Faith

Faith in something greater is an important theme in all the world religions. Paining by Albrecht Dürer.

Faith (from Greek-pistis and Latin-fides) generally refers to confidence, trust, and hope in a God, person, community, tradition, or another locus of inspiration. The object of faith varies among people and can be seen as a power, person, an inanimate object, a state of affairs, or a proposition such as a religious credo. One may have faith in God or faith in others, but the common denominator is a level of conviction, and an inner attitude towards a greater power or force in the universe than oneself. Etymologically, the word 'faith' is closely linked to the concept of "fidelity," which emphasizes commitment to something or someone. Thus, faith is often understood to mean 'loyality' to a particular view of divinity, and allegiance to a particular religious community and it's cognate doctrines. Yet, faith can also be envisioned more broadly as a form of trust in providence, and has been used as a synonym for religion, such as in the Buddhist faith or the Christian faith.

Faith is an important aspect of many major world religions, and a common theme of human religiosity. According to Christian tradition, faith is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that provides impetus for humanity to move forward, and is said to be especially important when one encounters obstacles in life. For many people, faith or the lack thereof, is an important part of their identities.

Various Semantic Usages of Faith

The concept of faith is deeply important in many religious traditions; yet, the term's usage is somewhat problematic due to it's elastic nature. For example, the word faith can be used in a variety of ways according to one's intention and theological perspective.

It is often said that faith has both a horizontal and vertical dimesnion. Personal faith is confidence, trust, and hope in a person, community, tradition, belief or other object that provides a purpose for one's life. Communal faith is a shared commitment to a common object of faith, which is historically and culturally inherited or acquired. Such communities of faith can be, for example, family and kinship groups, ethnic groups, religions, philosophical communities, political parties, or scientific schools.

Moreover, the terms "faith" and "belief" are often used as synonyms. However, scholars such as Wilfred Cantwell Smith have nuanced and differentiated their respective meanings (Smith 1998). Often, the term faith refers to an emotional commitment based on loyalty, confidence, and trust, whereas a belief is an intellectual commitment based a conviction that the object of belief represents the "truth." Belief is a mental acceptance or assent to something offered as true, with or without certainty.

Modern writers and skeptics often speak of blind faith in a pejorative manner. Critics of faith often describe faith as an "irrational practice" and they argue that one should only accept what is directly supportable by logic or evidence. To have faith in a God or power without any reasons to support such faith is called fideism. Faith in the sense of being grounded simply in the sincerity of faith, has thus been ridiculed as "blind faith." However, faith need not be blind or submissive: both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, for example, depict a committed but contentious faithful relationship between the Jews and their God.

Faith in Religious Contexts

Faith in Judaism

In Biblical Judaism, faith is specifically understood within the context of the Covenant between God Jehovah and his people, Israel. Faith is seen as the continued obediance of the Jews to the commandments that God repeatedly renewed in his Convenants. Such faith is manifested in following the 613 Mitzvot, and honouring the Holidays in the Jewish calander.

Faith in Christianity

The classic defintion of "Faith" in Christianity is summed up in what many Christians consider to be the greatest chapter on faith in the New Testament- Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen." While the precise meaning and content of faith in Christianity differs in some respects between the various Christian traditions, there is much common ground. In general, Christain faith is seen as 'hope in action' which tangibly manifests itself in the conviction that Christ is the Savior and Messiah of all humankind. Faith in this conviction is central to salvation in Christian theology. However, such faith is a gift of God (1 Corinthinas 12:8-9), and Paul lists it along with hope and love as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, Paul states that love is "the greatest" gift but faith is the ground of all else.

In Protestant Christian theology, the concept of Justification by Faith is an important doctrine of various Protestant groups. Protestants believe that justification by faith alone (sola fide), whereby one becomes righteous before God through faith, is the chief goal of life. In this view, faith and works are seperate. As soon as one believes that one needs, or can do good works to earn justification, one loses saving faith. That is because of what one puts faith in, the atoning work of a perfect sacrifice, i.e. Christ's death on the cross. By deeming works necessary we deem Christ imperfect (see Romans 3:22-25). The term 'faith alone' is theologically unnecessary, and is used only because of the erroneous beliefs of those who think that faith can be augmented with works in order to justify.

