Aklan’s beloved bishop, Gabriel V. Reyes, upon informing him last December 31 that I have not yet read a copy of Pope John Paul II papal encyclical titled ‘Fides et Ratio’ as what I had read was only a summarizes article in the November 1998 issue of The Vatican and which encyclical may found print in the December 1998 issue of the said magazine, gave me a copy of it on January 4, 1999.
Pope John II’s encyclical on faith and reason stresses that in both East and West, we may trace a journey which had led humanity down the centuries to meet and engage truth more and more deeply. It is a journey which has unfolded; as it must; with the horizon of personal self-consciousness: the more human beings know reality and the world, the more they know themselves in their uniqueness, with the question of meaning of things and their existence becoming more pressing, the Pope says. That is why all that is the object of our knowledge becomes party of our life. The admonition Know Yourself was carved in the temple portal at Delphi, as testimony to a basic truth by those who seek to set themselves apart from the rest of creation as human beings that is as those who know themselves the Pope emphasizes. The Pope observes a cursory glance at ancient history which shows clearly how in different parts of the world, within their different cultures, there arise at the same time the fundamental questions which pervade human life: Who am I? Where have I come from and where I am going? Why is there evil? What is there after life? Pope John Paul II asserts that these are the questions which we find in the sacred writings of Israel, as also in the Veda and the Avesta; we find them in the writings of Confucius and Lao-Tzu, and in the preaching of Tirthankara and Buddha; they appear in the poetry of Homer, as they do in the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle. They are the questions which have their common source in the quest for meaning which has always compelled the human heart. In fact, the answer to these questions decides the direction which people seek to give their lives.
The Pope affirms the importance of philosophy to be used by men and women who have at their disposal an array of resources for generating knowledge of truth so that their lives may be ever more human. He says that philosophy’s powerful influence on the formation and development of the cultures of the West should not obscure the influence it has also had upon the ways of understanding existence found in the East. Every people has its own native and seminal wisdom which, as a true cultural treasure, tends to find voice and develop in forms which are genuinely philosophical. One example of this is the basic form of philosophical knowledge which is evident to this day in the postulates which inspire national and international legal systems in regulating the life of society.
The Pope proclaims that certain fundamental moral norms are shared by all – an indication that, beyond different schools of thought, there exists a body of knowledge which may be judged a kind of spiritual heritage of humanity.
Pope John Paul II laments that the search for ultimate truth seems often to be neglected when he rightly observes, thus: “Modern philosophy clearly has the great merit of focusing attention upon man. From this starting – point, human reason with its many questions has developed further its yearning to know more and to know it ever more deeply. Complex systems of thought had thus been built, yielding results in the different fields of knowledge and fostering the development of culture and history. Anthropology, logic, the natural sciences, history, linguistics and so forth; the whole universe of knowledge has been involved in one way or another. Yet the positive results achieved must not obscure the fact that reason, in its one-sided concern to investigate human subjectivity, seems to have forgotten that men and women are always called to direct their steps towards a truth which transcends them. Sundered from that truth, individuals are at the mercy of caprice, and their state as person ends up being judged by pragmatic criteria based upon experimental data, in the mistaken belief that technology must dominate all. It has happened therefore that reason, rather than voicing the human orientation towards truth has wilted under the weight of so much knowledge and little by little has lost the capacity to lift its gaze to the heights, not daring to rise to the truth of being abandoning the investigation of being, modern philosophical research has concentrated instead upon human knowing. Rather than make use of the human capacity to know the truth, modern philosophy has preferred to accentuate the ways in which this capacity is limited and conditioned. The Pope hastens to add succinctly, thus: “This has given rise to different forms of agnosticism and relativism which have led philosophical research to lose its way in the shifting sands of widespread skepticism. Recent times have seen the rise to prominence of various doctrines which tend to devalue even the truths which had been judged certain. A legitimate plurality of positions has yielded to an undifferentiated pluralism, based upon the assumption that all positions are equally valid, which is today’s most widespread symptoms of lack of confidence in truth. Even certain conceptions of life coming from the East betray this lack of confidence, denying truth its exclusive character and assuming that truth reveals itself equally in different doctrines even if they contradict one another. On this understanding, everything is reduced to opinion; and there a sense of being adrift. While, on the one hand, philosophical thinking has succeeded in coming closer to the reality of human life and its forms of expression, it has also tended to pursue issues existential, hermeneutical or linguistic which ignore the radical question of the truth about personal existence, about being and about God. Hence, we