The Task of Catholic Philosophy

Creatureliness as such – a vast and capacious reality – is poised to receive that verticality which transcends the horizon of creaturely being: the gift that descends from above. This gift awaits the embrace of creation’s womb, which unfolds as the horizontal dynamism of existence. Creation is made for this: its ultimate end is the reception of grace, a reception that transforms and transubstantiates all that is. This gift in no way undoes the dynamism of creation in a destructive mode, but rather saves, heals, and elevates it from within transcendently. This sets the boundary conditions by which we are to understand the relationship between reason, rooted in creatureliness, and faith, bestowed as a gift of grace from above.