The full expression is 'fides quaerens intellectum' - Latin for 'faith seeking understanding.' Nowadays, and particularly in the West, we tend to want to understand things before we believe them. (Although Augustine states flatly that this was also the case even in his 5th century North African context, in his Tractates on the Gospel of John 29.6.) Other places and times and cultures may put primary value on trust and relationships, and have (or had) a sense that true understanding came in the context of a relationship of love and trust. Yes, we need to know a bit about a person before we believe them. It helps to know that they are worthy of trust. But truly knowing and understanding them doesn't happen through aloof assessment. You never really get to know someone until you live with them--and even then it is possible to avoid diving deeper and become just swimmers in their own lanes, never crossing the ropes.
This motto comes from Anselm's original title for his philosophical treatise, the Proslogion. He saturated himself in the writing and thought of Augustine, and consciously based his title on a phrase summarizing the life and work of Augustine. Both Augustine (of Hippo, a North African bishop in the early 5th century) and Anselm (medieval philosopher and theologian, and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109) formulated versions of this Latin phrase, summing up their realization that in order to truly understand God and his 'economy' (i.e. God's way of ordering all things and interacting with the world), they had to start from a position of faith, of trust, of connection, of love. Abstract cogitation could only get them so far. Understanding was very important to them. But so was an awareness of putting things in the correct order. For them, the 'seeking' never stopped. The goal of that search was, as Augustine put it, the summum bonum immutabile et commune - the greatest/highest Good which was unchangeable and which could be shared in common with others. In other words, God. The goal was not the perfection of abstraction. Nor was it something in which no one else could participate. The possibility of intimate connection with God had to be accessible to all and shared in the context of community, in worship, in prayer, in praise, in the Eucharist, in life together. Both men were incredible thinkers. But they started from a position of loving trust.
Augustine put it this way: 'credas, ut intelligas' --'You [his audience/congregation/readers] believe, in order that you may understand.' (In Ioannis evangelium tractatus -- i.e., Tractates/Commentary/Homilies on the Gospel of John -- 29.6) Several hundred years later, Anselm rephrased this into the first person: 'credo ut intelligam' -- 'I believe in order that I may understand' (Proslogion 1). Anselm expressed the same idea as fides quaerens intellectum. This is paraphrased by the Anselmian scholar Thomas Williams as “an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of God.” (Citation in article below.)
Here is a useful section from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (a wonderful free online resource written by pre-eminent scholars in the field) on Anselm's motto, fides quaerens intellectum, in the context of his proofs for the existence of God (the Proslogion and Monologion):
2.1 “Faith Seeking Understanding”: The character and purpose of Anselm's theistic proofs
Anselm's motto is “faith seeking understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum). This motto lends itself to at least two misunderstandings. First, many philosophers have taken it to mean that Anselm hopes to replace faith with understanding. If one takes ‘faith’ to mean roughly ‘belief on the basis of testimony’ and ‘understanding’ to mean ‘belief on the basis of philosophical insight’, one is likely to regard faith as an epistemically substandard position; any self-respecting philosopher would surely want to leave faith behind as quickly as possible. The theistic proofs are then interpreted as the means by which we come to have philosophical insight into things we previously believed solely on testimony. But as argued in Williams 1996 (xiii-xiv), Anselm is not hoping to replace faith with understanding. Faith for Anselm is more a volitional state than an epistemic state: it is love for God and a drive to act as God wills. In fact, Anselm describes the sort of faith that “merely believes what it ought to believe” as “dead” (M 78). (For the abbreviations used in references, see the Bibliography below.) So “faith seeking understanding” means something like “an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of God.”
Other philosophers have noted that “faith seeking understanding” begins with “faith,” not with doubt or suspension of belief. Hence, they argue, the theistic arguments proposed by faith seeking understanding are not really meant to convince unbelievers; they are intended solely for the edification of those who already believe. This too is a misreading of Anselm's motto. For although the theistic proofs are borne of an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of the beloved, the proofs themselves are intended to be convincing even to unbelievers. Thus Anselm opens the Monologion with these words:
If anyone does not know, either because he has not heard or because he does not believe, that there is one nature, supreme among all existing things, who alone is self-sufficient in his eternal happiness, who through his omnipotent goodness grants and brings it about that all other things exist or have any sort of well-being, and a great many other things that we must believe about God or his creation, I think he could at least convince himself of most of these things by reason alone, if he is even moderately intelligent. (M 1)
And in the Proslogion Anselm sets out to convince “the fool,” that is, the person who “has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” (Psalm 14:1; 53:1).
[from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anselm/]
So.... there you have it. Faith. Trust. A place to begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment