St. Thomas Aquinas was the greatest medieval philosopher. He tried to show the harmony between faith and reason, and between Christianity and philosophy. Aquinas's views have been very influential, especially in Catholic thought.Faith and ReasonThis exercise deals with a short reading from Aquinas about the relationship between faith and reason. This reading is in our anthology (pages 67-71 of Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings (second edition), edited by Peterson, Hasker, Reichenbach, and Basinger).
These computerized exercise materials are copyrighted (c) 2002 by Harry J. Gensler; but they may be distributed freely.
Aquinas sees reason and faith as two ways of knowing. "Reason" covers what we can know by experience and logic alone. From reason, we can know that there is a God and that there is only one God; these truths about God are accessible to anyone by experience and logic alone, apart from any special revelation from God.Web resources"Faith" covers what we can know by God's special revelation to us (which comes through the Bible and Christian Tradition). By faith, we can know that God came into the world through Jesus Christ and that God is triune (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). These truths about God cannot be known by reason alone.
Faith builds on reason. Since faith and reason are both ways of arriving at truth -- and since all truths are harmonious with each other -- faith is consistent with reason. If we understand faith and reason correctly, there will be no conflict between what faith tells us and what reason tells us.
Click below to read Aquinas's writings:http://www.newadvent.org/summa
Click below to read an article about Aquinas:http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/14663b.htm
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