{"id":26743,"date":"2011-11-15T06:07:23","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T10:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/11\/saint-albert-the-great-2\/"},"modified":"2011-11-15T06:07:23","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T10:07:23","slug":"saint-albert-the-great-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2011\/11\/saint-albert-the-great-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Albert the Great"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"S.<\/a>St Albert the Great reminds us that there is
\nfriendship between science and faith and that through their vocation to the
\nstudy of nature, scientists can take an authentic and fascinating path of
\nholiness.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n
His extraordinary openmindedness is also revealed in a cultural feat
\nwhich he carried out successfully, that is, the acceptance and appreciation of
\nAristotle’s thought. In St Albert’s time, in fact, knowledge was spreading of
\nnumerous works by this great Greek philosopher, who lived a quarter of a
\ncentury before Christ, especially in the sphere of ethics and metaphysics. They
\nshowed the power of reason, explained lucidly and clearly the meaning and
\nstructure of reality, its intelligibility and the value and purpose of human
\nactions. St Albert the Great opened the door to the complete acceptance in
\nmedieval philosophy and theology of Aristotle’s philosophy, which was
\nsubsequently given a definitive form by St Thomas. This reception of a pagan
\npre-Christian philosophy, let us say, was an authentic cultural revolution in
\nthat epoch. Yet many Christian thinkers feared Aristotle’s philosophy, a
\nnon-Christian philosophy, especially because, presented by his Arab
\ncommentators, it had been interpreted in such a way, at least in certain
\npoints, as to appear completely irreconcilable with the Christian faith. Hence
\na dilemma arose: are faith and reason in conflict with each other or not? <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
This
\nis one of the great merits of St Albert: with scientific rigour he studied
\nAristotle’s works, convinced that all that is truly rational is compatible with
\nthe faith revealed in the Sacred Scriptures. In other words, St Albert the
\nGreat thus contributed to the formation of an autonomous philosophy, distinct
\nfrom theology and united with it only by the unity of the truth. So it was that
\nin the 13th century a clear distinction came into being between these two
\nbranches of knowledge, philosophy and theology, which, in conversing with each
\nother, cooperate harmoniously in the discovery of the authentic vocation of
\nman, thirsting for truth and happiness: and it is above all theology, that St
\nAlbert defined as “emotional knowledge”, which points out to human
\nbeings their vocation to eternal joy, a joy that flows from full adherence to
\nthe truth.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Pope Benedict XVI<\/span><\/div>\n
March 2010<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St Albert the Great reminds us that there is friendship between science and faith and that through their vocation to the study of nature, scientists can take an authentic and fascinating path of holiness. His extraordinary openmindedness is also revealed in a cultural feat which he carried out successfully, that is, the acceptance and appreciation … Continue reading Saint Albert the Great<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1714],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}