Question 6.107

6.107 Clearly Benedict XVI dedicated his pontificate and a large part of his theological work to the dialogue between faith and reason. What is your view today of the importance of that decision?

In fact, Benedict XVI never tired of returning to this major theme, because it seemed to him essential that we be able to understand the sources of our belief. He thought that the true work of a theologian consists of entering into the Word of God so as to seek to grasp it rationally, to the extent possible, and to share it with the utmost clarity with the people of his time. And so the theologian must develop answers to the great questions of mankind. Baptized persons have the duty to believe not only with their heart but also with their intellect. Benedict XVI says that religion should not become self-enclosed, nor should it cut itself off from the help of reason. Likewise, it seemed to him very important not to fall into the trap of those who seek to dissociate reason and faith, following in the wake of Enlightenment philosophy; some people think that reason can only regress when it comes into contact with faith. On the contrary, faith and reason are like two lights that require each other.

Every believer holds in his heart a treasure, and he has the option of deepening his faith also through the intermediary of reason. This marvelous complementarity is a gift of God. Scientific rigor should not discourage Christians at all. For scientific research is always an advance in our understanding of revelation and of the world. The barriers that some have tried to set up between faith and reason are groundless because they are artificial: there can be no contradiction in God.

Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI treated this question in works that are exceptional in the history of the Church. How can we forget John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et ratio, published in September 1998? I never tire of quoting the first lines of this document: “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.”

Our world, which no longer wants to hear talk about God, even supposing that it no longer needs him, can find great riches in the dialogue between faith and reason. Men will then be able to understand that the finest human intellect is nothing without the light from heaven, of which the Father gives us a spark through faith.

Along these lines, it is still important to meditate on this passage from Fides et ratio: “In my Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, I drew attention to ‘certain fundamental truths of Catholic doctrine which, in the present circumstances, risk being distorted or denied’ (4). In the present Letter, I wish to pursue that reflection by concentrating on the theme of truth itself and on its foundation in relation to faith. For it is undeniable that this time of rapid and complex change can leave especially the younger generation, to whom the future belongs and on whom it depends, with a sense that they have no valid points of reference. The need for a foundation for personal and communal life becomes all the more pressing at a time when we are faced with the patent inadequacy of perspectives in which the ephemeral is affirmed as a value and the possibility of discovering the real meaning of life is cast into doubt. This is why many people stumble through life to the very edge of the abyss without knowing where they are going. At times, this happens because those whose vocation it is to give cultural expression to their thinking no longer look to truth, preferring quick success to the toil of patient enquiry into what makes life worth living. With its enduring appeal to the search for truth, philosophy has the great responsibility of forming thought and culture; and now it must strive resolutely to recover its original vocation. This is why I have felt both the need and the duty to address this theme so that, on the threshold of the third millennium of the Christian era, humanity may come to a clearer sense of the great resources with which it has been endowed and may commit itself with renewed courage to implement the plan of salvation of which its history is part” (FR 6).