Faith and Reason

Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologiae, provides one of the most balanced and enduring accounts of faith’s role in the life of the mind. For Aquinas, faith is not the negation of reason but its perfection. Reason, through philosophy and natural observation, can reach toward many truths about the world and even about God. But there are mysteries such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, the promise of eternal life and many others ,that exceed the grasp of natural reason alone. These are not irrational, but supra-rational. Aquinas argues that faith steps in not where reason fails, but where reason bows. It is an assent to truths revealed by God, accepted not blindly, but through trust that God, whom is Truth itself. Thus, faith elevates reason; it allows the intellect to participate in a higher form of knowledge, a light beyond its own. The tension between time and eternity defines the human condition. We live moment to moment, tethered to clocks and calendars, while carrying within us longings that point beyond the temporal. Faith lives in this tension. It is not merely a belief in God’s existence, but a lived trust in God’s presence and promise. In that way, faith becomes a form of spiritual vision; the ability to see eternity shimmering within the ordinary, to detect the eternal in the now. To live by faith is to live with one foot on earth and the other stepping into mystery. It means holding fast to something or Someone that cannot be entirely proven, and yet is more real than all that can be measured. It is, as the Christian tradition affirms, a form of union: the soul bound to its source, the temporal reconciled to the eternal, the finite sanctified by the infinite. In a world increasingly driven by immediacy, utility, and skepticism, faith offers a counter-testimony. It declares that the deepest truths are not always the most visible or verifiable. It asserts that the human heart is made for more than the world alone can give. As Aquinas reminds us, reason and faith are not adversaries but companions. Together, they guide us toward the divine horizon where the finite and the infinite meet, and where time is gathered into eternity.