Faith & Reason - Purpose of the Blog

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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