Vatican City, Jun 16, 2010 / 08:31 am
During his Wednesday audience, the Holy Father explored the teachings of the renowned scholar, St. Thomas Aquinas, asserting that saint's work emphasizing faith and reason “helps us overcome certain objections raised by modern atheism” which “denies that religious language possesses objective meaning and holds that it only has a subjective or merely emotional value.”
The Pope opened his catechesis on June 16 by discussing an intellectual conflict during the time of St. Thomas, where many were convinced that secular philosophy and the theological works of the Church Fathers were at odds with one another.
The “burning question was whether ... a philosophy elaborated without reference to Christ and the world of faith, and that elaborated bearing Christ and the world of faith in mind, were compatible or mutually exclusive,” said the Pontiff.
“Thomas,” he explained, “was firmly convinced that they were compatible, and that the philosophy elaborated without Christ was awaiting only the light of Jesus in order to be made complete.”