Putting the Two Piece Puzzle Together: Integrating Intellect and Faith

By Daniel B. Karpouzian, Student

A personal exploration of how I integrate my faith and my intellect.

An essay hosted at PhilosophyClassics.com

Putting the two piece, many faceted puzzle together: Integrating Faith and Intellect
Many Pentecostals have issues with intellect. They believe that intellect and faith are not compatible. Some take it to the extreme, suggesting that if you have one, you can not have the other. The two are not mutually exclusive. I disagree with this statement because of one fundamental flaw with the argument. I am one (or at least would consider myself one). The problem I see before me is the integration of my faith and intellect, and showing others who doubt that it is possible. The solution is the tricky part.
To begin with, I had to ask myself what I am integrating. Intellect, according to Webster’s dictionary.com states that an intellect is one of three things.
The part or faculty of the human soul by which it knows, as distinguished from the power to feel and to will; sometimes, the capacity for higher forms of knowledge, as distinguished from the power to perceive objects in their relations; the power to judge and comprehend; the thinking faculty; the understanding (www.dictionary.com).
It also has the following definitions: “The ability to learn and reason; the capacity for knowledge and understanding” and, “The ability to think abstractly or profoundly” (www.dictionary.com). The first interesting thing about this definition is that it is attributed to the human soul as opposed to just a function of being. This leads me to believe that the intellect is more than just something random and ephemeral. When the soul is referred to, my thoughts often go to God. Because the soul is his creation, he determined each individual’s makeup for it. Therefore, he decided that some people would have more ability to reason, to think abstractly, and have more understanding than others. I would like to make the note that just because someone has an intellect (all humans do to some extent) does not make them intellectuals. It merely means that people have the capacity for it.
Faith is defined as, “Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing”, and, “The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God's will” (www.dictionary.com). Note how the first definition says, ‘belief in the truth’, not belief in a speculation, or something along those lines. It seems to me that both of these definitions suggest that faith requires intellect. Of course, there is ‘blind’ faith, or the faith of a child, but faith at its highest or best is just a natural outpouring of one who exercises their intellect. This does not mean you have to be smart to have faith however. An argument against faith comes from a lack of understanding of the word, or of the concept. The first definition is obviously the one I am referring to. When people hear the word faith, they just assume that it is in reference to God, but don’t most scientists have faith in the laws of gravity?
One problem in my desire to integrate the two as a Christian is the resounding lack of support in the endeavor, and the lack of role models. Of course there are those who have come before us such as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, or any of the other scholars who were Christians, but those are the exception and not the rule, a very rare exception I might add. To be more specific, as an Evangelical/Pentecostal (During this Essay I may use the two interchangeably); the lack of scholarship that comes out of these circles is disheartening as well.
Mark Noll, in his book Scandal of the Evangelical Mind has a statement that is more profound than many I have heard. “The scandal of the Evangelical mind is that there is not much of an Evangelical mind” (Noll 1). This is not a non-Christian or non-Pentecostal’s viewpoint either, it is so popular, it is shared at our own school by at least one of our own professors. Ricke Schlossin, a professor at North Central University (NCU) has made the statement that the phrase Pentecostal Scholar is an oxymoron (given, he did make the disclaimer that there are some exceptions to the rule, and that we, in a Christian university are some of those exceptions). This is quite unfortunate, because this is a common belief among born again Christians today. Schlossin suggests that because our roots in Pentecostalism are so emotional in nature, we have had very little time to explore the intellectual, and this has grievously injured us. History is against us, so who can be for us? The answer is God.
The Bible tells us that we are to be Christians in all that we do. This is a command of God to use all of ourselves to the fullest potential to show God’s glory. If we were to use the analogy of the ‘body’ of Christ, how effective would a big toe be without the toenail? They are part of a part, and yet one is required to protect the other; just as our intellect protects our faith (which I will show during my little tangent on science). God has given us this intellect as a gift and with that gift comes a responsibility to use it. To back this up, God commanded us to, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Mat 22:37). This is referring to a whole person, someone; someone made up of heart, soul, and mind. How can we not utilize all three of these aspects of our humanity at once. It is not as nearly as complicated as walking and chewing bubble gum.
I knew that the Catholic tradition had priests who were required to go to school for several years (the equivalent of a Ph.D.) to obtain credentials in the Catholic church as a priest. Even as a lay minister, you need much training. I spoke with him, and asked him about my dilemma, and he seemed shocked that such a question would even be asked. His response was simply, how could you not combine the two? We need to be two halves of one whole. I do not believe that Intellect and Faith are mutually exclusive, or diametrically opposed to each other. We need to have faith, and yet we need to have intellect. We can not let one control the other… After all, they are all parts of the body (mind/soul/spirit) and all work together, do they not?
Some people in the church see intellectuals as those who are impossible to be innocents, so to them, it is impossible to come to Jesus as a child. Often they will use, “…Let the little children come to me, and stop keeping them away. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these" (Mat 19:14) as an excuse to not study, because they think they will lose their inheritance in the Kingdom of God if they have too much knowledge. Obviously, this is an extreme, but even for those who take this particular verse less severely, I offer this in argument. “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Mat 10:16). This applies to all of us, even if we are not going into a vocational ministry. The Great Commission tells all of us to go, it doesn’t get specific and tell only the pastors, missionaries, and Sunday school teachers to go. Therefore, we are all to be as wise as serpents.
