Paradoxology Part 3: Lutherans Mishandling Paradox

As we saw in Part 2, paradoxes are not contradictions and therefore accepting them does not necessitate rejecting reason. Nevertheless, paradox is difficult to accept primarily because our reason wants—nay, needs—to understand; understanding is, after all, the very thing our reason is for. It makes a kind of sense that Lutherans would be inclined to keep reason at arm’s length. And so when paradoxes are brought up, many (not all) Lutherans react by telling us that our wicked and fallen reason must be distrusted, ignored and rejected. Many go so far as to imply in their protests that our reason is only right in the way a stopped clock is (occasionally, but merely by coincidence). But do such actions really preserve paradox?

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