Head Versus Heart?

To some of us the idea of emphasising reason and evidence in our Christian faith might seem out of place. After all, is it not key to surrender our hearts over to Jesus and to trust Him in faith? Does not scripture remind us that human wisdom is fallible and that we should seek wisdom from God who, as James says, gives generously to all who asks? Is not God’s love, as a popular worship song goes, “reckless”?

Indeed, as Christians, we must guard our hearts against becoming emotionally callous, lest we become people who merely think about God’s goodness, rather than actually letting God’s goodness live in us and flow through us. We must also guard ourselves against using knowledge to puff ourselves up rather than build others up (1 Cor 8:1).

But there is no real tradeoff between loving others and being thoughtful in how we help them. After all, whenever we care for a family member or a friend, we do not only feel warmth towards them; we think about them, often and deeply. We contemplate their feelings, hopes and needs. We imagine what it would be like to be in their place and what we could do to best help.

If our hearts truly long for mercy and justice, we must stop and consider, as Dominic Roser did, “how could I possibly achieve it?” And if we truly love the poor, we will look for knowledge and insight into their poverty. Love does not avoid difficult questions or tradeoffs; rather, it abounds in knowledge and insight, without which we cannot determine what is best (Phil 1:9-10).

The New Testament Commends Careful Reasoning

Jesus commends careful thinking throughout the New Testament. One notable example is the Parable of the Unjust Steward, where Jesus praises a dishonest manager for his shrewdness. This is a notoriously difficult passage but it suggests that God praises wisdom, intelligence and sensibility. Another example is when Jesus sends out his disciples, commanding them to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). 

To be shrewd, wise, and discerning means taking evidence into account. It also means figuring out what counts as good evidence and what counts as bad. Sometimes evidence is expressed best in numbers. We should note the Parable of the Minas where Jesus praises those who effectively steward their resources, commending the man who turns his one into five and highly praising the man who turns his one into ten (Luke 19:11-27). Consider also where Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 notes the significance of Jesus having been seen by over 500 people after death.

Loving with Heart and Mind

In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus summed up the law and the prophets in two commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.”

Jesus includes the command to love God (and all those made in the image of God) with all of one’s mind. Theologian Stefan Höschele remarked that Jesus’ statement recalls a similar passage in Deuteronomy, only Jesus apparently added the word “mind.” In doing this, he emphasised the rational aspect of love, and may have even drawn attention to an OT word for “heart” which has associations with human thinking, plans, and wisdom.

Reason Versus Prayer?

Some might sense a tradeoff between trusting God in prayer, and looking for evidence to work out what to do. This can be a tricky area and I do not want to speak for the community on this matter as there is a range of views among Christians in the Effective Altruism movement. For one community member’s view, I point readers to Josh Parikh’s article on prayer and decision-making.

Loving with Heart and Mind in the Modern Day

Christians have at all times been among those who take careful reasoning most seriously in their efforts to improve the world. 

Many of the world’s most famous universities - Oxford, Harvard, Yale - were founded as Christian institutions of learning. Catholicism has a long tradition of theologians thinking critically about God, how we ought to relate to Him, and how we ought to treat others. The use of our critical faculties is also valued in the Protestant tradition - the Reformation was, among other things, an invitation to every individual to use evidence (particularly scripture) to make up one’s own mind on matters of faith. 

As Christians in the modern globalized and data-driven world, we should expect our minds to reveal new ways to serve others. These ways may, indeed, appear very different from acts of kindness in Jesus’ time, even as our faith remains the same (Hebrews 13:8). No one in the early church would have, for instance, predicted that we would one day have statistics and data science to compare hundreds of charities, or the ability to give directly to the ultra-poor living on the other side of the world.

If we do not think carefully about how to steward our resources well, drawing on ideas of effective altruism, we will miss out on many amazing opportunities to be Christ’s hands and feet in this world.

— Written by JD Bauman