Thology quotation search

[vocatio]

I’m desperately trying to find a quote I remember from about 2 years ago. Someone well know I believe said something to this effect [mutilated my me for sure]:

“Thology doesn’t exist to prove the existence of God but to show that to believe is rational.”

Does anyone remember this and where I can find it? Who made it? I’m talking to a Cornell graduate about religious topics and this is haunting me.

 

[vocatio]

bump - patiently waiting.

 

[The_Fool]

Kant? Don’t worry, I’m looking, I’m looking…:compcoff:

 

[The_Fool]

“Thology doesn’t exist to prove the existence of God but to show that to believe is rational.”

Okay, I need some clarification as the quote is, at best, vague. What exactly does it mean?

• belief is irrational and theology is an attempt to show we’re not all irrational to outsiders.
• belief is irrational and theology is an attempt to show we’re not irrational to ourselves.
• belief is rational and theology is its marketing gimmick.
• this is a discussion of theology’s purpose rather than the rationality of belief

I think those are all the possibilities I can think of, but otherwise it’s vague enough that I have difficulty narrowing down the suspects. If you have an inkling about the background it would help too. For example, it’s a philosopher, or it’s a guy who is mouthing off.

 

[nkbeth]

Sorry I don’t have an ACTUAL answer…

“ThEology doesn’t exist to prove the existence of God but to show that to believe is rational.”

.

… but someone on another thread may have remembered a similar quote:

Jesus said himself that he did not come to change the law but to fulfill the law. **Theology does not exist to prove something is true but rather to show that it is valid to believe…something like that. ** .

Maybe you could send him a message.

Here’s a link to his post forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=4827486&postcount=58 (doesn’t look too helpful)

So maybe you are not alone!

 

[Shike]

“Thology doesn’t exist to prove the existence of God but to show that to believe is rational.”

I don’t know.
But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Aquinas, that at least narrows it down somewhat.

 

[nkbeth]

vocatio;5243517:

I’m desperately trying to find a quote I remember from about 2 years ago. Someone well know I believe said something to this effect [mutilated my me for sure]:

“Th(e)ology doesn’t exist to prove the existence of God but to show that to believe is rational.”

I don’t know.
But I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Aquinas, that at least narrows it down somewhat.

This could get to be a very long thread, if we keep knocking down more theologians one by one.

So why not stop with St. Thomas Aquinas, who believed that a rational theology must start by showing that God exists.

 

[Nita]

I’m desperately trying to find a quote I remember from about 2 years ago. Someone well know I believe said something to this effect [mutilated my me for sure]:

“Thology doesn’t exist to prove the existence of God but to show that to believe is rational.”

Does anyone remember this and where I can find it? Who made it? I’m talking to a Cornell graduate about religious topics and this is haunting me.

Sounds very much to me like something Pope John Paul II might say (Have you checked out his encyclical titled “Faith and Reason”).
Also sounds like Pope Benedict XVI. He’s given some talks on faith and reason.
And if I had to choose which Pope I thought it would most likely be, I’d say Pope Benedict.
Sorry I don’t have any specific quotes from them.

 

[nkbeth]

Sounds very much to me like something Pope John Paul II might say (Have you checked out his encyclical titled “Faith and Reason”).
Also sounds like Pope Benedict XVI. He’s given some talks on faith and reason.
And if I had to choose which Pope I thought it would most likely be, I’d say Pope Benedict.
Sorry I don’t have any specific quotes from them.

No, the Church teaches that the existence of God can be known by reason as well as by faith (although reason alone can’t get far)

Here’s a link to a document from a general audience Pope John Paul II gave called “The Proofs for God’s Existence”:vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19850710en.html

In addition to this, Pope Benedict XVI says:
Pope Benedict XVI:

But the Lord also knocks with his Cross from the other side: he knocks at the door of the world, at the doors of our hearts, so many of which are so frequently closed to God. And he says to us something like this: **if **the proof that God gives you of his existence in creation does not succeed in opening you to him, if the words of Scripture and the Church’s message leave you indifferent, then look at me - the God who let himself suffer for you, who personally suffers with you - and open yourself to me, your Lord and your God.

…taken from vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20070401_palm-sunday_en.html

I will say, though, that I think belief in the existence of God (whether initially by reason or by faith) could precede the study of Theology. But true Catholic Theology teaches that the existence of God can be proven.

 

[Nita]

Taken from Pope Benedict’s lecture 9/12/06 at the Meeting With the Representatives of Science. It’s not the particular quote you were looking for, but he does express the last part of your quote. (The whole lecture is very interesting if you have the time.)

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html

(Final sentence in second last paragraph)
*In this sense theology rightly belongs in the university and within the wide-ranging dialogue of sciences, not merely as a historical discipline and one of the human sciences, but precisely as theology, as inquiry into the rationality of faith. *