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Reason Serving Faith: The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ



Author(s)

PU Rongjian

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2025.08.002

Shandong University, Jinan, China

In Christianity, the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are a fact of history. If his resurrection is a miracle to be accepted by faith, no rational demonstration of it is needed, although the Apostle Paul argues by analogy for the resurrection in 1 Corinthians. Being a realist and using Latin, Aquinas holds that human reason can contribute to an understanding of faith; he has no strict distinction between hades and hell. He uses logos to emphasize reason and instrumental causality in explaining the relationship between humanity and divinity for Jesus. Arguing for the resurrection of Jesus, Aquinas should be consistent with his principle of the individualization of a soul through a body, and a separate soul being a substance, but he is inconsistent. Considering Jesus’ soul before his resurrection, Aquinas supports the Apostles’ Creed, but he develops the notion of purgatory, where departed souls sojourn temporarily. This paper argues that Aquinas, in discussing the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, obscures the distinction he draws between faith and reason.

reason, faith, the passion, resurrection