On the Conformity of Faith with Reason: Leibniz vs. Bayle

By starting the Essays of Theodicy with a Dissertation on the Conformity of Faith with Reason, Leibniz showed that the fundamental issue of his confrontation with Bayle was the unity of truth. To produce a rational discourse on God, His attributes, and His providence, it was essential to respond to him rejected in advance through any attempt to prove God reason, affirming reason's radical inability to establish solid truths (even in the sciences) and its divorce from faith. The opposition between the two authors reveals two distinct conceptions of reason, of the nature of religious mystery and of the knowledge that we may have of all this. Two interpretations of the " triumph of faith " become apparent: for one, submission to the revealed word is the " reasonable " act of the consistent Christian (Bayle), whereas for the other there is nothing to be seen but the success of reason itself victorious over all " appearances " (Leibniz).