Lesson 19 –
Faith & Evidence

Properly basic beliefs can enjoy an abundance of corroboration by confirmatory evidence, and such is the case with our faith. We believe in the presence of God now speaking to us through the testimony of the prophets and apostles, Scripture and Tradition, and the mouth of the Church today. What we believe is no lie, legend, or lunacy. And it is false to say that faith is some sort of defective act of the mind like gullibility, illusion, delusion, wishful thinking, subconscious projection, social construction, or any type of pathology.

Course Reading

Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews 11:1 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae II-II q. 1, a. 1 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Excerpt from question 1, article 1 of the Second Part of the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae:

“Accordingly if we consider, in faith, the formal aspect of the object, it is nothing else than the First Truth. For the faith of which we are speaking, does not assent to anything, except because it is revealed by God. Hence the mean on which faith is based is the Divine Truth. If, however, we consider materially the things to which faith assents, they include not only God, but also many other things, which, nevertheless, do not come under the assent of faith, except as bearing some relation to God, in as much as, to wit, through certain effects of the Divine operation, man is helped on his journey towards the enjoyment of God.”

Course Listening

St. Thomas Aquinas on the Act of Faith | Prof. Reinhard Huetter

The Light of Reason and the Light of Faith | Fr. Dominic Legge, O.P.

Related videos from earlier in the series

This episode was made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this project are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.