The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools are proud to present Faith and Reason, the third in a series of virtual lectures by Professor John Haldane.

Professor John Haldane examines the role of faith and reason and their integration in the development of Catholicism, from the days of the early Church Fathers through the middle ages and into the modern period. He considers tendencies towards extreme positions: either diminishing faith and exalting reason, or vice versa, and the development of a balanced position in response to these extremes. He sets out various philosophical arguments for and against the existence of God and relates these to the attempt to make sense of the existence and character of the world. He argues that philosophy by itself is insufficient and we need to relate experience, reason, and religious tradition.

Lecture 1: From St Paul to St John Paul – Faith and Reason in the development of Catholicism

In this opening video lecture Professor Haldane poses the question “Is it reasonable to believe in God?” and considers the suggestion that faith is self-justifying and has no need for reason to justify or defend it. He argues that, in contrast, Catholicism has always sought to relate and integrate faith and reason and he reviews some of the high points of this from St Paul to Augustine and from Aquinas to Saint John Paul II considering in particular three of the Pope’s important encyclicals in which philosophy and Catholic teachings are connected: Veritatis Splendor (1993), Evangelium Vitae (1995) and Fides et Ratio (1998).

Lecture 2: For and against God – a tour of ten topics

In this second lecture Professor Haldane sets out a large number of arguments in favour of the existence of God including ones that begin from the existence of anything, from the character of what exists, from the fact of good and bad and right and wrong, and from human experience. He also identifies arguments taken to show that there cannot be God including the most widely advanced that from the existence of natural and moral evils. In analysing arguments pro and con he suggests that what is at issue is how to make sense of things, to find explanations of the world and our experience.

Lecture 3: Taking stock and making sense – From reason to faith and back again – living in a triangle

In the final lecture, Professor Haldane begins by summarising and taking stock of what has gone before: first, the Catholic Church’s efforts to balance and reconcile faith and reason in order to avoid narrowness and excess; second, the arguments for and against the existence of God that start from common experiences; and third, the idea that what is at issue is making sense of things in a comprehensive and integrated way. He then returns to the arguments for atheism showing that they beg or evade the very questions that need to be answered. The route to reasonable faith and to faithful reason is through the recognition that religious ideas, and specifically those advanced in Christian teaching, provide the best explanation of what we know about the world and about ourselves.

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