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2. The Church is no stranger to this journey of discovery, nor could she ever be. From the

moment when, through the Paschal Mystery, she received the gift of the ultimate truthabout human life, the Church has made her pilgrim way along the paths of the world to

proclaim that Jesus Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). It is her duty

to serve humanity in different ways, but one way in particular imposes a responsibility of

a quite special kind: the diakonia of the truth.(1) This mission on the one hand makes thebelieving community a partner in humanity's shared struggle to arrive at truth; (2) and on

the other hand it obliges the believing community to proclaim the certitudes arrived at,

albeit with a sense that every truth attained is but a step towards that fullness of truth

which will appear with the final Revelation of God: For now we see in a mirror dimly,but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully (1 Cor13:12).

9. The First Vatican Council teaches, then, that the truth attained by philosophy and the

truth of Revelation are neither identical nor mutually exclusive: There exists a twofoldorder of knowledge, distinct not only as regards their source, but also as regards their

object. With regard to the source, because we know in one by natural reason, in the other

by divine faith. With regard to the object, because besides those things which naturalreason can attain, there are proposed for our belief mysteries hidden in God which, unless

they are divinely revealed, cannot be known.(7) Based upon God's testimony andenjoying the supernatural assistance of grace, faith is of an order other than philosophical

knowledge which depends upon sense perception and experience and which advances by

the light of the intellect alone. Philosophy and the sciences function within the order of

natural reason; while faith, enlightened and guided by the Spirit, recognizes in the

message of salvation the fullness of grace and truth (cf.Jn 1:14) which God has willed

to reveal in history and definitively through his Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Jn 5:9;Jn 5:31-

32).

Men and women can accomplish no more important act in their lives than the act of faith;

it is here that freedom reaches the certainty of truth and chooses to live in that truth.

The ultimate purpose of personal existence, then, is the theme of philosophy and theology

alike. For all their difference of method and content, both disciplines point to that path

of life (Ps 16:11) which, as faith tells us, leads in the end to the full and lasting joy ofthe contemplation of the Triune God.

If human beings with their intelligence fail to recognize God as Creator of all, it is notbecause they lack the means to do so, but because their free will and their sinfulness

place an impediment in the way.

It is essential, therefore, that the values chosen and pursued in one's life be true, becauseonly true values can lead people to realize themselves fully, allowing them to be true to

their nature. The truth of these values is to be found not by turning in on oneself but by

opening oneself to apprehend that truth even at levels which transcend the person. This is

an essential condition for us to become ourselves and to grow as mature, adult persons.

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40. In this work of christianizing Platonic and Neo-Platonic thought, the Cappadocian

Fathers, Dionysius called the Areopagite and especially Saint Augustine were important.The great Doctor of the West had come into contact with different philosophical schools,

but all of them left him disappointed. It was when he encountered the truth of Christian

faith that he found strength to undergo the radical conversion to which the philosophers

he had known had been powerless to lead him. He himself reveals his motive: From thistime on, I gave my preference to the Catholic faith. I thought it more modest and not in

the least misleading to be told by the Church to believe what could not be

demonstratedwhether that was because a demonstration existed but could not beunderstood by all or whether the matter was not one open to rational proofrather than

from the Manichees to have a rash promise of knowledge with mockery of mere belief,

and then afterwards to be ordered to believe many fabulous and absurd myths impossible

to prove true.(38) Though he accorded the Platonists a place of privilege, Augustine

rebuked them because, knowing the goal to seek, they had ignored the path which leads

to it: the Word made flesh.(39) The Bishop of Hippo succeeded in producing the first

great synthesis of philosophy and theology, embracing currents of thought both Greek

and Latin. In him too the great unity of knowledge, grounded in the thought of the Bible,was both confirmed and sustained by a depth of speculative thinking. The synthesis

devised by Saint Augustine remained for centuries the most exalted form of philosophicaland theological speculation known to the West. Reinforced by his personal story and

sustained by a wonderful holiness of life, he could also introduce into his works a range

of material which, drawing on experience, was a prelude to future developments in

different currents of philosophy.

The fundamental harmony between the knowledge of faith and the knowledge of

philosophy is once again confirmed. Faith asks that its object be understood with the helpof reason; and at the summit of its searching reason acknowledges that it cannot do

without what faith presents.