Question 6.103

6.103 Benedict XVI called unceasingly for a productive dialogue between fides and ratio, faith and reason. Today most philosophical reflection seems to be cut off from all transcendence. What do you think of this development?

The encounter between Greek philosophy and Christianity was a unique moment in the history of mankind. This powerful dialogue was willed by God.

How can we define philosophy? I think that it is not solely about love of wisdom but, above all, an incessant search by the human intellect for the truth and for a contemplative knowledge of the deeper causes of things. This search went aground on many reefs, and it was consolidated with Socrates and reached a very high level with Plato and Aristotle.

Through its encounter with the Christian faith, with Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and others, the human intellect shaped by nonChristian thinkers no longer loves natural wisdom alone but loves eternal wisdom, wisdom incarnate, Christ, who declared, “I am the Truth.” Thus Greek philosophy receives Christian baptism and is purified so as to become within the Church the servant of theology.

There is no disputing the fact that Saint Thomas Aquinas was the man who gave his life to prepare the way for this providential encounter. He is the one who witnesses and blesses the exchange of consent at the marriage of Greek wisdom and eternal wisdom. …

At the end of a long, fine, honest, and patient search, the Greek philosophers, such as Aristotle, understood the essence of nature, of matter, of life, and of the spirit. Despite the perfection of the thought that he was able to elaborate, with an ordered vision of the universe and of man, Aristotle, who played one of the greatest roles in the history of philosophical reflection, recognized his limits. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle writes: “O my friends, no one is a true friend!” This bitter admission could be translated into other terms: “There is no communion!” This is the painful recognition of the fact that man’s thirst is never quenched by the human intellect alone. Philosophy, by itself, is incapable of leading man to his total fulfillment, to his encounter with eternal truth, even though “since the creation of the world [God’s] invisible nature. . . has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made” (Rom 1:20).

The very idea of a creation “from nothing” never crosses Aristotle’s mind. Thus Greek wisdom brings us very close to the truth. Nevertheless, in its highest expression, it is still far from the concept of a God who would lower himself to deal with man. Philosophical thought still does not understand the foundations of the human person. This ignorance explains its inability to perceive the radical equality of all men and to guess at the ineffable grace of divine adoption, which is supernatural. We all become brethren, not by nature, but by God’s grace.

Greek wisdom cannot explain evil or suffering or redemption or hope. Nevertheless, this thirst for divine friendship is still a marvelous attempt and a preparation for revelation, for the Logos.

Even though several passages by Aristotle seemed to depart explicitly from Christian doctrine, and despite all the gaps in Greek wisdom, Saint Thomas Aquinas later tried to understand Aristotle, to receive his thought in order to improve it for the purpose of instruction, because the philosopher’s approach seemed to him to espouse the correct method of seeking the truth. Furthermore, Saint Thomas considered this method a useful instrument with which to study the doctrine of the faith. He did not intend, like other theologians of his era, to reject pagan wisdom because of its shortcomings or its partially erroneous philosophical expressions; instead, he made use of them after purifying them of their pagan overtones. …

Earlier, Saint Basil, in his fight against the Greek culture of his time, found himself confronted with a similar task. In his book On the Way to Jesus Christ, Joseph Ratzinger refers to a text by Saint Basil in which he adapts a verse from the Book of the Prophet Amos to the problem of pagan culture. “Then Amos answered Amaziah, ’I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees” (Amos 7:14). The Septuagint Greek translation of this prophetic book renders the last expression more concretely as follows: “I was a herdsman who cuts sycamore fruits.” This translation is based on the fact that the fruits of the sycamore tree must be cut before they are harvested, so that they mature after a few days. In his commentary on Isaiah 9:10, Basil presupposes familiarity with this practice when he writes: “The sycamore is a tree that bears very plentiful fruit. But it is tasteless, unless one carefully slits it and allows its sap to run out, whereby it becomes flavourful. That is why, we believe, the sycamore is a symbol of the pagan world: it offers a surplus, yet at the same time it is insipid. This comes from living according to pagan customs. When one manages to slit them by means of the Logos, it [the pagan world] is transformed, becomes tasty and useful.” Applying this reasoning to the contemporary scene, Joseph Ratzinger commented: “The Logos itself must slit our cultures and their fruit, so that what is unusable is purified and becomes not only usable but good. … Only the Logos himself can guide our cultures to their true purity and maturity, but the Logos makes us his servants, the ‘dresser of sycamore trees’.”³

This passage symbolizes in a way the role of the Gospel in the forum of culture and philosophical thought. The Gospel is not only focused on the individual; it also irradiates culture by assisting the growth and development of the person, his way of thinking, his productiveness for God and the world. The Gospel is a “slit” or a “cut”, a purification that brings about maturation and healing. Obviously this “cut” is not a momentary matter but a patient encounter between the Logos and the culture.

Today, after such productive encounters as that of ancient Greece and the Gospel, philosophy’s thirst has not been quenched. Philosophy, even without revelation, can achieve transcendence and arrive at God as the Creator and final cause. But the rejection of God once again confines philosophy to questions about matter alone. Jesus Christ, the perfect man, comes to magnify all research into human nature. Why should a thinker want at any cost to commit himself to a sort of regression and to reject a discovery of man? Contemporary philosophy is interested in him in a very superficial way. This new wisdom ultimately touches only on phenomena external to man. Often it is more about sociology than about philosophy! The time has come to restore certain human sciences to their place, has it not?