Faith in Faith: Reason, Faith, and Prayer in the Theology of Servais Pinckaers, OP

The audacity of faith is to believe in a knowledge, a truth, a superior and more profound wisdom than “science.” Moreover, it is to hold that there is no opposition between a believing intellect and authentic science insofar as each of them follow and respect the same love of truth, each according to their own nature and methodology.¹

Though fundamental for theology, the relationship between faith and reason is much contested, at least in terms of the degree to which they overlap. It is a relationship intrinsically connected to those other much fought over pairings—theology and philosophy, and nature and grace. In this article I wish to survey the thinking of Servais Pinckaers, OP, the influential twentieth-century Belgian moral theologian.² Pinckaers presents a robust defense of the priority of faith in theology that is rooted in the need to see prayer as a source of theological reflection. Pinckaers’s account of the role of faith does not resort to a Catholic fideism, but upholds reason’s intrinsic place in Catholic theology, very much in the tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Faith as the Starting Point in Theology

In his definition of moral theology (or, more precisely Christian ethics), Pinckaers states that moral theology needs to be studied in light of revelation and reason (and in that order).³ He asks whether moral theology should be seen as primarily a rational science with revelation seen as having a role as confirmation or external inspiration. Or should moral theology consider revelation as its primary and direct source? Pinckaers answers:

Without a moment’s hesitation I choose the second alternative. I hold that the priority given to Scripture and faith in no way fetters the use of reason in theology, but rather supports it. Reason has its rightful place in my definition. But this faculty must not be viewed according to the rationalistic concept, which would separate it radically from faith. It should be viewed rather as the power of human intelligence simultaneously open to spiritual enlightenment and faithful to the rigorous discipline of thought. This is how the Fathers saw it.⁴

It is also, according to Pinckaers, how Aquinas sees it:

The teaching method St. Thomas proposes to us, like that of the Fathers of the Church, includes two moments. The first consists in planting faith in the disciple as the root of the wisdom of God, placing it in mind and heart as a foundation and source of divine truth. Faith is the acceptance of the preaching of the Cross . . . as a mystery hidden from human eyes. It is not contrary to reason but rises above it and summons us to abandon our human reasoning in order to receive this higher wisdom as a sheer gift of the Holy Spirit.⁵

Pinckaers believes that any renewal in moral theology will be ineffective if the fundamental methodological question is not addressed. This question involves asking what the primary source and starting point of moral theology is: faith or rational knowledge?⁶ The answer for Pinckaers is faith. Theology must begin its research with an act of faith. This act of faith submits to the word of God as read and interpreted in the Church, that is, to something exterior. It is also an act that submits to the interior action of the Holy Spirit: “The theologian is not simply an intellectual, a scholar who chooses the text of revelation and the life of the church as an object of study. The theologian is before all else a believer, well aware that for the one who receives the Word of God with a docile mind, it becomes a source of light and life surpassing all human reason and communication.”⁷ In reflecting on the connection between the prologue of John’s Gospel—the meditation on the preexisting word of God made manifest in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth—and theology, Pinckaers states the following:

These words [the prologue of John’s Gospel] are addressed to us in our search for God through intellect...