ABSTRACT
Meanwhile, the situation described in this quotation very closely resembles that in which scientists had to work in the former Soviet Union where Marxists acted the role of professors of theology and MarxismLeninism was preached as the Gospel. Those who forget history will recall that the church by no means confined herself to discoursing on philosophical matters of faith and reason; indeed, the opponents were violently pursued and not a few suffered death at the stake. No wonder, many guided by the authority of reason alone rather than by revelations chose to keep a still tongue in their heads. To-day, the church admits reason on an equal footing with faith. This change in the church's official standing is explicitly declared in the encyclical letter Fides et Ratio as I noted in my earlier paper (see article 31).
