Lumen Fidei
Francis's first encyclical, largely drafted by Benedict XVI: faith as a light that illuminates the whole of human existence, its relation to truth, love and reason, its transmission through the Church in the sacraments, the Creed, prayer and the Decalogue, and its service to the common good.
Background and Occasion
Benedict XVI had written encyclicals on charity (Deus Caritas Est, 2005) and hope (Spe Salvi, 2007), and in the Year of Faith (2012–2013), marking the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II, he was drafting a third, on faith. He resigned in February 2013 before completing it. Pope Francis took up the text and published it on the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul 2013. In the encyclical itself he says that Benedict had almost completed a first draft, and that he has added some contributions of his own. It is therefore the unusual case of an encyclical by two popes.
Structure
After an introduction, the encyclical has four chapters, each with a Scriptural title: We have believed in love (1 John 4:16); Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isaiah 7:9, in the Greek version); I delivered to you what I also received (1 Corinthians 15:3); and God prepares a city for them (Hebrews 11:16).
Central Teaching
Faith as light
The introduction responds to the modern charge that faith is darkness: an illusion that prevents people from seeking the truth, or a leap in the dark that belongs to the private sphere. The encyclical cites Nietzsche’s advice to his sister that those who want peace of soul should believe, but those who want to be disciples of truth should inquire. Against this, it argues that faith is a light, one capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence, because it comes from God and is received as a gift.
We have believed in love
The first chapter traces faith in salvation history. Abraham hears a word that calls him and promises a future; Israel’s faith is a memory of God’s deeds and an expectation of their fulfilment, and idolatry is the opposite of faith, a fragmentation of life among many desires. In Christ faith reaches its fullness: Christians believe not only in Jesus but believe Jesus, accepting his way of seeing. Faith is the response to a love that precedes us, and it opens the believer to a new life in which he is transformed by that love.
Unless you believe
The second chapter treats faith and truth. Modern culture, the encyclical says, often accepts only technological truth or individual sincerity, and suspects any claim to a universal truth of leading to violence. But faith without truth would be only a pleasant feeling. The truth of faith is a truth of love: it is not imposed by force, and because it is grounded in love it cannot be arrogant.
It then treats faith and reason, drawing on Fides et Ratio. Faith does not fear reason; it seeks understanding and widens reason’s horizons. The encyclical speaks of faith as a form of hearing and of sight: hearing because it responds to a personal word, sight because it lets us see the world in a new light. It also treats the relation of faith to the search for God among those who do not yet believe, and the role of theology, which must be humble before a truth it does not possess.
I delivered to you what I also received
The third chapter explains how faith is transmitted. Faith is not a private act: one believes in and with the Church, which is the mother of our faith. It is passed on through the sacraments, especially Baptism and the Eucharist; through the Creed, which sums up the faith; through prayer, above all the Our Father; and through the Decalogue, which shows the way of life faith opens. These four elements, the encyclical notes, correspond to the structure of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The unity and integrity of faith must be preserved: because faith is one, to reject one article is to damage the whole, and the Magisterium serves to keep faith whole.
God prepares a city for them
The fourth chapter shows how faith serves the common good. Faith illuminates the family, founded on the stable union of man and woman in marriage; social life, by revealing the dignity of each person and the meaning of fraternity; and creation, which faith teaches us to respect as a gift. It also gives light in suffering: faith does not explain all suffering, but it gives the presence of Christ, who shared it. The encyclical ends with Mary, blessed because she believed.
Theological Significance
Lumen Fidei is the first papal encyclical devoted wholly to faith since the teaching of Vatican I’s Dei Filius, which it presupposes. It develops the classical doctrine of faith, a supernatural virtue by which, under grace, we believe what God has revealed on the authority of God revealing, in a more personal and biblical register. The emphasis on faith as a light that enables sight complements the manual tradition’s account of faith as an assent of the intellect.
It also connects the doctrine of faith with ecclesiology: the act of faith is personal but never solitary, and its content is given through the Church. Its argument that faith and truth stand or fall together addresses the relativism Benedict XVI had criticised throughout his ministry.
For readers of this site, the encyclical belongs with the tract on Apologetics, which treats the act of faith and its credibility, and with the article on the theological virtues, particularly the treatment of faith.