Wiara i rozum w poznaniu Boga u kardynała Newmana

Abstract

The Catholic Church cherishes in a very deep way the revelation and the faith that flows from it but at the same time it defends the rights of reason by teaching that faith and reason are not against each other; they are rather mutually complementary and should remain in harmony. This opinion of the Church is clearly described already in the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and is officially exposed by the First Vatican Council in the Dogmatic Constitution De fide cattolica and also in the Pius X’s encyclical Pascendi as well as – lately – in John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et ratio. In the number of philosophers that represent this line of thought we must count also Cardinal Newman notwithstanding some earlier suspicions concerning his views allegedly tending toward fideism or modernism. The English Cardinal saw the complexity of human nature and demanded more trust toward God while reminding that the ways of God’s revelation are many. According to the Cardinal faith and reason, when properly understood, not only will not stand in opposition against each other (as there is one God only; the same God that reveals His mysteries to man and gives him the light of faith – is also the Creator of human mind), but will search for each other’s help (fides quaerens intellectum et intellectus quaerens fideni) and will cooperate along their way to God.