Does the Faith of Christopher Columbus Matter?

Does The Faith of Columbus Matter?

What geopolitical events triggered the Spanish crown’s decision to fund Columbus to sail west? The largest underlying factor seems to have been events in the centuries-long struggle between Christianity and Islam. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 closed the western entrance to the Silk Road first blazed by Marco Polo in 1271-95, pushing Europeans to seeks another trade route to the Far East. The second was the conquest of Grenada in 1492 by the Spanish monarchy, ending the Moorish and Islamic presence in Iberia. That presence went back to 711 AD when the Moors invaded the southern tip of Western Europe, and advanced until the battle of Tours in 732 A. D. when Charles Martel defeated them. They remained a presence in the Iberian peninsula until 1492. After they surrendered at Grenada, they went south to Africa. 

In the 15th century, multiple European nations and explorers were seeking the advantages that would come from finding the alternate route to the Far East. In 1488, the Portuguese reached the Cape of Good Hope which showed promise for a sea route. Columbus advocated a direct western route, which he believed would be shorter. He made several mistakes in his calculations such as the radius of the earth, the size of a degree of longitude on the ground, and the total longitudinal span of the Eurasian landmass. (Per Wikipedia article.) He never got to the Far East. The flip side of this is that Columbus discovered a whole new world!

Columbus’ character is much harder to determine. There are many markers to devout Catholicism, but also actions that suggest the world’s approach to life. Faith markers: one ship named for St. Mary, another for the “little one” (maybe like El Niño or maybe just a small ship); using 2 Esdras 6:42 (an apocryphal reference) as evidence of a smaller ocean; naming the Lesser Antilles for saints; a book on prophecy written near the end of his life. Worldly actions include taking a mistress, tyrannical control when he had authority over new world settlers, seeking wealth from the profits the Spanish crown made in the new world, and enslaving native Americans. 

We remember a gifted sailor, explorer, and entrepreneur on October 12th, the day he first sighted land in the Western Hemisphere. It would not be fair to judge him by the standards of our time. Modern geography is based on centuries of mapping, charting, and geodesy since 1492. Biblical standards of character have been well known for thousands of years. We are all sinners, some saved by grace. Columbus, for all his faults, set in motion the settlement of the Americas. Does his faith matter? Perhaps to the extent that his life demonstrates the profound impact that one person can have, acting in faith, even though flawed.

Transcendence

Transcendence refers to the aspect of God’s nature and character that is independent of and beyond all known laws and principles within this universe. An easy and very shallow metaphor might be that spherical trigonometry transcends Euclidean geometry. Euclidean geometry is accurate for local travel, but directions for traveling large distances are not accurately captured in a rectilinear model. Seafarers have known for centuries to use latitude and longitude in a spherical coordinate system to navigate. Flatland (by A. Square, a.k.a. Edwin Abbott) provides fictional but much more entertaining examples.

Transcendence in matters of faith is not an excuse for not being able to articulate aspects of God’s nature, but a recognition of reality. Everything that we know and experience, accessible to our senses, capable of being reasoned by us, was created by God and therefore a subset of His eternal reality. C. S. Lewis discussed this in his essays, The Weight of Glory and Transposition. Biblically, God’s transcendence includes His ways being higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9); His throne being eternal (Psalm 99:2); His word being eternal (Psalm 119:89); His kingdom being eternal (Daniel 4:3); eternal life through faith in Jesus (John 3:15-16); and His unseen eternal glory. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18) 

On a human level, the glory of God includes His unfailing love, His perfect holiness, His unlimited power, wisdom, justice, and goodness. But in eternity, in His presence, are these attributes amplified or are they all intrinsic dimensions of a unified divine nature and essence as Thomas Aquinas said.  Even with all of Scripture, we lack words and concepts to meaningfully discuss this question. Is this a cop-out or a recognition of reality?

We have many questions. The problem of pain remains one of the chief stumbling blocks to faith for many. How can a good God allow terrible evil to occur and sometimes to triumph? Other questions: If God created the universe, where did God come from? If God is love, why did He command the Israelites to kill every man, woman, and child in Canaan? We struggle with the mystery of the Incarnation. Is it fair for God to create human beings with specific attributes - desires and limitations - and then call it sin when they respond to them? The answer to these issues lies in God’s transcendence. We don’t see the whole picture and have to trust Him.

Another aspect of transcendence is human response to being in the presence of God. Being overwhelmed by God’s presence is a not uncommon experience for believers. It is also Biblical. See, for example, Exodus 33:18-23; Joshua 5:14; Leviticus 16:2; Daniel 10:9; Isaiah 6:5; Ezekiel 3:23; Matthew 17:6; Acts 9:4; Revelation 1:17.

I was surprised to read in the last half of the first chapter of Timothy Keller’s book Making Sense of God that even atheists have transcendent experiences. He cites several examples of committed atheists who have described coming “... upon something inherently ‘wholly other’, whose kind and character are incommensurables with our own...” Despite a commitment to explain all human experience in an evolutionary biology framework, they are unable to so explain these experiences. Yet do not bow before the Maker of all things.

What is the point? The most important thing is not any of the following, true though they be: God does not owe us an explanation; If God were to answer our questions, we would be incapable of understanding the answers; We cannot sit in judgment of what God says or does. Instead, the most important observation is this:

God is so amazing that joining Him in His enterprise of redemption will be an adventure that we cannot fathom.