Knights of Columbus

Each one of us, at some point in life, asks the question, "How shall I live?" This question and all similar ones have their common source in the search for meaning that has always driven the human heart.

As we try to learn more about ourselves and the world in which we live, we find various sources of information and numerous fonts of truth. When we contemplate God's gift of creation, we get caught up in its overpowering beauty and overwhelming order. We also become aware that we are part of the world and that we live in relationship with others with whom we share a common destiny.

The recognition of the relationships we have with each other, the wider community and ultimately with creation and its Author provides us fertile ground for our intellectual investigation. These are some of the issues Pope John Paul II addresses in his encyclical Fides et Ratio (On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason).

The pope as an accomplished philosopher underlines for us that although "times change and knowledge increases, it is possible to discern a core of philosophical insight within the history of thought as a whole. Consider, for example, the principles of non-contradiction, finality and causality as well as the concept of the person as a free and intelligent subject, with a capacity to know God, truth and goodness" (4.3). The encyclical holds up the power of human reason and its capacity to arrive at truth. This is the starting point for the assertion that not only are faith and reason compatible but that they work together to deepen the human understanding of truth.

What impels the pope to undertake this encyclical, he tells us, is the fact proclaimed at the Second Vatican Council that bishops are "witnesses of divine and Catholic truth" (Lumen Gentium, 25). "To bear witness to the truth is therefore a task entrusted to us Bishops; we cannot renounce this task without failing in the ministry which we have received. In reaffirming the truth of faith, we can both restore to our contemporaries a genuine trust in their capacity to know and challenge philosophy to recover and develop its own full dignity" (6.2).

Beginning in the early 16th century the idea grew up among some thinkers that human reason arrived at one truth while religious faith represented a completely different category of experience. This division of truth into different categories or realms implied that since only human reason used a method that allowed scientific proof, any other claim to truth must be subjective and of no consequence.

We hear something of that today reflected in conversations about religious truth, values and a moral order. While many people are prepared to accept that anything which science can demonstrate must be true, they are less prepared to accept that the revelation of Jesus would be binding upon people in the same way. Thus we hear when it comes to religious conviction, "It is your opinion vs. my opinion."

What is true about religious experience is that it is personal and free. People can adhere to different religious convictions with equal tenacity.

What is not true is that all religious conviction is equally true. It may be equally firm but it is not therefore equally true.

The font of truth — the unique font of truth — is God. The God of creation is the God of revelation. What we come to know through scientific method and intellectual endeavor, if it is true, should lead us to God who is truth. The same must be said of revelation. What Christ reveals to us is God and therefore the truth. St. Thomas Aquinas centuries ago spoke of all truth being one since God is one. Therefore reason and revelation both have the same object. Reason uses the power of the intellect to attain truth. Faith uses the gift of revelation to secure truth.

In our human knowledge we come to know with a certain level of assurance because of the evidence that is presented to us. The human intellect grasps the truth and is persuaded by it. While the object of faith is truth as well, revelation relies on our taking God's word for what he presents rather than proofs amenable to human reason. Thus our reason always stands before a mystery when it encounters the faith.

In the human endeavor to know more about ourselves, our world and our relationship to God, human reason is a powerful but limited tool. It can penetrate something of the mystery of human life, guided solely by the light of reason. On the other hand revelation breaks into this world and offers us the light of faith by which to interpret the realities of this world.

What this encyclical teaches is what the Church has constantly taught: That the truth of reason and the truth of revelation are the same. They are simply arrived at by different paths — human reason and faith in God's word.

To know the difference between the truth arrived at by human reason and the truth arrived at by faith one must turn "to the different modes of truth" (30.1). The mode of truth proper to everyday life and to scientific research depends upon immediate evidence or confirmation by experimentation. "In believing, we entrust ourselves to the knowledge acquired by other people," John Paul writes (32.1).

This is at the heart of the issue. For the Catholic, truth is one and we arrive at it either by scientific method (human reason) or by accepting God’s word (faith). In any case the object of both reason and faith is the same — the truth. Thus the pope affirms that there is a direct relationship between revealed truth and philosophy or human reason (cf. 35).

Since a growing number of secular philosophers and scientists simply ignore or reject the natural moral order of God's creation, it falls to the Church to speak to issues related to this order. In a chapter entitled "The Magisterium's Interventions in Philosophical Matters," the pope warns against both the rejection of the role of the Church in the realm of philosophical investigation and also the equally disturbing position of some that faith alone provides an answer and understanding to the human condition.

While there will always be differing schools of philosophy and conclusions derived from the examination of scientific data, there is a common ground for both philosophical investigation and faith in God’s revelation. Religious faith accepts the power of the intellect to further penetrate the mystery of revelation while scientific knowledge should recognize the validity of God’s revelation in setting direction and focus for scientific development.

The final chapter, "Current Requirements and Tasks," calls for a self-discipline among philosophers and theologians in respect to one another and at the same time a level of mutual respect.

In concluding this stimulating and challenging encyclical, the pope highlights the role of faith in the Church in the current search for truth. Our task is to respect both the gift of human reason and the revelation of God's word in a way that truly integrates them both into our lives. We must recognize always that the role of the Church's teachings is precisely to ensure that neither gift is overlooked as we make our journey along the path of human experience that leads us to God, who is all truth.

Bishop Donald Wuerl is a member of Duquesne Council 264. His best-selling adult catechism, The Teaching of Christ (Our Sunday Visitor), is in its 27th year of publication. It has been translated into more than 10 languages and is used throughout the world.