"It is one of the curiosities of Western intellectual history that, during the last century or so, those with no serious involvement with practical Christianity — maybe totally ignorant of it or even hostile to it — have been allowed, under the guise of 'scholarship' or innovative thought, to define what religion is and to reinterpret Christian teachings in the light of their own biased definitions and purposes. This is now built into our educational system. Then, quite naturally, religion turns out to be something resting upon anything but knowledge, for if it turned out to be a matter of knowledge of reality, then our scholars, as 'men and women of science and rationality,' would have to accept the knowledge and reality involved or else be counted as irrational themselves. Thus they present religion as an irrational projection or development of some sort — contrary to the inner nature of the religious consciousness itself.
"That approach is often combined today with the thought that the basic teachings of Christianity — the existence of a personal God, his intervention and direction in human affairs, the spiritual nature of human beings, the fundamental reliability of the Bible and the central teachings of the church, and so forth — have been discovered to be false or without credible evidence. In short, Christianity has been 'found out,' and it is at best only a set of humanly contrived myths and traditions, if not an outright fraud. Many who have standing as scholarly spokespeople for Christianity promote that view.
"Though the task of this book is to deal at length with main points involved in this general, secularist outlook, let us say immediately that the developments of modern thought have not shown the substance of Christian teaching to be false or groundless. There have been many discoveries, to be sure, but none producing that result, or even close. Modern discoveries, therefore, have not shown that Christianity's central teachings do not or cannot form a body of knowledge accessible to capable and responsible inquirers. Certainly the currently prevailing myth of intellectual and academic life is that this has been shown. But myth making, as it turns out, is not the sole prerogative of religion. It is also a very active secular and academic pastime — and a human one as well; perhaps it is some kind of human necessity.
"But, as we have noted, problems with the relationship between knowledge and Christian teachings and practice are posed not just by those who oppose Christianity or religion, but by those who advocate it. Religious people in the Western world now tend to be uneasy or suspicious about knowledge; they no longer see it as a friend, but, more likely, as an enemy. We begin, therefore, with some highly necessary clarifications of connections between knowledge and life. We hope to show the way in which knowledge is a friend of faith, essential to faith and to our relationship with God in the spiritual life."
