In the comment section below, can you identify and describe links between faith, reason, and knowledge. What kind of concrete examples does the author give? Can you provide any of your own examples from your own life?
Another article that was handed out at our first RCIA Meeting was Justified Reason by Adam D. Hincks and published in the Jesuit Magazine called AMERICA. In it, the Hincks describes a female friend who was getting ready to enter the catechumenate in order to become catholic. At the time she was getting ready to "check her head in at the door" in order to prepare herself to make room for belief. However, she eventually came to realize that Catholic belief is not set up in opposition to reason and that both reason and faith, believing and knowing are employed. The author goes on to talk about how faith and knowledge are related.
In the comment section below, can you identify and describe links between faith, reason, and knowledge. What kind of concrete examples does the author give? Can you provide any of your own examples from your own life?
8 Comments
Karen M.
10/15/2014 09:21:24 am
In “Justified Reason” we see that being a person of faith does not require one to abandon reason. In our society it is quite common for knowledge to be presented and perceived as factual and scientific, while faith is seen as strictly thoughts or emotions and not based on facts.
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Jay
10/17/2014 01:31:17 am
You are certainly on the right track here. What's amazing to me (and perhaps to you as well) about the current Synod is that it resembles the early Church in which the first Apostles and believers were struggling to understand "What did Jesus mean?" "What are we supposed to do now?" in light of the changes that his death and Resurrection had on their immediate lives and on the path of humanity.
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EM
10/16/2014 10:51:51 am
Faith draws us beyond the sort of believing and knowing. Therefore, I believe once you have belief and knowledge or what the author compares to recognizing values in our knowledge that prompt a decision to act, we can then have faith.
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Jay
10/17/2014 01:35:00 am
I'm glad that you see how faith/trust/belief is operative in normal everyday life and also embedded in our quest for knowledge. In philosophical terms, we humans are capable of transcendance. We are not just the sum of our parts nor is our reality simply objects and matter, but things of meaning and relationships of significance. This requires a much more complex field of reason and experience and while that may not make everyone come to full faith, it is always potentially there.
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J
10/16/2014 11:44:01 am
I believe that all knowledge requires faith to learn. You must believe or have faith in the information you are learning for it to take effect. Reason is the basis for a decision or a cause for why you believe something. To have faith and gather knowledge you must have reasoning.
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Jay
10/17/2014 01:37:02 am
What you write is very important. St. Peter writing to the early church asked them to always be prepared to give reason for the hope that is within you. He was basically saying that there is something reasonable and attractive about the Good News/the Gospel story. And if we can more comfortably remember that and speak about this experience it will more authentically be received and it will also more deeply form and conform ourselves to what we proclaim.
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Minh
10/18/2014 04:49:31 am
I believe one must have faith in order to learn the teachings of God. As humans we have the capacity to process complex ideas and have the ability to use critical reasoning. As children, we may simply believe things we are told based on faith from our parents (e.g. Santa Claus, tooth fairy, etc). However, as we grow, our horizon broadens and we need faith to guide us in our understanding of the world
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Jay
10/18/2014 11:19:43 am
Your notion of "horizon" is noteworthy. Karl Rahner, a very influential theologian speaks of God as the horizon upon which humanity is fore grounded.
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