''Credo ut intelligam'' (alternatively spelled ''Credo ut intellegam'') is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "I believe so that I may understand" and is a maxim of Anselm of Canterbury (''

Proslogion The ''Proslogion'' () is a prayer (or meditation), written by the medieval cleric Saint Anselm of Canterbury in 1077–1078, serving to reflect on the attributes of God in order to explain how God can possess seemingly contradictory qualities. Thi ...

'', 1), which is based on a saying of Augustine of Hippo (''crede ut intellegas'', "believe so that you may understand") to relate

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people ofte ...

and

reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

. In Anselm's writing, it is placed in juxtaposition to its converse, ''intellego ut credam'' ("I think so that I may believe"), when he says ''Neque enim quaero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam'' ("I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but rather, I believe in order that I may understand"). It is often associated with Anselm's other famous phrase '' fides quaerens intellectum'' ("faith seeking understanding"). Augustine understood the saying to mean that a person must believe in something in order to know anything about God. Nash, Ronald H.,"Faith and Reason," p. 88.

References

{{Use British English Oxford spelling, date=March 2018 Latin religious words and phrases Philosophy of religion

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