Friday 31 January 2020

Faith & Reason - Purpose of the Blog

Resultado de imagen para faith and reason jp ii"Faith is a gift that we can willingly receive but not earn through our human capacities. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) explains: "142. By his Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company." The adequate response to this invitation is faith." And it continues: "141. To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself."

In the act of faith, "...we, with the aid and inspiration of the grace of God, believe that the things revealed by Him are true, not because the intrinsic truth of the revealed things has been perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God Himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived." (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius, Chapter 3).

That doesn't mean, however, that faith is contrary to reason. In fact, “even if faith is superior to reason there can never be a true divergence between faith and reason since the same God who reveals the mysteries and bestows the gift of faith has also placed in the human spirit the light of reason. This God could not deny himself, nor could the truth ever contradict the truth” (Dei Filius, ch. 4). 


The Faith and Reason blog aims to contribute to the Catholic Church's "service of the truth" (Encyclical Letter Fides et ratio, 2) at the local level by:


(1) Providing those who do not yet believe but find themselves at the threshold of Catholic faith with rational elements or praeparatio fidei (Fides et ratio, 61) to support their discernment such as arguments for the existence of God or the immortality of the soul. 

(2) Offering Catholics rational resources for them to "always be prepared to make a defence" to anyone who calls them to account for the hope that is in them (1 Pet 3:15). Though philosophy cannot prove (or, for that matter disprove) what God has revealed, it can, however show that it is reasonable to believe it, as happens with the indissolubility of marriage or the existence of angels.


(3) Bridging through philosophy the Catholic worldview based on Holy Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Magisterium of the Church on certain current affairs topics, for instance on liberal democracy, genetic engineering or climate change, and the viewpoints of a lay, wider audience. 




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Monday 27 January 2020

Preparation for the 4 February 2020 Session

Aeterni Patris is Leo XIII's second encyclical letter, published the second year of his pontificate. For a historical context of the 1870s click here.For some background about the encyclical click here. As a curiosity, click here to see a short video of Leo XIII, the first pope to be filmed. Aeterni Patris is the first papal document in modern times to focus exclusively on the place of philosophy in Catholic life. This is its most remarkable aspect. The mention of St Thomas Aquinas as a point of reference must be seen within this context. Among others including St Augustine and other Fathers of the Church, St Thomas is an outstanding point of reference on the right and smart exercise of philosophy in its three functions: as a preparation for the receiving of faith; as a technical support for the development of theology; and as tool in apologetics. 

Through Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, the Church invites us to consider this challenge: "Those, therefore, who to the study of philosophy unite obedience to the Christian faith, are philosophizing in the best possible way...For surely that is a worthy and most useful exercise of reason when men give their minds to disproving those things which are repugnant to faith and proving the things which conform to faith..." (Aeterni Patris, 9).






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El amor como sentido del hombre en Carlos Cardona

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