Credo ut intelligam is a Latin formula linked to Saint Augustine: I believe to understand. The phrase summarizes how faith and reason work together.
Translation and meaning
Augustine's complete formula is crede ut intelligas, intellige ut credas: believe to understand, and understand to believe. Faith opens the door, reason enters and explores the house. One prepares the other, instead of excluding it.
It's not believing to stop thinking
The meaning is the opposite of what it seems. Faith does not dispense with thought, it sets it in motion. Whoever believes gains a starting point and, from there, thinks more deeply. Believing and understanding are not rival stages, they are a single path followed in both directions.
From Augustine to Anselm
Centuries later, Anselm of Canterbury gave this intuition the name that remained: fides quaerens intellectum, the faith that seeks understanding. It's the same idea, polished into a formula. Augustine's conversion, in fact, is the best example of it: he did not believe despite thinking, but because he thought to the limit. This turn is studied in full in ourChurch History course.
In-depth study
Church History Course, with Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Bitencourt
In-depth reading of the work of Daniel Rops, where the alliance between faith and reason and Augustine's conversion appear in full.
Discover the courseFrequently asked questions
What does credo ut intelligam mean?
It is a Latin expression that means I believe to understand. Augustine's complete formula is believe to understand and understand to believe.
Who said credo ut intelligam?
The formula comes from the Augustinian tradition, starting with Saint Augustine. Anselm of Canterbury later reformulates it as fides quaerens intellectum.
Is this against reason?
No. Faith provides the starting point and reason explores from there. Believing and understanding are a single path, not rival stages.
Continue: Faith and reason: rivals, separate or allies? · Fides quaerens intellectum · Grace does not destroy nature
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