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The church fathers provide the foundation for newborn Christianity. It should be noted that in its beginnings, it was a persecuted belief; people believed that they ate children and that is why they had to hide in the catacombs in order to survive. It has been defended and acolyzed many times by a πρώτη φιλοσοφία, μητέρα της επιστήμης (first philosophy, mother of science) that is nothing more than the search for truth through reason. The truth is that we are all philosophers and more so in the era of social networks where our thinking reaches all people.
Before starting with this topic, we must define what religious thought is: it is faith sustained through evidence; not just belief, but certainty that what is said is true.
"Faith [is] the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11: 1).
This is based on the foundation of faith through reason, the heritage of patristics.
philosophia nititur evangelio domini nostri iesu christi ab apostolis usque in hodiernum diem.
The philosophy is based on the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, transmitted from the apostles to the present day.
The church fathers provide the foundation for newborn Christianity. It should be noted that in its beginnings, it was a persecuted belief; people believed that they ate children and that is why they had to hide in the catacombs in order to survive.
It has been defended and acolyzed many times by a πρώτη φιλοσοφία, μητέρα της επιστήμης (first philosophy, mother of science) that is nothing more than the search for truth through reason.
The truth is that we are all philosophers and more so in the era of social networks where our thinking reaches all people.
The difference between my thinking and theirs is that I have not shared it with others, I have not described how I see the world, and finally I have not had the approval of the intellectual community. Otherwise we are already philosophizing.
Perse religious thought is in communion, that union in common between the divine and the human; we can only experience it from faith.
It is the only way we can explain and understand the sacred scriptures of any denomination; if we try to give an explanation from the human point of view, we will not have a satisfactory answer.
That is why thinkers like Rene Descartes in his Meditations on First Philosophy tell us that he cannot explain the existence of God, therefore it is real, since if he could do so God would cease to be.
Kant also seeks to give it a non-theological structure and calls this the absolute. In short, we cannot omit that we are religious beings – we seek to relate to the transcendent; this is our immobile motor of which Aristotle refers, then Santo Tomas takes up until reaching our days.
How important is religious thought in this post-modern age?
There is in man the need to relate to God; when this is not achieved, a very deep void is formed which destroys the person – his values are disrupted to such an extent that cynicism is his form of defense in everything.
We have entered a time in history in which interpersonal relationships occur over long distances, and people feel safer with those who are far away than with those around them.
The liturgy and other activities should have been carried out virtually for health reasons; parishioners have been comfortable, and this has resulted in people feeling calm with a virtual faith and it is difficult for them to return to presence.
What should we do?
Well, if I am a parishioner, to internalize myself more to know the faith that I profess, there are many people who have a popular religiosity; they do not know why they are part of a church and they do not visit it either. With this virtuality it fits like a glove.
If I am a clergyman or someone committed to following my faith, to continue doing my pastoral duty as I am taking it, every person at a given moment feels the need to get closer to God, thus leaving aside the relationship of being a spectator of him.
Let us remember that it is faith that saves me by saying it in a certain way so as not to offend non-believers; we could also say that it is what brings us closer to God. If I do not have faith when I attend the divine liturgy I am merely being part of a social event.
The truth is that at one point faith and philosophy are mixed in our lives, since we act according to both.
In the social, family, and work areas we act according to our collective thinking; it is not until we reach a point of intellectual coming of age that we are not affected by what others think, nor by fashions, nor by music; we are free in our thinking to say we impose our philosophy.
At the religious level the same thing happens, it is God who comes out to meet us (Luke 15: 11-32); no matter how far away we are from his presence, his love is always with us.
It does not matter that the world or ideologies want to remove God from our lives; we must remain strong in faith with God as part of our family. If not, we assume it will always be an entity that we doubt at times and in others we try to cling to.
May God bless us and accompany us, at all times with his merciful love in each of our hearts, today and always. Amen
H.E Eric Escala
Archbishop Anglican Continuum Church
Argentina