Britannica Sources used in this answer

Why did Thomas Aquinas believe faith and reason could not truly contradict each other?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. — Thomism *St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts*, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

Thomas Aquinas believed that faith and reason could not truly contradict each other because he maintained that both originate from the same source: God, who is the author of all truth.12

In his view, the natural world and the truths of revelation are fundamentally compatible. Aquinas argued that reason operates within the natural order, which is a creation of divine wisdom, while faith provides access to truths that transcend natural understanding, such as the triune nature of God. Because nature and its laws are established by God, they possess an inherent rational structure that cannot be in conflict with the divine truths revealed through faith.123

Aquinas rejected the "double truth" theory—which suggested that something could be true in philosophy but false in theology—asserting instead that errors in reasoning often arise from a misunderstanding of the natural world. Consequently, he viewed theology as a discipline that integrates rational inquiry with faith, where natural knowledge serves as a necessary foundation that supports, rather than replaces, revealed truth.123