Believing in order to know and knowing what one believes

an Augustinian proposal of the relationship between faith and knowledge

Abstract

This article intends to present how Saint Augustine treated the relationship between faith and knowledge, based on his characteristic phrase: "I believe so that I may understand". He develops a harmonious and complementary view of this relationship, bequeathing this same perspective to the entire later tradition of Christian philosophers,
as an example we have Anselm and Abelard. Within this context, we sought to answer the following questions: What is the place of faith in knowledge? What is the place of knowledge in faith? Does knowledge necessarily deny the faith's help? Does faith need the justifications and verifications of knowledge in the face of what it believes? Hence, ahe answers followed Saint Augustine's ideas about the relationship between faith and knowledge.