Fides et Ratio

"...The problem of exegesis is connected, as we have seen, with the problem of philosophy. The indigence of philosophy, the indigence to which paralyzed positivist reason has led itself, has turned into the indigence of our faith. The faith cannot be liberated if reason itself does not open up again. If the door to metaphysical cognition remains closed, if the limits of human knowledge set by Kant (cf. Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone) are impassable, faith is destined to atrophy: it simply lacks air to breathe...

"...Reason will not be saved without the faith, but the faith without reason will not be human..."

"If we consider the present cultural situation, about which I have tried to give some indications, frankly it must seem a miracle that there is still Christian faith despite everything, and not only in the surrogate forms of [the American Presbyterian John] Hick and [the former Catholic priest Paul] Knitter, and others, but the complete, serene faith of the New Testament and of the Church of all times.

"Why, in brief, does the faith still have a chance? I would say the following: because it is in harmony with what man is. Man is something more than what Kant and the various post-Kantian philosophers [the neo-Kantianism of Marburg] wanted to see and concede. Kant himself must have recognized this in some way with his postulates.

"In man there is an inextinguishable yearning for the infinite. None of the answers attempted are sufficient. Only the God who became finite in order to open our finiteness and lead us to the breadth of his infiniteness responds to the question of our being. For this reason, the Christian faith finds man today, too. Our task is to serve the faith with a humble spirit and the whole strength of our heart and understanding."

Relativism: The Central Problem for the Faith Today: Address to the Presidents of the Doctrinal Commissions of the Bishops' Conferences of Latin America. Guadalajara, Mexico, May 1996
Taken from: The Essential Pope Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches, Editors John F. Thornton, Susan B. Varenne, Harper Collins, New York, 2008, pp. 238-240.

N.B. Ratzinger's 1959 Inaugural Lecture as Professor of Theology University of Bonn: The God of Faith and the God of the Philosophers.

Kasper