FIDEISMO. – A theory that exaggerates the importance and role of faith, diminishing or even rendering almost null the rights of reason, to the point of denying the human intellect the very capacity to attain any truth whatsoever, even in the natural order.
F. is a philosophical and theological system according as its application is extended to every kind of knowledge or is limited to the religious sphere. If by faith is meant the purely human act whereby one believes a truth by virtue of the authority of one’s parents and of past generations who transmitted it, f. often receives—or, more precisely, is called—traditionalism (v.), whereas if what is meant is the supernatural act of faith necessary for justification, we have f. in the strict and rigorous sense of the term. Alongside absolute f., which proclaims the total and necessary inactivity of reason in the demonstrative process concerning the existence of God, the other premises of natural religion, and the divinity of Christianity, there is also moderate f., or semi-fideism, which admits the possibility and usefulness of certain rational operations, though their value does not exceed the level of mere probability.
Fideism was reached by different paths. If f., as a tendency to assign too little to reason and too much to faith or belief, originated in that distrust of the value of reason which, from the sophists of Greece to modern critics, has never entirely disappeared from the history of human thought, as a system it appeared within Catholicism in the first half of the nineteenth century, in reaction to the excesses of rationalism, and counts among its principal proponents and supporters A. de Bonald (d. 1840), F. de Lamennais (d. 1854), G. Ventura (d. 1861), L. Bautain (d. 1867), A. Bonnetty (d. 1875), and F. Brunettière (d. 1906). They were moved by noble and sincere intentions, namely, by the ardent desire to save the Catholic faith from every attack and defend it against every objection raised by unbelievers and rationalists. In reality, however, by depriving faith of the proof supplied by reason and affirming that it is faith that leads to faith, they contributed, without intending to do so, to perpetuate the ancient calumny which, already launched by the pagan philosopher Celsus, continues to be repeated to the present day, even on the lips of the most serious and benevolent opponents of Catholics. The Church therefore intervened immediately and with great promptness, affirming on various occasions the rights of reason, especially as regards the foundations of faith.
For the Church’s teaching on the rational credibility of the Catholic faith, V. FEDE.
Giuseppe Monti-Emanuele Chietini