can philosophy help me to understand my faith? :) :)
There are many branches of philosophy that will not help you understand your faith, and they may even be bad for your faith.
I studied a few philosophy classes at a public university and they were atheistic from the get go.
The entry point years ago when I studied first semester philosophy was with Rene Descartes. He was a Catholic, but he is selectively quoted so that you wouldn’t know that he was a Catholic.
His famous and often-quoted remark is, I think therefore I am (cogito ergo sum). It is an extremely skeptical viewpoint, from which it is hard to prove anything – life is just an illusion – we have “sense data” but we really can’t prove anything about those types of things.
Christian philosophy assumes that there is a Creator (God) from whom we have dignity and rights. Karl Marx, an atheist, rejects all that and says we’re just materialistic and only as useful as we may be to the collective mass of society – that is, we don’t have any inherent worth or dignity.
Skeptics like law professor (O.J. Simpson’s first trial) Alan Dershowitz (ethnically Jewish) doesn’t believe in the philosophy in the Declaration of Independence, namely, that we are endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, etc). He says history shows that these rights are “alienated” from people all the time. He doesn’t believe in absolute right or wrong, but he judges things on a case-by-case basis.
We’re all philosophers, although we don’t realize it or often say so.
To make a long story short, if you study the faith itself, you will also learn the philosophy that is embedded in it. Faith is always something that cannot be proven, otherwise it wouldn’t be faith (see the Bible, Romans, I think on this point).
My experience says, don’t waste money on a class on philosophy. Study something useful.
The bold is mine.
I’m going to disagree with the parting point. The Church required all of us who were going to get advanced degrees in theology to get a degree in philosophy first. This is still the case in most schools of theology around the world.
Philosophy is quite useful in understanding advanced theology. I would never have gotten through a doctoral level in Mystical Theology without metaphysics and logic. Mysticism would have made no sense. Even the atheistic philosophers were very useful, because you could see their dead ends, which forced you to ask the question “If this is the end of it all, then how is this possible?” That reinforces your faith.
If you want to understand your faith at a higher academic level, philosophy is very useful if you learn to use the tools of the philosopher. You do not have to agree with the philosopher, but his tools are useful. The study of another language is also very useful. Language forces you to think outside of yourself. Understanding our faith at a higher academic level requires that we stand outside and look at it very objectively.
If you want to understand your faith in a manner that will enhance your life of prayer and your intimacy with the Lord, you do not need higher studies in philosophy. You need good spiritual direction and good spiritual reading to start.
It all depends on what you’re looking for.
Hope this helps.
JR
That Philosphy article is awesome
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. It’s been so many years since I read this statement. I believe that it was Ambrose who said, “Theology is faith seeking understanding.”
I guess my only concern with this statement is how do we justify that the Church requires a four-year philosophy degree before she will accept any candidate to study for an ecclesial degree in theology? The Church has been very clear that you cannot do Catholic theology without philosophy and it’s not just a few classes. She demands a degree in philosophy prior to a degree in theology. I had to do four years of one, before the other.
Relax! Doesn’t faith come first in each case? Faith is the foundation. It is the beginning and the end. Philosophy is an enrichment, but it is greatly overshadowed by faith.I guess my only concern with this statement is how do we justify that the Church requires a four-year philosophy degree before she will accept any candidate to study for an ecclesial degree in theology? The Church has been very clear that you cannot do Catholic theology without philosophy and it’s not just a few classes. She demands a degree in philosophy prior to a degree in theology. I had to do four years of one, before the other.
My only answer to this is that the Holy Spirit does speak to us, but he speaks to us through reason, thus the need for good philosophy before you can have good theology.
JR
Thanks for your response. My concern is that we can minimize the value of philosophy in faith so much that the average person will believe that it does not have a place and that is has not made a contribution to our understanding of the faith.
I tend to think that faith leads to, and produces philosophy, but philosophy, of itself, does not necessarily produce faith. Without the foundation of faith, the various philosophies are spirits that can lead away from faith. You are certainly correct to view philosphical development as a matter of education. Nevertheless, God’s grace brings faith. All else follows and rightly should be subservient to faith. Or, am I off base here?Thanks for your response. My concern is that we can minimize the value of philosophy in faith so much that the average person will believe that it does not have a place and that is has not made a contribution to our understanding of the faith.
There are too many people on CAF who think they can do theology, because they read and memorize some documents or books. They often make statements that lack proper nunacing, because the person does not understand the philsophy that went behind it.
JR
I’ll begin at the end of your post. Faith is a gift. Therefore, it is grounded in God’s grace.
Does not a philosophy, however elemental, naturally follow faith? Vestigial it may be - incomplete it may be, yet it is one founded on the truth. Development is certainly warranted, especially as it leads to a deepening of faith.
The bold is mine. But what about the work of men like Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus. They were very Aristotelian. Some more than others.
I am not discounting in the slightest their immense contributions to the faith. The term Saint denotes that! They built upon and greatly accentuated the faith foundation already laid. That’s all. Was trying to address the OP’s concern. It sounded almost like further catechesis might be a good beginning for him. Philosophy will build on that, but it must have a foundation of rock.The bold is mine. But what about the work of men like Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus. They were very Aristotelian. Some more than others.
JR