| Christianity The Theory of Faith and Reason | Hirohumi Hoshika |
Translation from the Japanese version is currently in progress up to Part1-Chapter1(4)-Essay2.
This website is a learned disquisition on the relationship between Christian faith and reasonal understanding, consisting of eight chapters with 137 contents.
Part 1 Theory of Faith
Part 1, Theory of Faith, begins with two preliminary arguments (chapters 1 and 2) to dismiss ideas that interrupt the main argument. The following chapters 3 and 4 discuss the relationship between faith and reason as "historical facts and faith." Focusing on the relationship between our knowledge of Jesus, a man of the past, and our faith in the present, they set up a Christian faith model that offers solutions to four major issues, including the following two points.
Part 1 Main Themes
(1) The inevitability of the establishment of the Christian faith in our time ― Chapter 3
(2) The possibility of historical Jesus recognition in our time ― Chapter 4
In Chapter 3, this study clarified the mystery of the formation of the faith of the early church through an analysis of the kerygma preached by the apostles. In the present church, some of theories about the establishment of the early church have been speculated upon, such as "the explanation of the gospel by the resurrected Jesus," "Peter's recovery from his denial of Jesus," and "an encounter with the resurrected Jesus," but this study finds a different factor. By understanding the faith of the apostles who were in contact with Jesus, we can see how Christian faith is possible for us, who are far removed from them in time and culture. If you feel that you do not understand the Christian faith, please read this chapter. The answer is here.
Part 2, Theory of Faith and Reason, deals with faith and reason as "faith and reason," "philosophy and theology," and "immanence and transcendence." Chapters 1 to 3 consider the method of describing the concept of transcendence, and Chapter 4 examines the boundary between immanence and transcendence by a new interpretation of "transcendental" from Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason."
Part 2 Main Themes
(1) Methodology of Christian Philosophy ― Chapter 1 to 3
(2) Overcoming the idea of "separation of phenomena and things-in-themselves" ― Chapter 4
In Part 2, Chapter 4, this study refutes the "Kant problem" with four arguments. The "Kant problem" is the problem that "Critique of Pure Reason", which results in the "separation of phenomena and the things-in-themselves" called "complementarity of phenomena and things in themselves," made the idea of christianity revelation impossible. As a result, the Protestant Church is currently divided two groups: the "Mainline" that accepts Kant's ideas and the "Conservative" that rejects them. The former does not speak of miracles, while the latter makes them believable, but neither of them solves this problem.
The motivation for writing this study is a sense of crisis against the Christianity over the fact that the above-mentioned problems (there is no necessity to believe in Jesus, there is no way to recognize the historical Jesus, the existence of revelation is understood to be impossible) are being ignored. Therefore, although the target audience is church ministers, university theology teachers, and seminary students, anyone who are interested in Christianity can read it.
Part I, Theory of Faith, contains many episodes and essays that incorporate the author's Christian experiences and can be read as a guide to Christianity. Although the overall content is not plain, explanations regarding the knowledge required for reading are provided in each section, so that readers do not need to have much knowledge in advance.
This study contains more than dozens of accomplishments in the field of Christian philosophy/theology. Introducing some of them here, so please use them, along with the "Passage Card" below the title, as a starting point for working on this website.
(1) Presentation of two principles of biblical interpretation: "Biblical Literalism" in Faith (Part 1 - Chapter 1 - addendum), "Biblical Non-Literalism" in Ethics (Chapter 2 - Argument 1-3)
(2) Refutation of the notion of "super-religion" (Part 1 - Chapter 2 - Parable)
(3) Discovery that Peter's interpretation of Jesus' resurrection, which established the faith of the early church, was preserved equally by Luke in the kerygma of the Apostles (Part 1 - Chapter 3 - Succession)
(4) Discovery the definitive nodal point for resolving the issue of "historical fact and faith" (Part 1 - Chapter 3 - Ricercare)
(5) Presentation of the distinction between "The historical Jesus that is necessary for the faith to be established" and "The historical Jesus that is necessary for the faith established to be correct" (Part 1 - Chapter 4 - Approach)
(6) Evidence for Jesus performing miracles not dependent on the miracle accounts in the Gospels (Part 1 - Chapter 4 - Consideration 4)
(7) Discovery of a two-step process of faith formation that enables us today to have the same faith as the apostles by insight into the similarity between "Apostles who established their faith after losing Jesus" and "We of today who have no Jesus" (Part 1 - Chapter 4 - Review)
(8) Determination of the establishment structure of the Christian faith in the apostolic and post-apostolic eras, respectively (Part 1 - Chapter 4 - Review)
(9) Argument that Christian philosophy should elucidate the Christian faith through reason, not through faith (Part 2 - Chapter 1 - Section 3)
(10) Re-examination of the dichotomous perception of the law of the excluded middle based on the classical logical perspective of "immanence and transcendence" and "complementarity of phenomena and the things-in-themselves" by confirming that "negation" has multiple definitions in intuitionistic logic (Part 2 - Chapter 2 - Hard study 5-4-4, 5-5-4)
(11) Discovery that the logical negation of Kant's concept of "phenomena", being a composite concept, leads to three types of things-in-themselves according to De Morgan's laws; Refutation of the idea of "complementarity of phenomena and things-in-themselves" based on the multiplicity of things-in-themselves, including two "OR thing-in-itself" and one "AND thing-in-itsel" (Part 2 - Chapter 4 - Section 4-5)
(12) Overcoming the dualistic world view of "complementarity of phenomena and things-in-themselves" by the insight that the idea of "complementarity of phenomena and things-in-themselves" and Kant's transcendental thought in "Critique of Pure Reason" have different origins (Part 2 - Chapter 4 - Section 12)
As described above, this study not only discusses unresolved problems in theology and philosophy related to Christianity, but also attempts to offer solutions to them. In doing so, I hope that we will first discover or rediscover in ourselves what the Church can confidently offer to our times.
Although the author's theological position is that of a Protestant conservative who holds to the beliefs of the Reformation, I share the problematic view of contemporary mainline theology regarding the historical Jesus and Kant's philosophy. This study presents a form of faith that can withstand the challenges posed to the Gospels by non-Christian and mainline theology in a way that differs from previous conservative theology, which is rationally fragile. It upholds traditional, evangelical, and biblical beliefs.
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