Christianity as "the unique and secure  philosophy"

(Fides et ratio n.38)

Christianity is the ‘unique and secure philosophy’ because of the Christian commitment to truth. We can look first at the security Christianity offers, and then at Christianity’s uniqueness.

Truth is the goal of all philosophy. Truth is a key issue for every human person. This is something that Christianity has understood, perhaps better than any other religion or worldview. Thus Christianity provides the security of a foundation in truth.

People desire truth. If people are deprived of truth—for example, subjected to deception or superstition—they will fight and struggle for the truth, like drowning men struggling for oxygen. Every man and woman seeks the truth. Thus the Church places key emphasis on bringing people to the fullness of truth: the truth about the universe, about God, about ourselves, creation, salvation, and morality.

To have this major commitment to truth is of course to possess a philosophy. Indeed, Christianity provides believers with a philosophy of life, as well as a faith community. Christianity offers clear answers to life’s most important questions. This means that Christians have the security that comes from knowing there are answers: we need not drown in scepticism or despair.

Christianity is a unique philosophy. Within the Christian vision there is a unique relation of reason to faith.

Christians have not always understood the importance of reasoning carefully, pondering the truth deeply. Early Christians asked: why do we need to think if we have Christ? Why do we need to reason if we have faith? Later generations too were often suspicious, asking: if we do need to think for ourselves, then why not just theologise—why must we philosophise too? The attempt to answer this question required all of the skills of St Augustine, the brilliance of the scholastics, in particular St Thomas Aquinas, and more recently, the insights of the European philosophical tradition taught to us by Pope John Paul II.

Together, these great Christian thinkers worked to demonstrate that deep faith is fully compatible with clear thinking—and that Christians are bound to think clearly and deeply about life’s questions. Thus we can be followers of Christ and intelligent thinkers too. As the Pope has reminded us again this month (VIS January 13): ‘faith and reason enrich one another in discovering the multiple dimensions of truth.’ Christianity reconciles our faith with our minds, our spiritual lives with our philosophising, and places both at the service of the one who is Truth. This is why it is ‘the unique philosophy’.

If Christianity is secure and unique, this has important benefits for evangelization. Modern society seeks answers, and Christianity offers secure answers. Also, modern people may reject faith, but Christianity offers a unique reconciliation of faith with reason. This means that where people do not share our faith—or have ceased to practice their faith—the pastoral encounter can begin at the more general level of questions about God, beliefs about reality, moral beliefs, social beliefs. Such general philosophical enquiries can establish some common ground and may in time lead the enquirer to questions about faith, the life of the Church, and the teachings of the Church.

When people realise that the truth they grasp with their own minds is definitively and perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ, then they are on the way to accepting Christianity as the ‘unique and secure philosophy’.