- Title Pages
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Church and Society
- 1 University Theology as a Service to the Church
- 2 Teaching Authority in the Church
- 3 Catholicism and American Culture
- 4 Faith and Experience
- 5 Newman, Conversion, and Ecumenism
- 6 The Uses of Scripture in Theology
- 7 John Paul II and the New Evangelization
- 8 Historical Method and the Reality of Christ
- 9 Religion and the Transformation of Politics
- 10 The Church as Communion
- 11 The Prophetic Humanism of John Paul II
- 12 The Challenge of the Catechism
- 13 Crucified for Our Sake
- 14 John Paul II and the Advent of the New Millennium
- 15 Priesthood and Gender
- 16 The Travails of Dialogue
- 17 The Ignatian Tradition and Contemporary Theology
- 18 Mary at the Dawn of the New Millennium
- 19 Should the Church Repent?
- 20 Human Rights
- 21 Can Philosophy Be Christian?
- 22 Justification Today
- 23 The Papacy for a Global Church
- 24 The Death Penalty
- 25 Religious Freedom: A Developing Doctrine
- 26 Christ Among the Religions
- 27 When to Forgive
- 28 The Population of Hell
- 29 True and False Reform in the Church
- 30 John Paul II and the Mystery of the Human Person
- 31 The Rebirth of Apologetics
- 32 A Eucharistic Church
- 33 How Real Is the Real Presence?
- 34 Benedict XVI
- 35 The Mission of the Laity
- 36 The Ignatian Charism at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century
- 37 Evolution, Atheism, and Religious Belief
- 38 Who Can Be Saved?
- Mcginley Lectures Previously Published
- Index
Can Philosophy Be Christian?
Can Philosophy Be Christian?
The New State of the Question
April 7, 1999
- Chapter:
- (p.291) 21 Can Philosophy Be Christian?
- Source:
- Church and Society
- Author(s):
Avery Cardinal Dulles
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
This chapter examines the possibility of a Christian philosophy, distinguishing between the roles of faith and reason. Christian philosophers have reached no agreement about how philosophy is related to faith. The classical positions fall into three main types. According to the first school of thought, there is a Christian philosophy, and in fact the only true and adequate philosophy is Christian. The second classical position, from the neo-Thomists of the Louvain school, holds that philosophy must proceed rigorously by its own methods, without allowing itself to be influenced by faith. Between these two contrasting positions there are several mediating positions, which make the third category. Meanwhile, faith and reason, as described by John Paul II, are united like the two natures of Christ, which coexisted without confusion or alteration in a single person. Christian wisdom, similarly, involves a synthesis of theology and philosophy, each supporting and benefiting the other.
Keywords: Christian philosophy, faith, reason, Christian wisdom, neo-Thomists
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- Title Pages
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Church and Society
- 1 University Theology as a Service to the Church
- 2 Teaching Authority in the Church
- 3 Catholicism and American Culture
- 4 Faith and Experience
- 5 Newman, Conversion, and Ecumenism
- 6 The Uses of Scripture in Theology
- 7 John Paul II and the New Evangelization
- 8 Historical Method and the Reality of Christ
- 9 Religion and the Transformation of Politics
- 10 The Church as Communion
- 11 The Prophetic Humanism of John Paul II
- 12 The Challenge of the Catechism
- 13 Crucified for Our Sake
- 14 John Paul II and the Advent of the New Millennium
- 15 Priesthood and Gender
- 16 The Travails of Dialogue
- 17 The Ignatian Tradition and Contemporary Theology
- 18 Mary at the Dawn of the New Millennium
- 19 Should the Church Repent?
- 20 Human Rights
- 21 Can Philosophy Be Christian?
- 22 Justification Today
- 23 The Papacy for a Global Church
- 24 The Death Penalty
- 25 Religious Freedom: A Developing Doctrine
- 26 Christ Among the Religions
- 27 When to Forgive
- 28 The Population of Hell
- 29 True and False Reform in the Church
- 30 John Paul II and the Mystery of the Human Person
- 31 The Rebirth of Apologetics
- 32 A Eucharistic Church
- 33 How Real Is the Real Presence?
- 34 Benedict XVI
- 35 The Mission of the Laity
- 36 The Ignatian Charism at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century
- 37 Evolution, Atheism, and Religious Belief
- 38 Who Can Be Saved?
- Mcginley Lectures Previously Published
- Index
