Foundations of Faith 13 - FAITH & REASON
Notes summarised from
- The encyclical Fides et Ratio
- Notes from "Overview of Catholic Theology", Rev Fr Michael Chan
In the 1992 encyclical Fides et Ratio, the then Pope John Paul II wrote to the bishops on his insights that faith and reason are meant to work together.
With the image of the two wings, ST John Paul II summarises 2000 years of Christian reflection on the relationship between faith and reason.
No one has to choose between the two.
We can have both.
Faith and reason are meant to work together. They are in harmony.
WHY DO WE FEEL A DISPARITY?
It is our sinful/fallen nature that makes the work of integrating faith and reason difficult.
The tendency is to reject God's truth when it is difficult to understand. The tendency is to choose human reason over something that we fail to understand.
FAITH AND REASON ARE BOTH FROM GOD
God is the source of both faith and reason, and there is no contradiction in God.
Both faith and reason lead us to the one Truth who is God.
The light of faith and the light of reason both come from God. They do not contradict each other.
CCC 159 says
Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason.
Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.
Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God.
The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.287
FAITH IS ABOVE REASON
Faith is above reason.
Faith seeks and trusts reason.
Faith is the light of reason.
St Thomas Aquinas holds that faith is the assent to the revelation due to the love for God that is granted by God himself
The believer will take faith as more certain than intellect and science, and the truth of faith wil constitute the orientation and criterion of his/her rational investigation.
In case of a contradiction between rational arguments and revealed truths, reason must be considered mistaken, and the rational investigation must start anew from the beginning.
The full encyclical
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