The Rationality of Faith: Romano Guardini and Joseph Ratzinger

For Joseph Ratzinger, Romano Guardini was a valued lecturer and an author of inspiring books. Ratzinger finds attractive Guardini’s ardent quest for truth, the courage to ask big and important questions, boldness to confront the Christian faith with the challenges of contemporary culture, the conviction of the significant cognitive possibilities of human reason, and the emphasis on the primacy of truth in theology. Both authors point to the reasonableness of the Christian faith, based ultimately on the fact that God Himself is Truth. Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, but they can support each other through solid cognition. Of course, human reason, when trying to know God, struggles with its own limitations in the face of the mystery which exceeds the capacities of the creation.