No sacrament or any church ritual is at all relevant in this matter; full justification takes place at the moment a sinner admits sin and trusts in the sacrifice of Christ who took the punishment for that sin. Sanctification is what follows as a result of gratitude for justification already completed; The approach of some is that good works are in some way meritorious. They are not; they are mankind's duty. In this context there is no such thing as a good work.

No-one can be saved by works. No amount of good works can ever compensate. However, Luther's position is undermined by the Epistle of James which states that people are "not justified by faith alone" (James 2:24).

The Doctrine of Justification is the North Star of Lutheran theology. It is often referred to as the articulus stantis vel cadentis ecclesiae, or, "the article [of faith] by which the church stands or falls." It is thus not one of many teachings of the Church which work together, but rather the lynchpin which holds the entire body of doctrine together.

In order to understand how Luther believes that faith alone saves, one must realize what Martin Luther considered faith to be. Faith, unlike what Luther believes is the common misinterpretation, was not a mere "intellectual assent" to Church doctrines because this did not actually touch one's heart. In fact, he would consider this to be what Paul calls the "faith of demons" which merely acknowledges the existence of God. Luther writes, "Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it." [1] To him, faith is seen as "God's work in us" that both receives God's grace and by its very presence does good works. Luther continues, "It doesn't stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing." In fact, it cannot help but do them because of the abundance of God's grace given for Christ's sake. It is for this reason Luther also believes justification and sanctification to be essentially the same thing.

Luther believed that faith is God's work alone and therefore cannot be worked because it is God's gift. It would be like suggesting a beggar earns the coin a gracious passerby gives them. It was for this reason, he formulated the doctrine of justification on faith alone and did not include works. Luther considered Christ's merit alone to be sufficient and denied that believers could add to that merit by performing acts of charity.

Even so, Catholics and some Lutherans believe that they have found much agreement on the subject of justification (see "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification" by the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church, also linked below).

Faith in Buddhism

In both the Theravada and Mahayana traditions of Buddhism, faith is known as saddha/ sraddha and is an important constituent element of the teachings of the Buddha. Sraddha means provisional adherence to the doctrine of the Buddha (dharma) until personal experience and practice convinces one of the truth. Although the Buddha insisted that his disciples experience truth for themselves, once one embarked on the Buddhist Eightfold Path the process nevertheless required a degree of trusting confidence primarily in the spiritual attainment and salvational knowledge of the Buddha. Faith in Buddhism centres on belief in the Buddha as a supremely Awakened being, in the truth of his Dharma (spiritual doctrine), and in his Sangha (community of spiritually developed followers).

As Buddhism evolved and spread throughout Asia, the act of faith became very important in various forms of Mahayana Buddhism, which very much emphasized the importance of faith. For example, the Pure Land school of Mahayana Buddhism encouraged its practicioners to place ultimate faith the efficacy of the saving grace of Amitabha Buddha. Others placed faith the merit of various bodhisattva figures. Thus, faith to some degree helps propel the Buddhist practitioner towards the goal of Awakening (bodhi) and Nirvana or rebirth in higher celestial realms.

Faith in Islam

The Arabic word for "Faith" is Iman. The Holy Qur'an proclaims that iman distinguishes a believer from a non-believer: "None can have faith except by the will of Allah." Qur'an (10:100). According to Islamic teaching, Iman means acquiescing to a truth of a thing in the heart (heart being the spiritual center). Faith is not mere belief, but firm commitment to a knowledge of truth of which we do not doubt.

