CRITICAL REALISM55CREDO QUIA ABSURDUM EST. Latin,
“I believe because it is absurd.” A phrase
famously (and erroneously) attributed
to Tertullian. Tertullian held that the
Christian faith is not in harmony with
reason as conceived of in non-Christian
philosophy. If pagan philosophy deems
Christianity absurd, that is no reason to
reject it. In fact, the kind of apparent
absurdity of Christianity from a pagan
vantage point reveals its credibility
for Christianity ultimately makes better
sense of the cosmos. Kierkegaard later
incorporates such an absurd dimension
of faith in discussing the teleological
suspension of the ethical. See also
ABSURD.
CREDO UT INTELLIGAM. Latin, “I
believe in order to understand.” Anselm’s
maxim (based upon a saying of Augus-
tine) that faith helps one to understand
and know about God, the world, and
the self. This suggests that accepting
Christian faith or assuming it as a presup-
position or a first step in inquiry allows
one to have a richer, evident comprehen-
sion of God and the creation. As a purely
intellectual endeavor, this may be analo-
gous to some scientific reasoning, e.g., if
we accept theory T, then certain data is
intelligible, whereas the data seems utterly
inexplicable without T. And yet Anselm
may be read as identifying more than an
intellectual orientation: an initial trusting
openness to God intellectually as well
affectively is an important step toward
coming to authentically understand God,
the soul, and the world.CREEDS. A statement of belief. From
the Latin credo, meaning “I believe,” with
which the creeds used in worship tradi-
tionally begin. Examples in the Christian
tradition include the Apostle’s Creed, the
Nicene Creed (325, 381), the Creed of
Chalcedon (451), the Athenasian Creed,
and the Creed of the Sixth Ecumenical
Council against the Monothelites (680).
The Apostle’s Creed and Athenasian
Creeds have undetermined dates because
of their uncertain origins, but the former
is traditionally attributed to the original
apostles of Jesus Christ when inspired by
the Holy Spirit (during Pentecost), while
the latter creed is named after Athanasius.CRITICAL REALISM. Critical realism
holds that you are seeing this dictionary,
but that this process occurs through a
medium of sensation. In contrast, direct
realism is the view that under ordinary,
good conditions, you are seeing a diction-
ary right now in an unmediated fashion.
Critical realists insist on the fallibility
of our perception, and hence the need to
treat ostensible or apparent perceptual
claims with cautious scrutiny. Philosophi-
cal approaches (positive or negative) to
religious experience in the medieval as
well as modern era tend to be in terms of
critical realism rather than dogmatic
skepticism or uncritical acceptance.