Benedict XVI’s 5 Ways of Demonstrating the Existence of God

In the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas famously offers his qunique viae, or “five ways,” for demonstrating the existence of God. Throughout the work of Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI, we find five other ways for demonstrating the existence of God.

Over the course of his public career, he variously pointed to (1) science (and the intelligibility of the universe more broadly); (2) the meaning of life; (3) philosophy, and particularly, great philosophical questions like “where does everything come from?”; (4) the witness of the Saints; and (5) the role of beauty.

Of these last two, then-Cardinal Ratzinger once observed that “the only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely the saints the Church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb.”

So how do these five things point to God, and how can we present these in a compelling way to the non-believers in our lives?