see among the men and women of our time, and not just in some philosophers, attitudes of widespread distrust the human being’s great capacity for knowledge. With a false modesty, people rest content with partial and provisional truths, no longer seeking to ask radical questions about the meaning and ultimate foundation of human, personal and social existence. In short, the hope that philosophy might be able to provide definitive answers to these questions has dwindled. The Pope addresses his Brother Bishops with whom he shares the mission of proclaiming the truth openly, as also theologians and philosophers whose duty it is to explore the different aspects of truth, and all those who are searching and in so doing, to offer some reflections on the path which leads to true wisdom so that those who love truth may take the sure path leading to it and so find rest from their labors and joy for their spirit. He reveals that he was impelled to undertake the task of issuing the encyclical because of the Second Vatican counsel’s insistence that Bishops are witnesses of divine and catholic truth. Further, that Bishops bear witness to the truth and is a task entrusted to Bishops which cannot be renounced without failing in the ministry they have received. In reaffirming the truth of faith, Bishops can both restore their contemporaries a genuine trust in their capacity to know and challenge philosophy to recover and develop its own full dignity. Pope John Paul II cites a further reason why he writes his reflections. He said that in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, he drew attention to certain fundamental truths of Catholic doctrine which, in the present circumstances, risk being distorted or denied. In the present encyclical, he wishes to pursue the reflection by concentrating on theme of truth itself and on its foundation in relation to faith. “For it is undeniable that this time of rapid and complex change can leave especially the younger generation, to whom the future belongs and on whom it depends, with a sense that they have no valid points of reference. The need for a foundation for personal and communal life becomes all the more pressing at a time when we are faced with the patent inadequacy of perspectives in which the ephemeral is affirmed as a value and the possibility of discovering the real meaning of life is cast into doubt. This is why many people stumble through life to the very edge of the abyss without knowing where they are going. At times, this happens because those whose vocation is to give cultural expression to their thinking not longer look for truth, preferring quick success to the toil of patient enquiry into what makes life worth living. With its enduring appeal to the search for truth, philosophy has the great responsibility of forming thought and culture; and now it must strive resolutely to recover its original vocation. This is why I have felt both the need and the duty to address this them so that, on the threshold of the third millennium of the Christian era, humanity may come to a clearer sense of the great resources with which it has been endowed and may commit itself with the renewed courage to implement the plan of salvation of which its history is part … Help fight drug abuse!
Pope John II’s encyclical on faith and reason stresses that in both East and West, we may trace a journey which had led humanity down the centuries to meet and engage truth more and more deeply. It is a journey which has unfolded; as it must; with the horizon of personal self-consciousness: the more human beings know reality and the world, the more they know themselves in their uniqueness, with the question of meaning of things and their existence becoming more pressing, the Pope says. That is why all that is the object of our knowledge becomes party of our life. The admonition Know Yourself was carved in the temple portal at Delphi, as testimony to a basic truth by those who seek to set themselves apart from the rest of creation as human beings that is as those who know themselves the Pope emphasizes. The Pope observes a cursory glance at ancient history which shows clearly how in different parts of the world, within their different cultures, there arise at the same time the fundamental questions which pervade human life: Who am I? Where have I come from and where I am going? Why is there evil? What is there after life? Pope John Paul II asserts that these are the questions which we find in the sacred writings of Israel, as also in the Veda and the Avesta; we find them in the writings of Confucius and Lao-Tzu, and in the preaching of Tirthankara and Buddha; they appear in the poetry of Homer, as they do in the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle. They are the questions which have their common source in the quest for meaning which has always compelled the human heart. In fact, the answer to these questions decides the direction which people seek to give their lives.
The Pope affirms the importance of philosophy to be used by men and women who have at their disposal an array of resources for generating knowledge of truth so that their lives may be ever more human. He says that philosophy’s powerful influence on the formation and development of the cultures of the West should not obscure the influence it has also had upon the ways of understanding existence found in the East. Every people has its own native and seminal wisdom which, as a true cultural treasure, tends to find voice and develop in forms which are genuinely philosophical. One example of this is the basic form of philosophical knowledge which is evident to this day in the postulates which inspire national and international legal systems in regulating the life of society.
The Pope proclaims that certain fundamental moral norms are shared by all – an indication that, beyond different schools of thought, there exists a body of knowledge which may be judged a kind of spiritual heritage of humanity.
