Fr Joseph Pallattil
Our journey in the history of philosophy has reached in the medieval scholastic era, in which we are in the Christian scholasticism. Here, we find Anselm of Aosta, the greatest thinker of the eleventh century. He was a Benedictine monk, who was later named bishop of Canterbury. The Monologion, the Proslogion and the Cur Deus Homo are the three important works of Anselm.
Keeping these introductory notes on Anselm of Aosta let us move forward to his philosophical insights. Even though he was well-known for his arguments for proving the existence of God, we are discussing here his famous dictum, “credo ut intelligam,” which can be translated as “I believe in order to understand,” which he stated in relation with the philosophical problem of relation between faith and reason. This phrase signifies two things: first, the necessity of faith in the knowledge of religious and moral truths, hence ‘credo’ is important for the pursuit of truth; second, the necessity of using reason, so that the adhesion of faith may not be blind and simply passive, and hence the importance of the ‘intelligam.’ “What we believe through faith about divine nature and divine persons, including the incarnation, can be demonstrated with necessary reasons, without referring to the authority of the scriptures,” Anselm states. According to him religious and moral truths can only be learned through faith, however, once someone possesses these truths through faith, he has the duty to understand and demonstrate them.
Anselm’s philosophy regarding faith- reason relationship teaches us how much holistic our approach to the truth should be. In the search of truth two things we have to keep in mind: understand the truth and demonstrate truth. The truth which we came to know by faith should be examined by the power of our reason. This examination leads us to understand the revealed truth with clarity and to demonstrate it in a meaningful way. This inter-related, reciprocal, dialectical usage of faith and intelligence enable us not to be blind and passive believers, rather active, open minded, reasonable seekers of truth.
