The New Zealand Tablet WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1925. REASON AND FAITH

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 7, 25 February 1925, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1925. REASON AND FAITH

W 3 are familiar with the sneers about ‘priest-ridden Catholics,” enslaved by infallible dogmas, and afraid to use their reason. They arise all round us, coming from people who know very little about reason, less about religion, and nothing at all about Catholic belief, A Rationalist professes to be a man who will only believe what he.understands, as for example Conan Doyle, who is deceived by his dishonest mediums into believing things which reason rejects. Very often a Rationalist is thus found to be a. man who talks much about the use of reason but never applies it. The true Rationalist is the Christian whose Faith is based on reason from foundation to roof and who believes because reason compels him to do so. The higher his intelligence and the better use he makes of it the stronger and simpler will be his faith, as we may witness in the case of Pasteur, of Mendel, of Windle, and so many other prominent scholars and scientists.. However, let us see from authentic documents what view the Church takes of the relations between reason and Faith. * If we turn to the Bible we shall find that if is very far from asking us to suppress our reason. Ecclesiasticus warns us: “He that is hasty to give credit, is light of heart.” St. John has a word which many of our Rationalists would do well to ponder; “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” While St. Paul’s advice to the Thessalonians is: “Despise not prophecies. But prove all things: hold fast that which is good.” And St, Peter says we ought to be ready “to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope that is in you.” If we want strictly accurate terms, defining the question we must turn to the Vatican Council which says: “The Catholic Church has always held and holds by perpetual consent that there exist two orders of knowledge, distinct in their principle and in their object. In their principle, because in one. we know by natural reason, , and f in the other by divine faith. In

their object, because outside of things to which natural reason may attain, there are mysteries hidden in God, which are proposed to our belief, and which could not be known to us if they were not divinely' revealed.” having thus clearly distinguished the two’ orders of knowledge, it goes on: “Though faith is above reason there can never be any disagreement between faith and reason, for the same God, Who revealed the mysteries and communicated faith, has given to the human mind the light of reason, and God cannot contradict Himself, nor can truth ever deny truth.” The Council ’then defines the relations between faith and reason : “Not only can faith and reason never disagree, but they afford each other a mutual assistance; right reason demonstrates the foundations of faith, develops the knowledge of divine things; faith on her part delivers and guards reason from error, and enriches it with divers kinds of knowledge. Hence the Church, so far from being opposed to the study of arts and human sciences, commends such study and furthers it in a thousand ways.” We could illustrate this teaching by quoting numerous theologians of all ages, but we must confine ourselves to a few authoritative witnesses who speak for all. Aquinas, greatest of all, says: “Reason would not believe if it did not see that it must believe.” St. Augustine writes: “God forbid that our submission to all that is of faith should prevent us from searching and asking the reason of what we believe, since we could not even believe if we were not capable of reasoning.” “Christian faith,” says Bourdaloue, “is not any acquiescence to believe or any submission of the mind whatever: it is a rational assent, otherwise it were no longer a virtue.” The best proof of this is the fact that the diligent use of reason by men of high intelligence has led them to believe in the Catholic Church. “My faith,” said Pasteur, “is as that of the Breton peasant, and if I knew more it would be as that of the Breton peasant woman.” So true is it that while a little knowledge leads men from God, a great deal will bring them to Him. This saying of Bacon’s ought to he ever before the eyes of those who sneer at religion before they understand what it really is. « From the doctrine of the Church which we have just outlined, it follows that reason Plays an important part in relation to faith. It can establish the grounds for faith, demonstrate the reasonableness of belief, supply arguments in proof of doctrines, show the. connection and harmony between truth and tiuth, building up the science of theology in which only those who are crassly ignorant can pretend that reason does not play a great and noble part. Reason is also called on to defend revealed truth against the attacks of the enemies of Christ; for if the Divine Mysteries are above our comprehension, yet they are true and no argument can be brought against them by reason that reason, cannot solve. Hence, does Pope Leo XIII describe philosophy as “a noble and honorable title as the bulwark of faith and the firm rampart of religion.” Hence it is a mere song of ignorance for men to say that the Church does not recognise the rights of human reason. The whole history of the Christian era proves the contrary, and very

often it is the so-called champions of reason, the up-to-date Rationalists, who make the greatest despots and the most unreasonable and illogical opponents. It must be remembered, however, that reason does not directly produce divine faith, which is a supernatural gift by which - we firmly believe the truths that God has revealed, because He has revealed them. Reason is a natural thing, and the natural cannot produce the supernatural. Reason will supply the motives of faith, but the gift of grace which raises human belief to the supernatural order must come from God, Who will not deny it to the sincere searcher after truth who does what is in him to follow God’s will.