“Know Yourself: The Relationship Between Faith and Reason”

“Know Yourself: The Relationship Between Faith and Reason”
Thursday, April 4, 2013 © 4/4/2013, Jeffrey Bame – Content of this presentation may not be used without explicit permission.

Cornerstone document: Fides et Ratio – Encyclical Letter of Pope John Paul II Date: September 14, 1998 English Copy: ments/hf_jp-ii_enc_ _fides-et-ratio_en.html Spanish Copy: ments/hf_jp-ii_enc_ _fides-et-ratio_sp.html

Tonight’s Outline Faith and Reason “I WILL NOT Believe”
Faith and Reason: Opposed? The Relationship Between Faith and Reason Everyday faith Who is God? The Loss of Truth and Meaning Power and Pride – Original Sin Mary, Seat of Wisdom The Rosary

1. “I WILL NOT Believe!” A reading from the holy Gospel according to John: “…Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’”

1. “I WILL NOT Believe!” “Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.’ Thomas answered and said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.’” – John 20: 19-31

Caravaggio (1571 -1610), “Doubting Thomas” 1602-1603, Oil on Canvas
1. “I WILL NOT Believe!” “Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.’ Thomas answered and said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.’” – John 20: 19-31 Caravaggio ( ), “Doubting Thomas” , Oil on Canvas

For what offense was Galileo famously condemned by the Church?
Pop Quiz Question 1: For what offense was Galileo famously condemned by the Church?

Pop Quiz Answer: Galileo promoted heliocentrism as a fact, instead of as a theory (despite a lack of proof) and challenged Church teaching on Scripture. The Church, in fact, did not object to scientists researching the theory.

2. Faith and Reason: Opposed?
“What does Athens have in common with Jerusalem?” (Tertullian – De Praescriptione Haereticorum) “To believe is nothing other than to think with assent... Believers are also thinkers: in believing, they think and in thinking, they believe... If faith does not think, it is nothing”. (St. Augustine – De Praedestinatione Sanctorum) The flaw of fideism / “sola fide”

2. Faith and Reason: Opposed?
Credo ut intellegam (“ I believe so that I may understand”) (St. Anselm – Proslogion) Fide quarens intellectum (“Faith seeking understanding”) (St. Anselm – Proslogion) Humans have an innate desire to know (Aristotle - Metaphysics) Created in the Image of God – The Divine Logos “Know Yourself”

Faith and Reason: Opposed? The Relationship of Faith and Reason Everyday faith Who is God? The Loss of Truth and Meaning Power and Pride – Original Sin Mary, Seat of Wisdom The Rosary

3. The Relationship Between Faith and Reason
“Faith and Reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth – in a word, to know himself – so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.” (Apostolic Greeting of Fides et Ratio)

“Faith and science: ‘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.’” (CCC 159) “Reason in fact is not asked to pass judgment on the contents of faith, something of which it would be incapable, since this is not its function. Its function is rather to find meaning, to discover explanations which might allow everyone to come to a certain understanding of the contents of faith.” (Fides et Ratio 42)

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully” (1 Cor 13:12) “Reason and faith cannot be separated without diminishing the capacity of men and women to know themselves, the world and God in an appropriate way.” (Fides et Ratio 16) “Faith therefore has no fear of reason, but seeks it out and has trust in it. Just as grace builds on nature and brings it to fulfilment, so faith builds upon and perfects reason.” (Fides et Ratio 43)

The Far Side of Reason: Faith does not surrender reason – it is a surrender or assent when reason reaches its limits (Fr. Robert Barron)

Pop Quiz Question 2: How old is the earth? 6000 years
4.54 billion years

Pop Quiz Answer: C) The Church does not have an official stance. However, science clearly shows the earth is much older than 6000 years and the Church does not see this as a threat to its teachings.

Faith and Reason: Opposed? The Relationship of Faith and Reason Everyday faith Who is God? The Loss of Truth and Meaning Power and Pride – Original Sin Mary, Seat of Wisdom The Rosary

4. Everyday Faith Most of what people hold as true has as its source the teaching of parents, teachers, authorities, witnesses Much of what we hold we have not fully investigated or proven for ourselves The Earth is round?

5. Who is God? Ontological Argument: God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived” (St. Anselm – Proslogion) Quinquae Viae (Five Ways) of St. Thomas Aquinas Book of Nature Humans can “know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements…the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars, the nature of animals and the tempers of wild beasts” (Wis 7:17,19-20) “in reasoning about nature, the human being can rise to God: ‘from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator’ (Wis 13:5)” (Fides et Ratio 19)

Pop Quiz Question 3: True or False? The theory of evolution is contrary to the teaching of the Church.

Pop Quiz Answer: C) False. The Church has no official teaching on the matter. However, in Humani Generis (1950), Pope Pius XII confirmed that there is no intrinsic conflict between Church teaching and the theory of evolution.

6. The Loss of Truth and Meaning
“In short, what for Patristic and Medieval thought was in both theory and practice a profound unity, producing knowledge capable of reaching the highest forms of speculation, was destroyed by systems which espoused the cause of rational knowledge sundered from faith and meant to take the place of faith.” (Fides et Ratio 45) “Opposed to this kind of thinking were various forms of atheistic humanism” which “did not hesitate to present themselves as new religions serving as a basis for projects which, on the political and social plane, gave rise to totalitarian systems which have been disastrous for humanity.” (Fides et Ratio 46)

6. The Loss of Truth and Meaning
“Deprived of what Revelation offers, reason has taken side-tracks which expose it to the danger of losing sight of its final goal. Deprived of reason, faith has stressed feeling and experience, and so run the risk of no longer being a universal proposition.” (Fides et Ratio 48) “To believe it possible to know a universally valid truth is in no way to encourage intolerance; on the contrary, it is the essential condition for sincere and authentic dialogue between persons. On this basis alone is it possible to overcome divisions and to journey together towards full truth, walking those paths known only to the Spirit of the Risen Lord.” (Fides et Ratio 92)

7. Power and Pride – Original Sin
“The blindness of pride deceived our first parents into thinking themselves sovereign and autonomous, and into thinking that they could ignore the knowledge which comes from God. All men and women were caught up in this primal disobedience, which so wounded reason that from then on its path to full truth would be strewn with obstacles. From that time onwards the human capacity to know the truth was impaired by an aversion to the One who is the source and origin of truth.” (Fides et Ratio 22) “People can even run from the truth as soon as they glimpse it because they are afraid of its demands.” (Fides et Ratio 28)

Pop Quiz Question 4: True or False? The Church denies the possibility of extra-terrestrial life.

Pop Quiz Answer: False. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences even held a conference on astrobiology in 2009 to discuss the scientific possibility. The Church, along with most scientists, doubts that it exists, but does not deny the possibility.

Thursday, April 4, 2013 © 4/4/2013, Jeffrey Bame – Content of this presentation may not be used without explicit permission.

“Know Yourself: The Relationship Between Faith and Reason”

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