Aeterni Patris i Fides et ratio
Aeterni Patris and Fides et Ratio

The Role and Importance of Philosophy in the Context of the Discussion Between Faith and Reason

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the role and significance of philosophy in the discourse between faith and reason is the main focus of the article. Two encyclicals: Aeterni Patris by Leo XIII and Fides et Ratio by John Paul II are the basic texts analysed here. Both popes, pointing to the necessity of restoration of philosophical education on every level of its functioning, describe advantages connected with its development. To expose significance and contribution of philosophical teaching, the author considers four principal assumptions of the ‘way of wisdom': experience, wonder, doubt and the lack of suppositions. 'Ihen, he characterises the essence of philosophical theology - in distinction to mythical and political theology - as the road of searching the answer to the question about arche, the question about the essence of the divine (to theion). The last part of the article discusses the attitude of Leo XII and John Paul II to the possible symbiosis between philosophy and theology, their mutual relations as well as relations between faith and reason that enrich both philosophy and theology and enable one to avoid false convictions (doksai).

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