{"id":697,"date":"2011-02-12T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2011\/02\/on-the-relationship-of-faith-and-reason.html"},"modified":"2011-02-12T11:01:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-12T11:01:00","slug":"on-the-relationship-of-faith-and-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/labmind\/2011\/02\/on-the-relationship-of-faith-and-reason.html","title":{"rendered":"On the Relationship of Faith and Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>This is the first section of my master\u2019s paper, An Inquiry on the Relationship between Faith and Reason<\/span>. This issue is at the forefront in religious and scientific circles, the highest authorities in both speaking and writing on the subject. Here is a part of my small contribution to the dialogue.<\/span>
<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n1. Faith and Reason<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n 1.1 Magisterium Dei Filius<\/i><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n The Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius<\/i> (1870) of the First Vatican Council explores and marks the domains of human knowledge and divine faith, explaining how they relate to each other. Its second chapter, \u201cOn revelation\u201d borrows from the distinction made by Thomas Aquinas between the two ways God can be known by man, a natural way and a supernatural way. God can be known with certainty when examining creation with the natural power of human reason since God manifests Himself in his creation. God however has not limited man\u2019s knowledge of himself to natural knowledge, but has chosen to manifest himself through divine revelation. This supernatural knowledge of God includes also things of God that are not in themselves beyond the understanding of human reason, so that they may be known by everyone without difficulty, with firm certitude, and without any intermingling of error. For example, reason alone can know naturally that there is a God, but reason itself cannot know that this God wishes every person to participate in his divine life for eternity. Divine revelation also shows that God is one yet Triune at the same time. <\/span><\/div>\n Dei Filius<\/i> analyzes the relationship between faith and reason arguing that there cannot be a discrepancy between the two. It is a clear and brief response to the intellectual mood of the late nineteenth century where faith and reason were presented as irreconcilable foes where being religious meant being irrational and being rational required atheism. The text points out that there is a twofold order of knowledge where knowledge in each is distinct on account of its source and object. As regards the sources, one is from natural reason while the other is from divine faith. As regards their objects, the former learns those things natural reason can attain and the latter those mysteries hidden in God that are proposed only through divine revelation.<\/span><\/div>\n Reason can achieve some understanding of the mysteries revealed such as the Trinity but cannot fully penetrate them. These mysteries are not irrational nonsense, reason can understand what is revealed, yet cannot fully comprehend it. Even though faith is above reason, the two cannot contradict each other because the same God who creates is the God who reveals. If faith and reason contradict each other, it means that God contradicts Himself. This is the central teaching of Dei Filius<\/i>. The fathers of the First Vatican Council define then that \u201cevery assertion contrary to the truth of enlightened faith is totally false.\u201d Any apparent contradiction means that either the teachings of church are not being understood or explained well or that there is an error in reason\u2019s conclusion.