This may be a hair off topic, but is related to some recent posts in this thread. It seems like Catholics place a great value on applying reason to faith, but then also assert that the Bible is not to be interpreted by said reason, but, rather, established Church interpretations are to accepted seemingly blindly. These two charges seem to be mutually exclusive. Can anyone clarify?
A little uncharitable, and a little muddled in interpretation.
The Catholic viewpoint seems to uphold the idea that their faith can be rationally expressed and is commensurate with the dictates of a person’s reasoning abilities…to a point.
There are however, acknowledged sets of “mysteries” within their religion which essentially lay outside the realm of human understanding. Their conception of the Trinity for instance is a strong example of this.
However, there is a “positive” sense about the human mind’s ability to rationally comprehend the commandments of their deity and extend the principles (thou shall not kill) on to issues that did not exist at the time that those statements were made (medically assisted suicide, abortion et al.)
I suppose the viewpoint can be encapsulated in Anselm of Canterbury’s statement about “Faith seeking Understanding.”
Reason isn’t the starting point, but rather the acceptance of certain revealed truths that are essentially non-negotiable. The “methodology” if you want to call it that is a bit like deriving truths from a set of concrete first principles.
How do we know those first principles are “concrete?” Well, that’s what all the fuss is about when you really think about it.
The specific Catholic “hobby horses” if you will, generally point in directions related to tradition and authority and historic foundation. Ergo, those who feel engaged to take an eristic approach toward interfaith affairs (ie: debate), generally launch into criticisms based on those 3 pillars if you will.
There is of course debate within the Christian tradition about what constitutes correct tradition, the use/misuse of authority, and the historic accuracy of the development of their Church(es). At the very least though, there exist some commonalities about what the believe in, although the role of Reason tends to fluctuate depending on which sect that one speaks of.
npatrol: