Year of Grace: Fath and Reason Encyclical chapter 4

 During this year of Grace, it is timely to consider whether Faith and Reason are interwined or as secular society would like us to believe that Faith and Reason are exclusive.  My purpose for writing this series is to explore this by examining carefully the encyclical  called " Fides et Ratio"- Faith and Reason written by the late Pope John Paul 11. I hope that during these next 8-10 weeks, you may explore with me, find your own answers and be able to communicate the truth to others. I also hope that in studying this encyclical you will be blessed with many graces. This week we continue to explore together chapter 4 which examines the relationship between faith and reason.


The Acts of the Apostles provides evidence that Christian proclamation was engaged from the very first with philosophical currents of the time.  They had to point to the natural knowledge of God and to conscience in every human being, and they linked this to the thinking of philosophers who opposed myths and mystery cults.

The earliest human search to understand the origin of the gods and of the universe was confined to poetry.  But the task of fathers of philosophy was to find the link between reason and religion.  They sought to acquire a critical awareness of what they believed in, and the concept of divinity was thought about.  The Fathers of the Church looked to the ancient philosophy for new ways of proclaiming and understanding the God of Jesus Christ.

St Paul put the Colossians on their guard when he said ‘ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy, and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirit of the universe and not according to Christ’ (2:18)

Other writers of the early centuries, especially Saint Irenaeus and Tertullian, were alarmed when they were confronted with the cultural perceptive of subordinating the truth of Revelation to the interpretations of the philosophers.

The early Christians were loathe to purse the old philosophies when they were satisfied and convinced of the Gospels which provided a satisfactory answer to the unresolved question of life’s meaning.

Today we know that Christianity proclaimed from the first the equality of all men and women before God.  Since access to truth enables access to God, then all are entitled to the truth.  There are many paths to truth, but any path is satisfactory provided it lends to the final goal viz, the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

Both early Fathers Saint Justin and Clement of Alexandria had found in Christianity ‘ the only sure and profitable philosophy’.  Clement found that Greek philosophy rather defended the faith of Christians and is rightly called the hedge and protective wall around the vineyard.

Origin was an early example of one who adopted Platonic philosophy to counter the philosopher Celsus.  His arguments were an early form of Christian theology.  Over time the Platonic philosophy, once adopted by theology, changed with regard to the immortality of the soul, the divinisation of man and the origin of evil.

The Cappadocian Fathers, Dionysus the Aroepagite and St Augustine were important in christianising Platonic and Neo-Platonic thought.  St Augustine found the truth of the Christian faith was the key to his radical conversion.  As The Bishop of Hippo,. St Augustine wrote the first great synthesis of philosophy and theology embracing currents of thought both Greek and Latin.  His work was a prelude to further developments in different currents of philosophy.

The early Christian thinkers succeeded in disclosing completely all that remained implicit and preliminary in the thinking of the great philosophers of antiquity.  The early Fathers fully welcomed reason, which was open to the absolute, and they infused it with the richness drawn from Revelation.  They were not afraid to acknowledge those elements of various philosophies that were consonant with Revelation and those that were not.

For St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, the priority of faith is not in competition with the search, which is proper to reason, which is incapable of judging the contents of faith.  St Anselm believed that the intellect must seek that which it loves: the more it loves, the more it desires to know.  The desire for truth spurs reason to go further as far as it can.

There is harmony between the knowledge of faith and philosophy.  Faith requires reason to understand its object and reason acknowledges that it cannot do without what faith presents.

St Thomas Aquinas was a great teacher, but also he also discussed with the Arab and Jewish thinkers of his time his own thoughts.  For example, he believed that the light of reason and their light of faith both come from God, hence there cannot be a contradiction between them.  He recognised that nature could contribute to the understanding of divine Revelations.

If reason is freed from the effects of sin, then it can rise to the knowledge of the Triune God. St. Thomas looked closely at the reasonableness of faith with examining the supernatural character of faith.  Human reason is neither annulled nor debased in assenting to the contents of faith, which can be attained by a free and informed choice.

The Church has consistently praised St. Thomas as a master of thought and model of the way to do theology.  Pope Paul V1 on St. Thomas’s seventh centenary of death said he, Thomas passed into the history of Christian thought as an pioneer of the new path of philosophy and universal culture.  He reconciled the secularity of the world and radicality of the Gospel, by not shunning the world and its values whilst at the same time keeping faith with the supernatural order.

Some of St Thomas’s thoughts and wisdom were briefly:

1. Recognising the role of the Holy Spirit into maturing knowledge into wisdom.
2. The Holy Spirit gives the gift of wisdom and opens the eyes to divine realities.
3. There is a close link between wisdom and faith and knowledge of the divine.
4. Faith formulates its right judgment on the basis of the truth of faith itself.
5. The gift of wisdom comes from on high and enables judgment according to divine truth.
6. There is philosophical wisdom (intellect) and theological wisdom (Revelation and faith and mystery of God).
7. He sought love of truth and its universality.
8. The Church’s Magisterium has the passion for truth.
9. He could recognise the objectivity of truth and produce a philosophy not only ‘what seems to be ‘ but also ‘ what is’.
   
   

Saint Albert the Great and St Thomas were the first to recognise the autonomy needed between philosophy and science to reach their goals in research.

As time went on there grew up a separation between philosophy and the contents of faith.  From this arose a mistrust of reason itself and some denied its rationality altogether.  Rational knowledge divorced from faith destroyed the highest forms of speculation.

Unfortunately modern philosophy has now set itself up in opposition to Christian Revelation and its faith and its contents.  The result has been a rise in totalitarian systems, which have caused untold harm to men.

Similarly scientific research has abandoned the Christian vision of the world, and lack a metaphysical or moral vision.  They think that they possess a quasi-divine power over nature and even over the human being.

Nihilsm has taken over a philosophy of nothingness.  It is at the root of the widespread mentality, which claims that a definitive comment should no longer be made, because everything is fleeting and provisional.

The role of philosophy has changed in modern culture. Other forms of rationality have acquired an even higher profile, which is directed towards the promotion of utilitarian ends towards enjoyment or power.

The Pope in his first Encyclical Letter ‘Redemptor Hominis’ 4 March 1979 saw the danger of such an approach in that it can radically turn against himself.

As a result of the shift in culture, some philosophers have abandoned the search for truth and have now opted for subjective certainty or a pragmatic sense of utility.  This in turn has clouded reason, which is no longer equipped to know the truth and to seek the absolute.

There is a growing separation between faith and philosophical reason.  The link between faith and reason needs to be carefully examined because each without the other is impoverished and enfeebled.  It is an illusion to think that faith, tied to weak reasoning, might be more penetrating.  This is not so. 

The Pope made a strong appeal that faith and philosophy recover the profound unity, which allows them to stand in harmony with their nature without compromising their mutual autonomy.