My presentation here is really an exposition of chapter three of the book, God, an introduction to problems in theology.

And I think it's really a wonderful place to consider Fabro's account of the proofs of the existence of God and his unique contribution.

And so my task here is really expository, and I'll just say a few kind of reflective

remarks at the end as well.

So Fabro begins this section by just orienting us in terms of the church's magisterium.

What is the church really said as a matter of guidance for us

on the possibility of a rational demonstration of God's existence?

He really wants to give us a sense of the importance of this issue.

It says the intellect tends to truth, and so everyone, regardless of where they're at,

is forced to pose the problem of God. And the meaning and value of truth has its foundation

in God. He's the essential truth. And every created truth is truth by participation in him.

So the existence of God is the problem of problems.

It's a consummation of philosophy and of ordinary and scientific human knowledge.

So the orientation of our life in a way depends on it.

And yet at the same time, God's not an object of sense experience, so we have to seek him through reflection and discursive reasoning.

That's Fabro's little intro.

And then he takes us, really I think this is one of the great contributions to just orient us in terms of the church's statements on the possibility of the rational demonstration

of God's existence. And he begins where with the clearest and kind of strongest statement

we find in Vatican 1 in the document de Philius. Quote, if anyone shall have said that the one true God, our creator, and Lord, cannot be

known with certitude by those things which have been made by the natural light of human reason.

Let him be anathema, according to the anathema kind of form of saying things.

And then it cites Romans, the beginning of Romans.

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