Saturday, February 03, 2007

Faith and Reason : Schall on Benedict and John Paul and a Little Aquinas Too

I finally made the time to sit down and read the reflective essay by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ, on the synthesis of faith and reason: "Benedict on Aquinas: 'Faith Implies Reason.'" The occasion for the essay was Pope Benedict XVI's Angelus message for the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The read is worth printing out, sitting down with a nice cup/glass/mug of something, and taking a pen to many lines.

Relying upon both Benedict and John Paul II, Fr. Schall has written another gem. Tolle lege:

[P]hilosophy is not philosophy if it is only philosophy, and theology is not theology if it is only theology. To be what they are at their best, both need the other, and more, both need in those who hold them the full experience of human living itself. [...] Revelation addresses itself to a reason that has its own unanswered philosophical questions. Philosophy, when it knows what it knows, realizes that it is but a "quest." Only the gods are wholly wise.

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