” “In the central part of his Encyclical, the Pope addresses a subject that is very dear to him: the relation between faith and reason. After recalling the scientific developments of the last few centuries, with reference to Bacon’s philosophy he writes that "the reinstatement of the "paradise" lost is no longer expected to come from faith, but from the newly discovered connection between science and practice", and "the synergism of science and practice will produce totally new discoveries, the appearance of a totally new world, the kingdom of man". The "political realisation of this hope" has in the French Revolution and in Enlightenment two essential steps of the "kingdom of reason and freedom". With Engels and Marx, he adds, "since the truth of afterlife has faded away, the problem would have been by now to establish the truth of ‘this life’. The criticism of heaven turns into the criticism of earth, the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics". So he wonders: "When does reason truly rule? When has it detached itself from God?" The answer is that "a ‘kingdom of God’ accomplished without God therefore a kingdom of man alone will inevitably end up in the "perverted end" of all things, as described by Kant". That is why "reason needs life to get to be totally itself: reason and faith need each other to accomplish their true nature and their mission". (continued)” “
