Faith, Reason, and Culture Pope Benedict XVI
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aith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God—an encounter opening up new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason. But it is also a purifying force for reason itself. . . . Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly (“Deus Caritas Est,” 28). The conviction that there is a Creator God is what gave rise to the idea of human rights, the idea of the equality of all people before the law, the recognition of the inviolability of human dignity in every single person, and the awareness of people’s responsibility for their actions (“Address to Bundestag,” Berlin). The central question at issue, then, is this: Where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by nonbelievers—still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion— but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles. . . . This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world of faith—the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief—need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization. Religion, in other words, is not a 14
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problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation (“Address at Westminster Hall,” London). Development must include not just material growth but also spiritual growth, since the human person is a “unity of body and soul,” born of God’s creative love and destined for eternal life…. There cannot be holistic development and universal common good unless people’s spiritual and moral welfare is taken into account, considered in their totality as
body and soul (Encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate,” 76). The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa. . . . The Church has a responsibility toward creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere. In so doing, she must defend not only earth, water, and air as gifts of creation that belong to everyone. She must above all protect mankind from self-destruction. There |
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is need for what might be called a human ecology, correctly understood. The deterioration of nature is in fact closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: when “human ecology” is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits. Just as human virtues are interrelated, such that the weakening of one places others at risk, so the ecological system is based on respect for a plan that affects both the health of society and its good relationship with nature (Encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate,” 51). It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God governs the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love—a Person. And if we know this Person and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free. In ancient times, honest inquiring minds were aware of this. Heaven is not empty. Life is not a simple product of laws and the randomness of matter, but within everything and at the same time above everything, there is a personal will, there is a Spirit who in Jesus has revealed himself as Love (Encyclical, “Spe Salvi,” 5). ■ Quotations complied by Nathaniel Peters and Robert Imbelli. photo credit:
Page 14: Pope Benedict XVI greets
a child during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 18, 2012. © Alessandra Tarantino/ /AP/Corbis