Listen to the audio version of this story.

For some, there's a clear separation of religion from reason, reason from religion.

But that's not the way author C.S. Lewis saw it.

To him, religion and reason went together. That idea was the foundation of a talk on Thursday at Westminster College in Fulton. 

The talk was the first of the Lewis Legacy Lectures, which are expected to happen once a year. The lectures are part of the Harrod-C.S. Lewis Professorship in Religious Studies, a new professorship started by Jim and Sharon Harrod. Jim Harrod is an alumnus of Westminster College. The couple now lives in Texas, but they visited Fulton to hear the inaugural lecture. 

Cliff Cain, who teaches religious studies at the college, is the first to hold the professorship, so he gave the first lecture. 

After exploring the life of C.S. Lewis, Cain used the author's ideas about religion and reason to answer the question, “How are the commitment of the heart and the power of the mind, to be related?”

One answer is "fanatical fundamentalism." 

"The issue is resolved by not using one’s mind at all," Cain said. "One’s critical reason, one’s thoughts, ones questions, are to be parked in the church lot, or the mosque lot, or the synagogue lot, or the tremple lot, along with one’s car." 

"Extreme rationalism" is the opposite view. “There’s no mystery in life; there’s no fuzziness in comprehension," Cain said. "If we’ll just think about it long enough . . . .”

Being on one extreme or the other is like spending all of one's time in Jerusalem, a seat of religion, or in Athens, a seat of knowledge, Cain said. But instead of spending all of one's time in one city or another – instead of abandoning questions in favor of faith, or leaving fait in favor or reason – Cain stressed the importance of balance. 

"It would seem to me that a thinking person of faith is caught – and should be caught – right in the middle of these two extremes," he said. "A faithful person who thinks and questions is necessarily stuck in a creative, healthy tention between Athens and Jerusalem."

This story was produced in partnership with KBIA 91.3 FM.