"Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first
principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from
the created world by the natural light of human reason.
"Without
this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God's revelation.
Man has this capacity because he is created "in the image of God".
In the historical conditions in which he finds himself, however, man
experiences many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of
reason alone:
Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own
natural power and light of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of
the one personal God.
God watches over and controls the world by his
providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by the Creator;
yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective
and fruitful use of this inborn faculty.
For the truths that concern the
relations between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of
things, and, if they are translated into human action and influence it,
they call for self-surrender and abnegation.
The human mind, in its
turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the
impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered
appetites which are the consequences of original sin.
So it happens that
men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would
not like to be true is false or at least doubtful.
This is why man stands in need of being enlightened by God's
revelation, not only about those things that exceed his understanding,
but also "about those religious and moral truths which of themselves
are not beyond the grasp of human reason.
So that even in the present
condition of the human race, they can be known by all men with ease,
with firm certainty and with no admixture of error"
In defending the ability of human reason to know God, the Church
is expressing her confidence in the possibility of speaking about him to
all men and with all men.
And therefore of dialogue with other
religions, with philosophy and science, as well as with unbelievers and
atheists.
Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is
equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our starting
point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and
thinking.
All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially
man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold
perfections of creatures - their truth, their goodness, their beauty all
reflect the infinite perfection of God.
Consequently we can name God
by taking his creatures" perfections as our starting point, "for from the
greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding
perception of their Creator"
God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify
our language of everything in it that is limited, imagebound or
imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God --"the
inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable"--
with our human representations. Our human words always fall short
of the mystery of God.
Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our language is using human modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God himself, though unable to express him in his infinite simplicity.
Likewise, we must recall that "between Creator and creature no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude"; and that "concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him."
