FAITH AND REASON OR REASON AND FAITH: THE PROBLEMATIC OR THE RELATIONSHIP: A PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

In this article, “Faith and Reason or Reason and Faith, the Problematic or the Relationship: A Philosophical Analysis” the researcher argues that there is no problematic between faith and reason but only a relationship of complementation, symbiosis and partnership that mutually enriches both. Reason is at the core of faith enrichment. Faith without reason is blind. The argument here is not on which one is superior or more important, but on what role they play in making their subject matter accessible. It is this role that should be emphasized and not the precedence of superiority. This understanding places both philosophy and theology at the same pedestal of one needing the other without whom the other cannot stand or move. Using the philosophical method of analysis, the paper argues that faith and reason, the concepts behind the medieval concept, philosophia ancilla theologiae, that sought to circumscribe philosophy is too narrow an approach in the understanding of the philosophy. Philosophy is ancilla scientia, ancilla sapientia, ancilla veritas and not only ancilla theologiae