FIDES QUERENS HARMONIAM VITAE

Abstract

Theology as such was not so speculative as perhaps it was made
out to be a little prior to our own times. By the time we were
introduced to theology it had become somewhat more of a positive
science. But there were certainly elements of biblical exegesis,
historical relation of theological development and so on. So it was
not so abstract a kind of theology that we learned. It was somewhat
intimately linked to the Bible and the history of dogma and the
history of the church. Even so I think we still missed something.
Theology was defined and handed down to us, according to the
definition given by St Anselm, the 11th century theologian and
Archbishop of Canterbury. You must all be familiar with what he
said about theology. Others have taken this dictum of his and
applied it as a definition to theology but it was never his intention
to define theology. Fides querens intellectum - this was the sub-title
of one of his books about the existence of God. There, in the first
part he delved deep into the nature of any disquisition about God.
And there he has this famous dictum: Fides querens intellectum -
Faith searching through the understanding of its content. Faith
tries to understand what is conceived in it, but not quite explicitly.
There are many merits in this for use as a definition of theology.
First of all, this dictum puts faith and theology in their proper
relation. Theology is not something like a rediscovery of faith.
Theology is something which presumes faith. Fides is faith which
is already there; that intellectual assent of the theologian is there.
He is only groping using the gift of God to understand it: /I querens
intellectum".