[HarleyD]

I guess I didn't quite look at it they way many of you are and I'm not familiar with Lutheran doctrine but you may be right Suzy. When the author talks of God's ways being "paradoxical and hidden to human reason" I think of Paul's writings where he talks of paradoxes. Rereading the article from you perspective I must admit I'm a little confused.

2Co 6:8-10 " by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.

[Dataman]

Paul's list of "paradoxes" are no more paradoxical than the water we drink and the air we breathe give us life and take it away at the same time. The root of the paradox problem is that we are finite and He is infinite. He must accommodate our limitations in order for us to understand even a little. Therefore our limited understanding makes the paradoxical elements only apparently paradoxical, not actually paradoxical. It is not true reason that is weak but the finite mind that attempts to employ it. This is also why the greatest thinking, the greatest books, and the greatest discoveries are more common among Christians because there has been a transformation of the mind.

Since, therefore, the natural man is at a greater disadvantage, it is not reason that is at fault, but the condition of his unrenewed mind. Again, The first 6 chapters of I Corinthians reveal the two types of wisdom (or, in the case of the world, "sophistry"). Another problem we discover is that many of the first principles of the world are also false. If they are false, the conclusions based on them are as well.

It becomes clear why the secular idea of autonomous reason (Rousseau) is impossible. Human reason does not exist outside of the human mind; it is dependent on it. Various minds have various abilities to employ reason. The perfect mind does not exist and has not ever existed in humanity save Christ's. Therefore reason is dependent on a flawed human mind. Anything dependent is not autonomous.