King Solomon, when God offered him anything, asked for all wisdom, and to understand everything. “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all, the wisdom of Egypt” (1Ki 4:29,30). Besides for a few faults, Solomon was a powerful man of God who was wiser than anyone, and might I hypothesize, an intellect. Did God mention that Solomon was any less of a man of faith because he was wise? No. It was only when Solomon let things get in front of his intellect, such as a huge sex drive/desire for wives and concubines, and a General lack of common sense. My argument however is not to suggest that intellect is the end all, and all someone needs, it is still just a part of a whole. Common sense just happens to be a part of that whole.
Randy Hurst, when he spoke in chapel, (as an intellect about intellect) said that most people believe that there are only two options in our walk with Christ. To be either a man of faith on fire, or an intellect on ice. He (and I) wish to take a different route. He (we) wish to be an intellect on fire. To be fully emotionally, and cognitively in love with Jesus Christ. Again, to prove my point, I find that I must go back to the Scriptures. “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Ti 2:15). Fearing that I would take this verse out of context, I looked up the original Greek and found that one of the definitions for the word ‘study’ was to ‘diligently study’. So, not only are we to study the ‘word of truth’, (The Gospel is the Ultimate truth, but not the only truth so don’t think I am disproving my point here) we are to diligently study it.
As I said earlier, we need to be two halves of one whole. God did not give us our intellect to be a stumbling block to our faith in him; that is just not in the character of God. I would rather suggest that God wishes us to use our intellect to show that He is God, and He does exist. So you ask what about science, haven’t I heard that science has disproved God? How could something that evil be used for the Glory of God. Remember, God used Pharaoh to show his glory, why can’t he use science? Guess what, he did use science to show his glory. You just have to look at what science can prove and disprove. Empirical science can not help but point to the truth of God. You can not prove God’s existence per se’ (That is where faith comes into play) but science shows that there is a creator.
The Genome Project, a government funded project to study the DNA molecule, hoping to prove that it was just a simple thing made up of sugars and acids that could have been formed by chance. This project was the largest of its kind, and scientists from all backgrounds did research. Never had I heard of so many scientists coming to know Jesus before. It was determined by this government funded project, that the DNA molecule is far too complex just to have been created by chance, and the intricacy of this single molecule is so precise that it just has to point to an intelligent creator.
Empirical science, contrary to popular belief, also does not point to evolution as a definite. That is why it remains the ‘Theory of Evolution’. In fact, I would like to suggest that many of evolutionists are actually just adaptationists (adaptation being an empirical science) without knowing it. For example, two giraffes, one with a short neck and one with a long neck eat the lower leaves from the tree. The short necked giraffe is no longer able to eat leaves from the tree so it dies. The only one left to mate is the long necked giraffe. Repeat the process over generations, and you have longer necked giraffes, because the short necked ones will have died off, leaving the ‘short necked gene’ along the wayside. This does not say or even suggest that the giraffe’s chromosomes changed (either increased or decreased) in number, it just suggests that after weaning out all of the ‘short necked’ genes, they became less and less dominant in the gene pool, so less and less short necked giraffes came about.
The point of this exercise is not to disprove evolution. It does show however that Christians can be scientists, and in fact, that science can point to God without specifically proving that he exists.
One thing God calls us to do above and beyond anything is to Love. It is more important than our intellect, and we need to do this with all of our being, including our intellect. “He answered, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you must love your neighbor as yourself” (Luk 10:27). Even if we, “…have prophecies, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so as to move mountains, and do not have charity, I am nothing” (1Co 13:2). Finally, to make this particular point be driven home that much more, “Love never fails. But if [there be] prophecies, they will become useless; if tongues, they will cease by themselves; if knowledge, it will become useless” (1Co 13:8). Knowledge will become useless if we do not have love. This is a very deep statement, and very true. We can be as intellectual as we want (if we don’t let other things get in the way) and it is a positive thing, but we can not be icebergs. We can not be an island to ourselves, because knowledge without loving others and God’s love is useless, utterly and totally meaningless.
Well, finally I come to my conclusion. Perhaps I over simplify the matter, but I don’t think so. If you ask me how I can integrate these two things, faith and intellect, I can only take a Catholic priest’s response and ask how can I not? They make up two parts of one being, and both help me grow in my relationship with God. Finally, I ask myself why I need to integrate the two and I have an answer for that as well. I wish to teach in a secular university. I wish to show people that Christians are not all gullible, ignorant barbarians who look at their faith as the only sort of knowledge, and are close minded to anything else. I wish to be a light in a very dark world, letting my life and my actions be a witness of God’s love. I wish to do this not only as a beacon to the student body, but also to my colleagues.















Works Cited
Dictionary.com. Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. 06 Dec. 2002 .
Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Wheaton: Tyndale, 1996.
The New English Bible. Oxford Study Edition. New York: Oxford UP, 1976