PREAMBLES OF THE FAITH (Praeambula Fidei). - This expression designates the truths that must and can be known by reason before, through infused faith and actual Grace, the faithful adhere to the revealed truths "propter auctoritatem Dei revelantis", that is, by the authority of God who revealed them.

These preambula of faith are the existence of God and the signs of the divine origin of Revelation. The existence of God, author of nature, can easily be known, even if in a confused manner, from the consideration of the nature of created things, from their order, etc., which postulate the existence of a creator, a supreme ordainer (Wis. 13:2-5). Therefore the Vatican Council defined (Denz-U, 1785): "that God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of human reason through created things". The anti-modernist oath adds (ibid., 2145): "The existence of God can be demonstrated rationally on the basis of the effects of which God is the cause".

Among the preambula of faith must also be numbered the motives of credibility, that is, the signs of the divine origin of the Revelation contained in the Old and New Testaments and in the living Tradition of the Church. These are the miracles (in particular those of Christ, above all his Resurrection), the fulfilled prophecies, the exceptional holiness of Jesus, the sublimity of his doctrine, the wonderful life of the Church, one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which has withstood for twenty centuries so many causes of division and ruin (Denz-U, 1790, 1794, 1799, 1812, 1813, 2145; v. CREDIBILITÀ RAZIONALE DELLA FEDE CATTOLICA; MIRACOLO; RIVELAZIONE).

Bibliography8 works

BIBL.: J. Ottiger, Theologia fundamentalis, I, Friburgo in Br. 1897, pp. 640-846; A. H. Lépicier, Del miracolo, Roma 1901; J. de Tonquédec, Introduction à l'étude du merveilleux et du miracle, Parigi 1916; A. Zacchi, Il miracolo, Milano 1923; id., Dio, Roma 1930; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, Dieu, 6ª ed., Parigi 1936, pp. 226-41, 314-42; id., De Revelatione, I, 4ª ed., Roma 1945, pp. 236-59, 274-90, 492; II, 4ª ed., ivi 1945, pp. 92-97, 122-23, 305-60.

Reginaldo Garrigou-Lagrange

@incollection{ec9_preamboli_della_fede_prawambul, author = {Garrigou-Lagrange, Reginaldo}, title = {Preamboli della Fede (Prawambula Fidei)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1897--1898}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/preamboli-della-fede-prawambula-fidei} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Preambles of the Faith (Praeambula Fidei)

About this entry