Faith in Chinese Religions

The word for "Faith" in Chinese characters consist of two characters ( ); the first one ( ), which consists of a pictograph of "a person" ( ) and an ideograph of "words or speeches" ( ), has a meaning of "trusting" or "believing." The second one ( ) consists of a pictograph of "a person" ( ) and a radical with a meaning of "raising one's head and looking up to" ( ). Thus, faith in Chinese character has a connotation of "a human action of trusting in the words of a leader or a teacher in spiritual matters and looking up to him or her or a superhuman being behind him/her."

Faith Development and Psychology

Modern developmental psychologists explain faith as a developmental process that evolves in certain definable stages. At birth, one is totally dependent on one's parents. The world of the parents, including their faith, is absorbed by the child. As one's own identity develops, one has to distinguish personal faith from that of the parents, which could be said to be communal. Faith development theorists, chief among them being James Fowler, stand upon the foundation of moral development stage theory such as the pioneering Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and others.

A question found in the New Testament of the Christian tradition, asks: "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8) This is a Biblical example of a sentiment found within Christianity, which appears to embrace the need for some precondition in man (faith) and the coming of a human vehicle, Savior, understood as a core element of faith, through whom God works to establish a gateway for the reunion (this topic is discussed further in articles linked here, and others on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc). And, this question of "faith on earth," also insinuates the notion that faith is a developmental process, or at least, that there exist different qualities or levels of faith and hence, faithfullness. Of Course, world religions vary on their teaching of the core element of faith through which, we assume, one's faith would develop and grow. While some emphasize a messianic figure, leader, or teacher, others emphasize scripture, tradition, a covenant or covenants, the religious hierarchy, or other objects of faith. Most religions have some variant of one or more of these, including Islam which emphasizes faith in the Koran (scripture), in addition to a concept of Imam-Mahdi (which corresponds to savior). Other traditions also maintain that some human preconditions, or demonstrations of faithfulness, including prayer, fasting, study, community service, celebacy and other spiritual exercises are required before spiritual elevation and human improvement can occur, or new revelations of truth can be given and received.

Meanwhile, many in Christian traditions, as well as some in other traditions, draw upon the field of psychology to enhance understandings of faith as a developmental process that evolves in certain definable stages. These faith development theorists, chief among them being James Fowler, stand upon the foundation of moral development stage theorists like the pioneering Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, and others. See these articles for further discussion.

Scientific faith

Scientists have faith and beliefs. In this sense they are religious, or sometimes called quasi-religious. For example, many scientists believe in Darwinism, which has been called a "pseudo-religion." They believe that the concept of unguided random mutation and natural selection can explain the development of life on earth. While they can point to reasons why they believe this, they cannot prove it with the scientific method, nor can they disprove those who believe the universe was designed by a Creator.

Conclusion

Faith in something greater than oneself is a common theme among the world's religions. Faith is manifested at the level of personal connection and commitment to something deeper in life, and at the level of a cohesive force within a community.

Though faith has an intellectual content it is an act of the will. It is a gift of God providing the recipient to perceive, all trials notwithstanding, a definite purpose in life. It has an essential place in the Christian life; yet it has a role in all religions.

See Also:

• Belief
• Faith in Islam
• Faith in Judaism
• Apostasy
• Religious conversion
• Rationalism
• Faith Development

Writings on Faith

• Buber, Martin. I and Thou. New York: Free Press, 1971. ISBN: 0684717255
• Calvin, John. The Institutes of the Christian Religion
• Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. Faith and Belief: The Difference Between Them. Oxford: Oneworld Press, 1998. ISBN 1851681655
• Sproul, R.C. Faith Alone
• Tillich, Paul. The Dynamics of Faith

External Links

• Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord Article III: Concerning the Righteousness of Faith before God
• LCMS FAQ: Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification
• Luther's definition of faith
• Justification Article from Catholic Encyclopedia
• Catholics United for the Faith article "It 'Works' for Me: The Church's Teaching on Justification"
• Justification & Salvation links at Dave Armstrong's "Biblical Evidence for Catholicism" site
• Salvation articles on James Akin's "Nazareth Resource Library" site
• Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology
• Articles by Stephen K. Ray
• Catholic Answers tracts

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