Pope John Paul II laments that the search for ultimate truth seems often to be neglected when he rightly observes, thus: “Modern philosophy clearly has the great merit of focusing attention upon man. From this starting – point, human reason with its many questions has developed further its yearning to know more and to know it ever more deeply. Complex systems of thought had thus been built, yielding results in the different fields of knowledge and fostering the development of culture and history. Anthropology, logic, the natural sciences, history, linguistics and so forth; the whole universe of knowledge has been involved in one way or another. Yet the positive results achieved must not obscure the fact that reason, in its one-sided concern to investigate human subjectivity, seems to have forgotten that men and women are always called to direct their steps towards a truth which transcends them. Sundered from that truth, individuals are at the mercy of caprice, and their state as person ends up being judged by pragmatic criteria based upon experimental data, in the mistaken belief that technology must dominate all. It has happened therefore that reason, rather than voicing the human orientation towards truth has wilted under the weight of so much knowledge and little by little has lost the capacity to lift its gaze to the heights, not daring to rise to the truth of being abandoning the investigation of being, modern philosophical research has concentrated instead upon human knowing. Rather than make use of the human capacity to know the truth, modern philosophy has preferred to accentuate the ways in which this capacity is limited and conditioned. The Pope hastens to add succinctly, thus: “This has given rise to different forms of agnosticism and relativism which have led philosophical research to lose its way in the shifting sands of widespread skepticism. Recent times have seen the rise to prominence of various doctrines which tend to devalue even the truths which had been judged certain. A legitimate plurality of positions has yielded to an undifferentiated pluralism, based upon the assumption that all positions are equally valid, which is today’s most widespread symptoms of lack of confidence in truth. Even certain conceptions of life coming from the East betray this lack of confidence, denying truth its exclusive character and assuming that truth reveals itself equally in different doctrines even if they contradict one another. On this understanding, everything is reduced to opinion; and there a sense of being adrift. While, on the one hand, philosophical thinking has succeeded in coming closer to the reality of human life and its forms of expression, it has also tended to pursue issues existential, hermeneutical or linguistic which ignore the radical question of the truth about personal existence, about being and about God. Hence, we see among the men and women of our time, and not just in some philosophers, attitudes of widespread distrust the human being’s great capacity for knowledge. With a false modesty, people rest content with partial and provisional truths, no longer seeking to ask radical questions about the meaning and ultimate foundation of human, personal and social existence. In short, the hope that philosophy might be able to provide definitive answers to these questions has dwindled. The Pope addresses his Brother Bishops with whom he shares the mission of proclaiming the truth openly, as also theologians and philosophers whose duty it is to explore the different aspects of truth, and all those who are searching and in so doing, to offer some reflections on the path which leads to true wisdom so that those who love truth may take the sure path leading to it and so find rest from their labors and joy for their spirit. He reveals that he was impelled to undertake the task of issuing the encyclical because of the Second Vatican counsel’s insistence that Bishops are witnesses of divine and catholic truth. Further, that Bishops bear witness to the truth and is a task entrusted to Bishops which cannot be renounced without failing in the ministry they have received. In reaffirming the truth of faith, Bishops can both restore their contemporaries a genuine trust in their capacity to know and challenge philosophy to recover and develop its own full dignity. Pope John Paul II cites a further reason why he writes his reflections. He said that in his Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, he drew attention to certain fundamental truths of Catholic doctrine which, in the present circumstances, risk being distorted or denied. In the present encyclical, he wishes to pursue the reflection by concentrating on theme of truth itself and on its foundation in relation to faith. “For it is undeniable that this time of rapid and complex change can leave especially the younger generation, to whom the future belongs and on whom it depends, with a sense that they have no valid points of reference. The need for a foundation for personal and communal life becomes all the more pressing at a time when we are faced with the patent inadequacy of perspectives in which the ephemeral is affirmed as a value and the possibility of discovering the real meaning of life is cast into doubt. This is why many people stumble through life to the very edge of the abyss without knowing where they are going. At times, this happens because those whose vocation is to give cultural expression to their thinking not longer look for truth, preferring quick success to the toil of patient enquiry into what makes life worth living. With its enduring appeal to the search for truth, philosophy has the great responsibility of forming thought and culture; and now it must strive resolutely to recover its original vocation. This is why I have felt both the need and the duty to address this them so that, on the threshold of the third millennium of the Christian era, humanity may come to a clearer sense of the great resources with which it has been endowed and may commit itself with the renewed courage to implement the plan of salvation of which its history is part … Help fight drug abuse!
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