so compelling, only a fool or a devil would dispute it. And yet it is so simple that we’re often blind to it. Like the sun, we can’t look at it for too long; our mental eyes are weak, clouded by passions, bent down to the earth. We glance briefly, admire the beauty, and then look away. We so easily lose sight of what it most essential. And in so doing, we become irrational. As St. John tells us, Jesus is the Word, the λόγος of God. When our life is not directed towards Him, it becomes ἄλογος, illogical, without reason or purpose.” (Holy Cross Monastery)

“The crisis in contemporary civilization stems from the conflict between man's rational and non-rational activities and self-transcendence will be the only way to overcome the conflict.” (Andrew J. Sopko, Ph.D)

“People gradually transferred the purpose and meaning of their lives from the internal world to the external—matter became most important, and spirituality stopped being valued. Everything was reduced to the earthly—the heavenly realm stopped attracting eyes and hearts. Machines lord over organic matter. The rational mind exiled contemplation, prayer, and faith from the cultural space, attempting to compromise them. The content of life became unimportant; everyone ran the race to the bottom, chasing after the empty form.” (Ivan Ilyin)

“The devil does not hunt after those who are lost; he hunts after those who are aware, those who are close to God. He takes from them trust in God and begins to afflict them with self-assurance, logic, thinking and criticism. Therefore we should not trust our logical minds. Never believe your thought. Love simply and without thinking too much, like a child with his father. Faith without too much thinking works wonders. The logical mind hinders the grace of God and miracles. Practice patience without judging with the logical mind.” (St. Paisios the New of Mount Athos)

“We dare not reduce all people to mere fleshly machines and the world to mere utilitarian usefulness or, worse yet, personal desires and claimed rights. The clinical mentality of a society that no longer plumbs the depths of story and mystery forsakes communion with God. He transcends our rational abilities and always dwells in mystery…Ultimately, human rationality cannot penetrate the workings of God.” (Father Barnabas Powell, Dynamis 1/14/2019)

“Something almost always happens to startle us during the act of creating, but not unless we let go our adult intellectual control and become as open as little children. This means not to set aside or discard the intellect but to understand that it is not to become a dictator, for when it does we are closed off from revelation.” (Madeleine L'Engle)

"Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called . . . the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor 1:21-25). Only the whole Gospel saves, and this despite our logic and wisdom.” (OCPM 7/26/2017)

“Jesus is so much more than a logical proof. His life is the starting point where our lives can really begin. Perhaps as you read this book, you will discover a more complete picture of Jesus, a transcendent yet personal God who loves and accepts you perfectly, who wants to shape you and give your life deep meaning and purpose. This is the Jesus I want to describe, even if the actions and attitudes of Christ followers have not always represented this to you.” (David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons)

“Only the whole Gospel saves, and this despite our logic and wisdom.” (Dynamis 7/30/2014)

“Christianity is a way of life, faith and inner life and experience: These are its bases, not necessarily research, intellectual thought, and logic, even though logic and thought are not foreign to the Christian mind….religion is not a merely emotional response but a response that in one way or another is total, involving the whole person, intellect, emotion, and will.” (Father Demetrios J. Constantelos)

“Human Logic should neither be deified or vilified. When deified, as it often is, it results in the continued sin of Eden where human self-will and ingenuity are considered the only true means to solve every world ill. When vilified it reduces belief to nothing more than an emotional response where the ups and downs of emotion and feeling become the barometer of faith. In reality, it is a loving gift and tool from God to better understand God and draw closer to Him. It should support faith not detract from it.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)

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