Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

Fourth Maccabees

Anonymous

A philosophical address arguing that devout reason rules the passions, proved at unbearable length from the torture of Eleazar and the seven brothers and their mother, who die one by one rather than eat what the law forbids.

On the Profit of Believing

De Utilitate Credendi

Augustine of Hippo · 354 – 430

To a friend still with the Manichaeans, who had promised reason and delivered a story. Augustine answers that everyone believes far more than they can verify — that these are your parents, that this city exists — and that belief on trustworthy authority is not the opposite of knowledge but the road to it.

The Book of Beliefs and Opinions

Kitab al-Amanat wa-l-I'tiqadat

Saadia Gaon · 882 – 942

The first systematic Jewish theology, arguing that reason and revelation cannot conflict because both come from God, that the world was created from nothing, and that scripture must be read figuratively wherever the plain sense contradicts reason or another verse.

The Monologion

Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109

An attempt, made at his monks' request, to establish the existence and nature of God by reason alone, without once quoting scripture.

Summa Against the Gentiles

Thomas Aquinas · 1225–1274

Four books arguing the faith without appeal to scriptural authority for the first three, on the grounds that with Muslims and Jews one cannot begin from a shared text.

The Triumph of the Cross

Girolamo Savonarola · 1452–1498

A defence of Christianity by reason alone, arranged around the image of a triumphal chariot bearing Christ, written at the height of the author's power in Florence.

Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity

Richard Hooker · 1554–1600

A defence of the English church against Puritan critics, grounded in a doctrine of law running from eternal law through natural reason to human custom.

On Truth

De Veritate

Edward Herbert of Cherbury · 1583–1648

Five common notions said to be innate in all people — that God exists, should be worshipped, by virtue, with repentance, and that there is reward and punishment.

An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness

Henry More · 1614–1687

A defence of Christianity against both atheism and enthusiasm, arguing that reason and a purified imagination together lead to a rational and moderate faith.

The Reasonableness of Christianity

John Locke · 1632–1704

An argument that the gospel requires belief in one article only — that Jesus is the Messiah — with repentance, and that everything else is inference.

The Aphorisms and Sermons

Benjamin Whichcote · 1609–1683

Sayings and sermons on the reasonableness of religion, the folly of narrow zeal, and the conviction that to go against reason is to go against God.