…who might consider himself a spiritual rationalist if had those words in his vocabulary, was explaining to me that reason trumps faith in all matters, faith is just a feeling, and by the way, you’re a fool to believe all the stuff those icky, old, and oppressive father-figures in the Catholic Church have been churning out all these centuries. What do I? Gave him the link to Fides et Ratio. “It’s long but it’s good for your soul,” I said.
The fundamentalists and evangelicals have turned faith into a feeling as though was some kind of drug or anti-drug that buys you eternal fire insurance – bliss in this life and assurance of bliss in the next. That’s not faith. Faith is an intellectual assent to the teachings of the Church. We believe these teachings because God has revealed them, so they are even more believable than something that can be empirically tested or observed. But are there degrees of truth? Is the Incarnation more true than one plus one is two? Do these truths have no degrees of veracity but rather different metaphysical import? Or do I sound like I’ve been educated beyond my intellect? I shall discuss all this with my pagan friend when he finishes reading Fides et Ratio.
-Some- evangelicals, of the pietist tradition. The usual position is that faith is belief in, trust in, and keeping faith. The Bible is the inerrant, verbally, plenarally inspired communication from God, and the highest source of authority available (God Himself is of course, higher, but how are you going to test claims of new revelation?) Logic, antithesis, the correspondance theory of knowledge are indeed quite valid and useful, but even that faculty is damaged by the Fall, it is not pristine. Human reason – unaided and alone – cannot discover all truth.
all truths are equal…but some truths are more equal than others…to wit…the Incarnation. That one doctrine alone sends the Muslims into a jihad frenzy!
So is “Fides et Fatio” some kind of Freudian slip?
Fides et Fatio? That is much funnier than I could have come up with on my own. It’s just a typo, Gordon. A very regrettable typo.