Fides et Ratio
| Fides et ratio Latin : Faith and Reason Encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II  |
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|---|---|
| Date | 14 September 1998 |
| Argument | The relationship between faith and reason |
| Encyclical number | 13 of 14 of the pontificate |
| Text | |
Fides et ratio (English: Faith and Reason) is an encyclical promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 1998. It was one of 14 encyclicals issued by John Paul II. Georges Cardinal Cottier, Theologian emeritus of the Pontifical Household and later Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Domenico e Sisto the University Church of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, was influential in drafting the encyclical. The encyclical primarily addresses the relationship between faith and reason.
Fides et ratio was the first encyclical since Pope Leo XIII's 1879 Aeterni Patris to address the relationship between faith and reason.
The encyclical posits that faith and reason are not only compatible, but essential together. Faith without reason, he argues, leads to superstition. Reason without faith, he argues, leads to nihilism and relativism. He writes:
Although reason creates a "systematic body of knowledge," the Pope avers, its completeness is illusory:
Without a grounding in spiritual truth, he continues, reason has:
On the wrong turns in modern philosophy and the duty of the magisterium:
In sum, the Pope "makes this strong and insistent appeal" that "faith and philosophy recover the profound unity which allows them to stand in harmony with their nature without compromising their mutual autonomy. The parrhesia of faith must be matched by the boldness of reason.
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