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A 5 page essay that summarizes and analyzes Pope John Paul II's encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khfare1.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
encyclical is to encourage a reconciliation of religious faith and secular philosophy. "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth,"
writes John Paul to open his 154-page mediation (1). The Pope begins this encyclical with assertion that all human beings desire to know the truth, particularly the true answer
to such questions as "Who am I?" or "Why does evil exist?" John Paul asserts that the possibility for discovering the real meaning of life has been cast into
doubt and this is why so many people appear to stumble through life. He reasserts the traditional Catholic position, which is that there can be no real conflict between
faith, which is based on divine revelation, and genuine reason, which is the work of the unaided human intellect. The Pope asserts that faith can be illuminated by reason and
that reason can be guided by faith (Balasuriya 20). Considered in the abstract, this is a valid assertion. Reason, minus faith, implies life considered without meaning; faith, without reason, has
a tendency to end in sentimentalism and also in various kinds of fundamentalism (Balasuriya 20). The encyclical asserts that the church and its magisterium have the authority to guide humanity
toward the attainment of absolute truth regarding the meaning of life, on God and human destiny. In writing this encyclical, the Pope makes the traditional stance of the church on
faith and reason his own. However, in comparison with St. Thomas and the nineteenth century documents on this topic, John Pauls stance is more Augustinian (Dulles 7). Although the Pope
comprehends that the mind is capable of establishing the existence of God, John Paul II relies far more on signs than on stringent proofs in this regard (Dulles 7).
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