In the encyclical “Fides et Ratio” of Pope John Paul II of 14 September 1998 it says:

“104. Philosophical thought is often the only terrain for understanding and dialogue with those who do not share our faith.

This is a great word of a great Pope.

But in the study of Jesus and the Bible this unique terrain is destroyed by the theologians by excluding reason and philosophical thought.

Reason and philosophical thinking are unfortunately, as in medieval scholasticism, appropriated as maidservants of theology. Thus the theologians have robbed themselves of the only basis for discussion on which they could present their faith to dissenters.