This new book grapples with an ancient issue – the interplay between faith and reason. Since pre-Socratic philosophers and even before, thinkers whether they be religious or otherwise have debated whether or not and in what manners religious faith might relate to human reason. Commenting on such a debate depends a great deal on what is meant by ‘faith’ and ‘reason’. Tertullian, the North African theologian of the second and third centuries, is still remembered for asking ‘What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ In other terms, do the arguments of the philosophical academy impinge on the faith that motivates worship? Aquinas, although not a pan-rationalist imagining that reason illuminates all matters without deference to divine revelation, was never afraid to subject his faith to critical reasoning and questioning. In this, he is a model for students of theology and philosophy today. Kant is famously remembered as noting that reason needs to make room for faith. Pascal thought that the heart has reasons that reason does not know. Contemporary eliminative postmodernists contend that the truth is there is no truth: reason is irrational, and faith is fanciful. Into all this, Aidan Nichols has bravely dived with his book, From Hermes to Benedict XVI: Faith and Reason in Modern Catholic Thought. It is intended as an exercise in fundamental dogmatics (p. 2), and is at home with the conclusion that philosophy conceived as ‘originative reason’‘can shape a natural wisdom well-placed to say much of value about the nature of God, world, soul, and the human good’ (p. 240).
It is an erudite, informative, carefully argued, and scrupulously documented text. The reader has much to learn on every single page. It is a welcome reminder that there is a rich tradition of modern Catholic reflection on dialectics of faith and reason. Fideism, superstition, irrationalism, rationalism, and hyper-rationalism are constant traps waiting to ensnare either those who think faith has no relation at all to reason, or people who are convinced that reason is the arch-antithesis of faith.
From Hermes to Benedict XVI begins with an introductory discussion before attending to its first figure for analysis, Hermes. The introduction, it is important to note, explains that the author's coverage of topics and authors is not exhaustive. With any book, there is always much more that could be said. There is a slight risk that the reader may be confused as to the Hermes in the book's title. It is not the Greek god by that name, depicted in sculpture since Greek antiquity, but an eighteenth and nineteenth-century Prussian university teacher.
Hermes was an important test case in the eyes of those observing the way the Catholic Church's leadership dealt with the Enlightenment. Nichols very adroitly explains his thought in addition to that of Anton Günther, Louis Bautin, Joseph Kleutgen, Etienne Gilson, Maurice Gilson, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The outputs of all these are discussed as well as those of five popes: Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI. The reader will benefit greatly from concise expositions of difficult philosophers, such as Kant and Hegel.
Had the author wished or been able to extend the reach of his exposition, he may have included a more detailed discussion of the ramifications of the Modernist crisis (alluded to on p. 142). This was neither a proud nor rationally controlled affair in the history of Catholic theology. Faced with a choice between modernity and medieval modes of thought, the Church's leadership shunned the former, enforced the latter on all teachers and students of theology, and hounded modernists who wanted to introduce into theological consideration the fruits of higher biblical criticism and the findings of new sciences. It needs to be remembered that some of the slighted modernists such as George Tyrrell (who incurred the penalty of excommunication) and Alfred Loisy (who suffered major excommunication: no Catholic could associate with him) gave their lives to an exposition of Catholic faith that was informed by new knowledge.
Another instance of a broader treatment of faith and reason in modern Catholic thought might have been the inclusion of liberation theology, the most significant development in theology during the second half of the twentieth century. From Hermes to Benedict XVI observes that ‘for the New Testament, very broadly, faith is the reception of a message’ (p. 4). According to the New Testament, it is also much more. For the Letter of James, famously, faith without works is dead. It is not the passive reception of a proposition, but a conversion of life manifest in compassionate action. For liberation theologians too, faith is not simply a matter of reasoned academic discourse, but a day-by-day sequela Jesu. In the eyes of Gustavo Gutiérrez, theology itself is a critical reflection on praxis in the light of the Bible. In short, faith is multi-dimensional: it is not merely volitional or intellectual, but also practical.
There were many Catholic theologians and philosophers of the last century who distinguished themselves by commenting on faith and reason, and their voices complement, and sometimes contrast with, the approach of people like Pope John Paul II (who merits a chapter in the book under review) and Hans Urs von Balthasar. John Paul II could occasionally be quirky in his comments. For instance, in his encyclical of 1998, Fides et Ratio, he observes that ‘the Church has no philosophy of her own nor does she canonize any one philosophy in preference to others’. This was certainly not the case in 1917–18, when the Code of Canon Law insisted that philosophy and theology in Catholic institutions of learning were to be studied according to the method and teaching of Thomas Aquinas (Canon 1366). Careers were unilaterally ended for not complying with this canon, and theologians were compelled to take an Anti-Modernist Oath right up until the eve of the Second Vatican Council.
The discourse of From Hermes to Benedict XVI, were it to be amplified into a larger tome, could in addition to the worthy people it probes, draw attention to Joseph Maréchal, Henri de Lubac, Jacques Maritain (briefly mentioned on p. 143), Marie-Dominique Chenu, Karl Rahner, Claude Geffré, Hans Küng, Edward Schillebeeckx, and David Tracy. All these have commented trenchantly on faith and reason. Moreover, discourse on faith and reason in England alone last century was enhanced by acutely perceptive philosophical minds, such as those of Michael Dummett, Herbert McCabe, and Elizabeth Anscombe.
This is a rich field of continuing discussion, and From Hermes to Benedict XVI is a much to be welcomed part of it.
