Avant-propos - Studia Moralia

CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF POSTMODERNISM?... 249
41). This being so, the act of faith, by which the human being
freely assents to the truth of Revelation, and entrusts himself to
God (§ 33) is itself a profoundly moral decision:
This is why the Church has always considered the act of entrusting
oneself to God to be a moment of fundamental decision
which engages the whole person. In that act, the intellect and the
will display their spiritual nature, enabling the subject to act in a
way which realizes personal freedom to the full. [...] It is not just
that freedom is part of the act of faith: it is absolutely required. Indeed,
it is faith that allows individuals to give consummate expression
to their own freedom. Put differently, freedom is not realized in
decisions made against God. For how could it be an exercise of true
freedom to refuse to be open to the very reality which enables our
self-realization? Men and women can accomplish no more important
act in their lives than the act of faith; it is here that freedom
reaches the certainty of truth and chooses to live in that truth. (§ 13)
Fides et ratio thus proposes that the truth of Revelation,
freely embraced in faith, can serve as a point of departure and a
point of orientation for reason in its quest for meaning (§ 6). The
ultimate and fundamental nature of revealed truth should inspire
and reassure reason in its endeavour to confront the ultimate
questions of life, particularly in a cultural context which
tends to be marked by doubt and suspicion. The proposal of the
encyclical at the level of ethical theory is that, assisted by the
truth of faith, reason should aspire to develop a metaphysic of
the good in the sense of a comprehensive, objective and universal
understanding of who human beings are and what is good
for them (§§ 36, 98, 105).
The truth of faith and the truth of reason are not alone
compatible but complementary
In the Introduction to Fides et ratio, faith and reason are depicted
graphically as the “two wings” upon which the human
spirit raises itself up in search of the truth. In the course of the
encyclical, the respective qualities and competencies of faith and
reason are treated in some detail. While insisting on a legitimate