Reasons for our hope? We do have that obligation.

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 13, 2024

Over forty years ago, when I was still teaching regularly in college classrooms, I found it effortless to speak off-the-cuff without stumbling, and to make constant eye contact with the class. But five years ago, when I tried to resurrect some of my old lectures in apologetics for video presentations, I found it almost impossible to be relaxed and articulate when staring at a camera. I completed a series of four video lectures and was appalled at the result, so I also included Merle Hazard’s brilliant and uproariously funny music video “(Gimme Some of That) Ol’ Atonal music” for comic relief. It significantly eased the pain.

I recall this now because of a question about my presentations by a thoughtful priest who asked why I thought that people needed “reasons” to believe—that is, why couldn’t they simply “believe”? I did not give him a very satisfactory response when I argued that everybody needed “reasons”; I actually think he was right that this was not always true in the sense of the sorts of “reasons” that are the bread-and-butter of what we call apologetics. For example, many people believe in Christ primarily because they were raised in the faith (and along the way were sacramentally invested with the gift of faith), without paying attention to arguments or reasons much at all.

Of course that is not as likely to be true within a hostile culture. Indeed, some persons without a firm rational grounding for their faith would not withstand later challenges and cultural shifts which called the validity of Christianity into question. But many others would grow in faith through their honest investment in regular spiritual practices and the corresponding development of an interior spiritual life. Still others might have convincing interior experiences of God’s presence. And such things are not really part of the domain of “apologetics”, nor (at least in many cases) part of what St. Peter called giving reasons for our hope:

Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence. [1 Pet 3:15]

In this passage from one of Peter’s letters, the words rendered as “make a defense” have been variously translated as “give an answer” or “give a reason”. This is why, when several of us at Christendom College combined to write a book on apologetics back in the late 1970s, we entitled it “Reasons for Hope”.

The gift of Faith and its reasons

I might believe anything for good reasons, for bad reasons, or for no particular reason at all. And certainly the actual supernatural gift of faith is gratuitous, along with the hope and love that go with it. We cannot claim it on our own. Therefore, it is not always the case that we are aware of actual “reasons” or “justifications” for our faith and, to be sure, we may receive that gift without benefit of the reasons or justifications argued by others. Nonetheless, “reasons for hope” are not irrelevant to us. As St. Peter taught, we are always to be ready with such reasons—which means that if we don’t have any ways to explain or argue for or defend what we believe, then we are supposed to acquire them for the benefit of those who ask or challenge us, whether they are truly interested or hostile.

Note again that, as Peter expressed it, we are to be ready to account to others not so much for our faith but for our hope. It may not be so astonishing that we believe this or that (to use “believe” in a purely human sense). What is astonishing to others is the hope (or confidence) in God that enables us to live in an unshakeable serenity—hence the expression “serene hope”. But this hope depends on the reality of our faith in God. And a knowledge of St. Paul’s letters is also very helpful here, for the Pauline notion of Faith contains at once belief in Christ’s teachings, obedience to Christ’s commands, and trust in Christ’s promises. Thus do the three infused theological virtues of faith, hope and love become the basis for the Christian life.

However we express this, it is clear that Peter does teach that it is a Christian responsibility to learn to explain why we believe in, hope in, and love Jesus Christ. Moreover, this love of Christ includes the Church which is His mystical body, and of which He Himself is the Divine Head. While understanding the reasons, or being able to give the answers or make the defense, is not a pre-requisite for receiving the gift of Faith for oneself, it is a prescribed responsibility for bringing others to understand why they should seriously consider accepting that gift for themselves. For it is very often rejected, and that rejection may be triggered as much by ignorance as by a misguided defiance—as indeed it may be overcome by serene Christians who can explain themselves.

Hope and Love

St. Paul says that, in the end, only three things last—faith, hope and love (1 Cor 13:13)—and that the greatest of these is love. As he put it, “when the perfect comes the imperfect will pass away”, and he includes among those things that will pass away not only prophecies and the gift of tongues but even knowledge, for all these are imperfect in us. But faith, hope and love are supernatural virtues; they are divine gifts; they participate in God’s essential eternity.

Nonetheless, we possess (or perhaps better, we actuate) even these gifts imperfectly now, for they are Divinely-infused virtues at work in imperfect and fragile earthen vessels. And it is precisely this fragility and imperfection, which we all share, that requires us (as Peter said) to make a defense or give a reason “to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you…and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame” (1 Pet 3:15-16). For as Peter explained: “It is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong” (v. 17).

Now that provides a very necessary context. It even reminds us that we are all called to witness to Christ, and that the word “martyr” means “witness”. Therefore, the whole necessity is that we must first off all live as Christ wishes us to live and then, when we are noticed and questioned or even challenged, we are to be prepared as much as possible to explain why we believe and behave as we do. This might result in rejection or even persecution, but if we both live as we are supposed to live and bear an intelligible witness as to why we have chosen to live that way, then we make it possible for others to make the same decision.

This will not be helpful if we have no reasons that will bear serious scrutiny. It will be helpful only if our reasons are truly reasons, that is, explanations that make sense. In other words, it is right to say that people do not always need reasons “to believe” in the sense of arguments—in the sense intended by the art and science of apologetics. Yet when others challenge us, when they put us to the test, our love for them demands that we give them answers. In fact, as mature Christians we are supposed to be able to provide them. Witness is one thing, and reasons are another. But whenever we are asked or challenged, we are called to combine the two.