Believing in Order to See: On the Rationality of Revelation and the Irrationality of Some Believers (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)

Faith and reason, especially in Roman Catholic thought, are less contradictory today than ever. But does the supposed opposition even make sense to begin with? One can lose faith, but surely not because one gains in reason. Some, in fact, lose faith when reason is not able to make sense of the experiences of our lives. We very quickly realize that reason does not understand everything. Immense areas remain incomprehensible and irrational, which we abandon to belief and opinion. Soon we definitively renounce thinking what that has been excluded from the realm of the thinkable. Ideological nightmares arise from this slumber of reason. Thus, the separation between faith and reason, too quickly taken as self-evident and even natural, is born from a lack of rationality, an easy capitulatin of reason before what is supposedly unthinkable. Rather than lose faith through excessive rationality, we often lose rationality because faith is too quickly excluded from the realm that it claims to open, that of revelation. We lose reason by losing faith. Examining such topics as the role of the intellectual in the church, the rationality of faith, the infinite worth and incomprehensibility of the human, the phenomenality of the sacraments, and the phenomenological nature of miracles and of revelation more broadly, this book spans the range of Marion’s thought on Christianity. Throughout he stresses that faith has its own rationality, structured according to the logic of the gift that calls forth a response of love and devotion through kenotic abandon. Faith and reason, especially in Roman Catholic thought, are less contradictory today than ever. But does the supposed opposition even make sense to begin with? One can lose faith, but surely not because one gains in reason. Some, in fact, lose faith when reason is not able to make sense of the experience of our lives. Yet, we actually lose reason by losing faith. Examining such topics as the role of the intellectual in the church, the rationality of faith, the infinite worth and incomprehensibility of the human, the phenomenality of the sacraments, and the phenomenological nature of miracles and of revelation more broadly, this book spans the range of Marion thought on Christianity. Throughout he stresses that faith has its own rationality, structured according to the logic of the gift that calls forth a response of love and devotion through kenotic abandon. -- Publisher's description Reason And Faith Together -- Faith And Reason -- In Defense Of Argument -- The Formal Reason Of The Infinite -- Who Speaks About It? -- On The Eminent Dignity Of The Poor Baptized -- The Service Of Rationality In The Church -- The Future Of Catholicism -- What Is Possible And What Shows Itself -- Nothing Is Impossible For God -- The Phenomenality Of The Sacrament -- Transcendence Par Excellence -- Recognition -- The Recognition Of The Gift -- They Recognized Him And He Became Invisible To Them -- The Invisible Saint. Jean-luc Marion ; Translated By Christina M. Gschwandtner. This Book Was Originally Published In French As Jean-luc Marion, Le Croire Pour Le Voir: Reflexions Diverses Sur La Rationalite De La Revelation Et L'irrationalite De Quelques Croyants, Copyright 2010 Parole Et Silence -- Title Page Verso. Translated From The French. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover Page 1 Cover 2 Half Title 4 Series Announcement Page 5 Title Page 8 Copyright 9 Dedication 11 Contents 12 Preface 14 Translator’s Note 18 Half Title 20 Part I: Reason and Faith Together 21 1. Faith and Reason 22 2. In Defense of Argument 33 3. The Formal Reason of the Infinite 50 Part II: Who Speaks About It? 65 4. On the Eminent Dignity of the Poor Baptized 66 5. The Service of Rationality in the Church 86 6. The Future of Catholicism 97 Part III: What Is Possible and What Shows Itself 106 7. Nothing Is Impossible for God 107 8. The Phenomenality of the Sacrament 122 9. Transcendence par Excellence 136 Part IV: Recognition 143 10. The Recognition of the Gift 144 11. “They Recognized Him and He Became Invisible to Them” 156 12. The Invisible Saint 164 Notes 172 Index 194 Series Page 200 A phenomenological reflection on central aspects of Christian revelation: the practice of faith, the obligation and role of the baptized Christian, the gift of the sacraments, the future of Catholicism, the role of the Christian intellectual, examined always in light of their inherent rationality and relationship to philosophical reason.