Credo quia absurdum

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Credo quia absurdum is a Latin phrase of uncertain origin. It means "I believe because it is absurd." One possible provenance is that it is derived from a poorly remembered or misquoted passage in Tertullian's De Carne Christi defending the tenets of Catholicism against docetism which reads in the original Latin:

Natus est Dei Filius; non pudet, quia pudendum est: et mortuus est Dei Filius; prorsus credible est, quia ineptum est: et sepultus resurrexit; certum est, quia impossibile.

(Translation: "The Son of God was born: there is no shame, because it is shameful. And the Son of God died: it is wholly credible, because it is inappropriate. And, buried, He rose again: it is certain, because impossible".)

The phrase is sometimes incorrectly associated with the doctrine of fideism, that is, "a system of philosophy or an attitude of mind, which, denying the power of unaided human reason to reach certitude, affirms that the fundamental act of human knowledge consists in an act of faith, and the supreme criterion of certitude is authority." (Catholic Encyclopedia). Fideism as a school of thought was rejected by Church in the middle ages.

Tertullian's quotation actually implies a rejection of Fideism, in that he asserts that the Apostles, being reasonable people, would not have believed in something as out of the ordinary as the resurrection of Jesus Christ had they not seen it firsthand.

However, the line "I believe because it is absurd" can be taken neither as a statement of Fideism nor a statement against it, unless the nature of the absurdity be evaluated in some way. Tertullian believes because it is so strange, and reasonable people do not accept such odd assertions unless they themselves have legitimate certainty concerning them.

The Fideist would believe whether something were absurd or not, because in fact the Fideist -- mistrusting any reason -- would have no means by which to evaluate that absurdity, and so would necessarily have recourse solely to authority. This stance finds nothing in common with the Catholic theological and intellectual tradition of Tertullian's time, of the time of St. Thomas, or of our own day.

It has also been used, though often in different interpretations, by some existentialists.