Course Name
Catholic Intellectual Tradition
Course Number
CIT 4
Document Type
Essay
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
The question of are faith and reason compatible has been argued over extensively. Those who claim that the two are not compatible are often hung up on the things that we cannot understand, causing them to think faith is irrational. They say that faith and reason can never be used together because one will always push away the other. In this paper, by analyzing Augustine’s Confessions , Dante’s Divine Comedy , and Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles I will show that the exact opposite is actually the case. All three of these authors exemplify how it is nearly impossible to fully turn towards God without using reason in collaboration with faith. They also provide a simple and logical reason for why we cannot understand everything; they show that humans are not divine, so humans can’t fully understand divine concepts. Augustine, Dante, and Aquinas demonstrate how reason is essential in finding and turning to God, therefore they all represent the third claim of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition which states that faith and reason are compatible.
Recommended Citation
Cerniello, Justin, "Human Reason Allows Faith" (2017). Writing Across the Curriculum. 23.
https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/wac_prize/23
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
