is an encyclical promoted by Pope John Paul II on 14 September 1998. It was one of 14 encyclicals issued by John Paul II. The encyclical primarily addresses the relationship between faith and reason.
Cardinal Georges Cottier, who was secretary general of the International Theological Commission from 1989 to 2003,Biography of Cardinal Georges Marie Martin Cottier, O.P., Vatican Press Office, accessed 17 February 2013 says he was part of the drafting of the encyclical.In an interview in "30Days", 3-2004, accessed 17 February 2013, Cottier remarked: "Going back to the early years, the first "big" text I worked on was the social encyclical Centesimus annus. And then the Ut unum sint on ecumenicalism, the moral encyclical Veritatis splendor, and the Fides et ratio... also the Catechism of the Catholic Church".
Content
was the first encyclical since Pope Leo XIII's 1879 Aeterni Patris to address the relationship between faith and reason.
The encyclical posits that faith and reason are not only compatible but essential together. He starts with "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth;" Faith without reason, he argues, leads to superstition. Reason without faith, he argues, leads to nihilism and relativism. He writes:
Although reason creates a "systematic body of knowledge," the Pope avers, its completeness is illusory:
Without a grounding in spiritual truth, he continues, reason has:
On the roles of philosophy and speculative theology as manifested by Augustine:
On the wrong turns in modern philosophy and the duty of the magisterium:
In sum, the Pope "makes this strong and insistent appeal" that "faith and philosophy recover the profound unity which allows them to stand in harmony with their nature without compromising their mutual autonomy. The parrhesia of faith must be matched by the boldness of reason".
See also Apophatic theology § The via eminentiae Credo ut intelligam
References
External links Fides et Ratio full text of the Latin original from the Vatican website Fides et Ratio full text of the English translation from the Vatican website