Faith and Reason: Amity or Enmity?

With Prof. Robert P. George, The McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University

Must we choose between “Athens” and “Jerusalem”—between faith and reason? Are the two in tension or even conflict? Taking as his point of departure the encyclical letter Fides et Ratio of Pope John Paul II, Prof. George will argue that religious faith itself, properly understood, demands recognition of the autonomy and authority of reason. At the same time, rational inquiry, deliberation, and judgment supports faith and, in certain respects, presupposes it. Faith and reason are indeed the “two wings on which the human spirit ascends to contemplation of truth.”

Reception following.