BEAUTY AND THE TRUTH

if faith is an unattached gift ... given to us by god and cannot be earned by reason that doesn't mean that faith must be ugly blind or detached from reason ... or that reason has no easy way to serve faith ... reason must at least figure this much out ... if faith is a gift from god then it most probably is the best it can be ... now admittedly here we must take a broad view of reason and say it includes not only understanding judgment and calculation but memory and imagination too ... think on the second of these for a moment and ask what obligation do we have through it to honor such a peerless gift from god ... may we not start when we ask what does she look like by hearing from her first ... reason has understood much ... done a lot of calculation ... made a lot of tough decisions ... it has a right to examine its pretensions before it comes to this one last attention ... reason was a servant from the start in attendance upon the truth and it should end by seeing just how beautiful she is