The doctrine of St. Thomas’s on “praeambula fidei”and its relationship with the natural inclination of man to know the truth about God.
Author:
Antonio Livi
Location:
Espíritu: ISSN 0014-0716, Year 60, Issue 141 (jan-jun), 2011, pages 71-90
Language:
Spanish
Abstract:
The man, who posses a rational nature, is inclined by his nature to the knowledge of the truth about God. At the same time God, in His infinite mercy, reveals the truth necessary for eternal salvation to man. This supernatural truth not only is not opposed to the natural truth, acquired by human effort, but perfects it, leading to the theological question about the relationship between reason and faith.This issue, discussed and reflected since the very origins of the Church, finds its definitive answer in Saint Thomas Aquinas’s philosophy, which has been adopted as magisterial teaching until today. The doctrine about “praeambula fidei” is an evidence that man is not required to renounce to rationality which is a characteristic of his nature, but on the contrary, thanks to the seeking of the truth he can come to believe in the su-pernatural truth, as it is rational.This pa-per aims to show how the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas’s has the necessary and sufficient theological reasons for exclusion, so as to exclude from Catholic orthodoxy not only fideism and rationalism, but also current postmetaphysical doctrines, such as the “postmetaphysical thinking” of Haber-mas’s, or weak thinking ” of Vattimo’s, or doctrines that oppose the thinking to belie-ving, or skeptical doctrines that advocate a total abandon of philosophy.
Key words:
praeambula fidei, reason and faith, truth, fideism, rationalism.
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