Fr Michael's Presentation : Faith and Reason

 June 3, 2011

Faith and Reason

The Two Wings upon which the Human Spirit Soars

Reason

Traditionally: Three parts

• Apprehension or Understanding
• Judgment
• Induction and Deduction
• Not just logic but intuition, too

Modernity: Just hard logic and scientific fact

• Discursive thought alone is sufficient (ex. Calculation)
• Intuition is suspected as emotionalism (chauvinism?)
• Example: So-Called Homosexual Marriage

Reason’s object: Reality

Reason's Goal

• Traditionally: The Truth of all things
• Sought to go beyond accidental and contingent into the substantial and infinite
• Ultimate task: Discover Meaning
• Modernity: Technical Knowledge
• Nothing exists beyond the empirical (scientific method)
• Ultimate task: Control Nature
• Different Questions posed by two approaches:
• Modern: How do I open a Facebookaccount?
• Tradition: What is the purpose of communication?
• Modern: What do we have to do to get married?
• Tradition: What is the meaning of human love?
• Modern: How can we extract stem cells from an embryo?
• Tradition: What does it mean to be human?

Faith
Entrusting oneself to another

• All human knowledge is based on faith (ex. Nutrition)
• Personal adherence to someone in the truth. Truth forms relationships. Taking a stand on someone’s word

Catholic Faith

• Personal adherence to God who is the most trustworthy. Taking a stand on God’s Word
• Therefore, faith is more certain than reason

Faith perfects reason

• What reason can not reach, faith supplies
• Faith’s object: God’s own self-knowledge

Faith's Goal

Belief: Resting on the authority of God, not on discursive methods (ex. The Eucharist)

Provides the meaning Reason would never reach; therefore, completes the human person

• Ex. 1: Substance vsRelations
• The Councils of Nicea325 AD and Constantinople I 381 AD
• Ex. 2: Nature vsPerson
• The Great Council of Chalcedon 451 AD

History of Faith and Reason

Reason frees Faith from myth

• Ex.: The anger of God; He will smite His enemies!
• Helps to develop a systematic presentation of the Faith
• Greek philosophy empowered Christianity

Faith frees Reason

• Without faith could we ever know the ultimate answers?
• Christian Faith and Theology favored progress
• Conquering the myth of nature made science possible
• Reason is wounded by sin

Resources

• Fides et Ratio –John Paul II
• The Victory of Reason –Rodney Stark
• Introduction to Christianity –Joseph Ratzinger
• Dei Filius–Vatican Council I
• Gaudiumet Spes–Vatican Council II
• HumaniGeneris –Pius XII