The Limitations of Thinking

God is a thinker and yet He doesn’t think like us.

We are thinkers and yet we don’t think like Him.

How do we resolve this dilemma?

Perhaps the first step is to recognize the constraints of our thinking.

We tend to deify thinking. We exalt human wisdom as the solution to all our problems.

But Paul challenged our hubris when he wrote, “…in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe…” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

Human thought is beneficial, but we must believe in order to know God.

Philosophy has its place, but preaching is required to produce the necessary faith (Romans 10:17).

Clearly, thinking has its limitations.

The philosopher Blaise Pascal argued that total submission to reason robs our life of its necessary mystery. He concluded that true Christianity is a balance between submission to God and the use of our reason.

But how do we maintain this balance?

How do we know when to trust and when to understand?

How do we know which thoughts to accept and which to reject?

Robert