Who is God? A diocesan priest in the Catholic Times gives readers something to reflect on during this Holy Week. Philosophy questions with reason, theology answers with faith. The passage states, “The word ‘God’ is a word used by the ‘believer’ (theologian), and ‘the unmoved first mover’ is used by the ‘thinker’ (philosopher). Here, the words of the thinker and the believer are different from each other, but they illuminate each other’s words well, and implicitly suggest the relationship between theology and philosophy.
Theology and philosophy share both commonalities and differences. In short, theology is the love of God, while philosophy is the love of wisdom. The commonality between the two is that they both claim to be the love of a certain value, and they require that other goods be despised and abandoned in order to acquire that value. For example, Plato taught that all other goods must be exchanged to obtain "real gold" (wisdom, justice, etc.), and Jesus stated in the Gospel of Matthew that to obtain a valuable pearl, one must sell everything one possesses to buy it (see Matthew 13:46).
Thus, while theology and philosophy are alike in their love for certain values, their difference lies in the content of the things they love. That is, philosophy loves wisdom, while theology loves God. Although philosophy also discusses God, it merely pursues God’s substance or attributes through reason as the supreme being and the basis of existence. However, theology pursues God as a personal God. Simply put, philosophy studies what God is, while theology studies who God is.
Theology and philosophy study reality as a whole. However, theology, which is etymologically the discipline that speaks of God, starts from revelation and faith, while philosophy, which is etymologically the discipline that loves wisdom, starts from nature and reason. Therefore, theology is the discipline of faith through revelation, and philosophy is the discipline of truth through reason. If philosophy is the discipline of contemplation that springs forth through questions, theology is the discipline of practice—that is, the discipline of salvation—that responds with faith while providing answers to what philosophy has asked.
Philosophy, which speaks of finite experience, does not reject the being that transcends humans and nature, but merely contemplates it and interprets its meaning for humanity. On the other hand, theology, which speaks of infinite experience, firmly acknowledges the being that transcends humans and nature, and then enters into the mystery of existence by accepting and engaging in dialogue with it. If philosophy lingers at the threshold of this existence, theology enters into the mystery of this existence and savors it.
As Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar said, “There is no theology without philosophy,” one must first engage in philosophy to do theology. Philosophy, which explores the ultimate meaning and truth of humanity, is a prerequisite for doing theology. Theology explains revelation and faith in a language that humans can understand, aided by philosophy. Indeed, Augustine developed his theology with the help of Plato’s philosophy, Thomas Aquinas with Aristotle’s philosophy, and in modern times, Father Karl Rahner with the help of Heidegger’s philosophy.
