Editoriale – 47

Antonio Sabetta, Faith and Reason: Historical analysis and perspectives for the present, The Davies Group, Aurora (CO) 2012, 232pp

"The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur – this is the program with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time" -Benedict XVI

This study begins with a detailed historical reconstruction of the relationship between faith and reason from the particular point of view of the Catholic Magisterium. It then considers how Catholic thought has dealt with this question. In reconsidering the relationship between faith and reason, it suggests a key understanding based on the concept of truth as "meaning"; in this way reason is conceived as a "sought meaning" and faith as a "given meaning." This idea, united with the necessary presupposition of Truth as a horizon of both Reason and Faith, suggests new ways for a fruitful dialogue between faith and reason in the postmodern age – an age in which a reductive concept of reason and an inadequate idea of faith seem to prevail.

Contents

Introduction Faith and reason in the Church Magisterium from Pius IX to Fides et ratio

Chapter One: Pius IX (1846-1878) between the Qui pluribus and the Syllabus

Chapter Two: Faith and reason in the First Vatican Council

2.1 From the Syllabus to the First Vatican Council

2.2 The constitution Dei Filius

Chapter Three: Leo XIII and the Aeterni Patris

Chapter Four: Faith and reason in the light of Fides et ratio

4.1 Fides et ratio after Dei Filius and Aeterni Patris: faith and reason

4.2 Truth, foundation and metaphysics

4.3 The historical reconstruction of Chapter 4

4.3.1 The patristic and medieval period

4.3.2 Faith and reason in the modern age

Chapter Five: For a comprehensive review 5.1.Difference and reciprocity of faith and reason

5.1.1 Stressing difference: S. Kierkegaard

5.1.2 Stressing reciprocity and circularity

5.2 The crisis of reason and of the relationship reason-truth

5.3 Post-modernity as the name of contemporary times. A brief analysis

5.4 Going beyond the reductionism of post-modern reason

5.5 Faith and reason: a necessary encounter, if both are "loyal" to themselves

Notes

Bibliography

Author

Antonio Sabetta, PhD in Theology and Philosophy, is professor of Fundamental Theology at the Lateran University. His studies are about modern philosophical thought at the boundaries between faith and reason, theology and philosophy. He is the author of, among other books, Theology of Modernity (2001), The existence of God between not evidence and probability (2010) Vico. Metaphysic and History (2011)