Divine Authority
Divine faith as the highest certitude; the grounds for assenting to divine revelation and its relation to natural reason.
Divine faith is the firmest of all certitudes in its subjective quality because it rests on the authority of God, who cannot err (infinite knowledge) and cannot deceive (infinite goodness and truthfulness). Its formal motive is the authority of God revealing — not the beauty, consolation, or social usefulness of what is revealed. Its credibility is established by natural reason through the evidence of miracles and fulfilled prophecy as signs of divine attestation — external credentials that make the act of faith entirely reasonable. Faith and reason are not opposed: faith presupposes and builds on reason, extending knowledge to truths that reason could not attain unaided while never contradicting what reason correctly demonstrates.
Rationalism
Revelation
Divine authority is the authority of God. It is the authority expressed or manifested in divine testimony. Now, divine testimony is called Revelation.
Revelation (from the Latin re-velare, “to draw back the veil”) is the manifestation by God of truths to men. The truths so revealed may be such as the natural powers of man’s reason could discover, or they may be such as reason is powerless to discover or even to explain thoroughly after they are manifested.
The latter truths are supernaturally revealed truths in the strictest sense of the term.
Now, is Revelation possible? If not, the impossjbility must exist on the part of (a) God, (b) man, (c) the truth revealed, or (d) the manner or mode of revelation. But there is no impossibility of Revelation on the part of God; God is all-knowing and has truths to impart; God is all-powerful and can impart them. There is no impossibility on the part of man; man is teachable; man needs instruction; man can receive the needed instruction. There is no impossibility on the part of the truth revealed; truth is something that can be known; if man cannot know the revealed truth perfectly, he can know it at least imperfectly according to his capacity, and he can have certainty of its existence. There is no impossibility on the part of the means of communication between God and man, for God is all-powerful and can devise means; He is all-wise and can choose most suitable means. Revelation, then, is possible.
But is Revelation a fact? Yes, it is a fact. The evidence for this fact is found in the internal and external criteria of Holy Scripture and Tradition. It is found in the character of the revealed writings, in indubitable miracles, and in accurately fulfilled prophecies. If any historical fact can be known to man, the fact that God has revealed truths to his children is such a fact. To reject the fact of Revelation would be to reject more compelling evidence than we have for the discovery of America or for the historicity of Napoleon.
CERTITUDE OF FAITH 24Z
Certitude from Divine Authority
The certitude that we draw from divine authority is not a moral, but an absolute or a metaphysical certitude. The proof of this proposition is simple and direct.
Metaphysical certitude is the firm and unwavering adherence of the mind to truth, based upon the very essence of the things known. Such, for example, is the certitude with which I know that the whole is greater than any of its parts; such is the certitude with which I know that man is an animal. Now, the assent to divine testimony on account of divine authority is assent based on the very essence of God. For God’s knowledge and truthfulness are one with His essence. God is Truth; God is Veracity. Therefore, assent to divine testimony is the assent of metaphysical certitude.
Rationalism
Rationalism is the doctrine of those who deny the existence or the need of divine authority, for they assert that there are no supernatural truths. Rationalism asserts that human reason (Latin, ratio, “reason,” whence the name Rationalism) is adequate to cope with all truths that exist. In a word, Rationalism teaches that there are no truths outside the reach of the human mind. It finds Divine Faith opposed to reason.
Now, there are truths outside the reach of the human mind. Who can fail to know this ? Is there not always more and more to learn, not only in general, but about any individual object of study? Has there ever existed a scientist or philosopher who presumed to say that he had exhausted a single topic of investigation ? Is there anything in the realm of sense or intellect that does not lead the mind on and on in learning, and finally bring it face to face with mystery? And does not the mind, when faced with mystery, still reach out after further and unattainable truth? Truly has the prince of philosophers, Aristotle, declared that the human mind, compared to the First Being, is like the eye of the bat in the midday sun.
Rationalism amounts to atheism, to a denial of God. Grant the existence of God (as reason demands of you), and you grant Infinity. Grant Infinity, and you grant Boundless Knowledge. Grant Boundless Knowledge, and you grant the existence of truths which the limited mind of man cannot compass. Grant such truths, and you deny Rationalism.
Divine Faith is not opposed to reason; it aids and perfects reason. Divine Faith confirms reason in its findings on such matters as the origin of the world and the immortality of the soul. And in matters strictly supernatural, Divine Faith enriches reason with truths that could not be otherwise known and certainly possessed. The thing that is opposed to reason is not Faith, but Rationalism.
Summary Of The Article
In this short article we have learned that Divine Authority is manifested to man in Revelation. We have considered the possibility of Revelation, and have briefly indicated that Revelation is a fact. We have discovered that Divine Faith (faith in what is manifested by divine authority) is the source of metaphysical certitude. We have discussed Rationalism and have found it a wholly inadmissible doctrine.