Signs of Contradiction, by Eduardo J. Echeverria

In his recent interview with America magazine, Pope Francis states, “A Catholic cannot think either-or (aut-aut) and reduce everything to polarization.” It’s about “both-and, and combining differences.”

He’s right that the Catholic tradition affirms, for example, both faith and reason, Scripture and tradition. Regarding the former, Catholics are neither fideist nor rationalist. We’re not fideists, undervaluing the place of reason. Despite the Fall, and hence the noetic influences of sin, human reason’s powers, and thus its activities, at its deepest foundation remain what God made it. …