Faith

This article discusses faith in a religious context.

Overview

The whole purpose of religion is to promote reunion with God, the Creator. Establishing human faith and faithfulness is the core project and requirement God is looking for in men and women, his children. The vehicle he uses on earth are the various notions and personages called Messiah, Savior, Son of Man, etc, in the Old and New Testaments of the Judeo Christian traditions, and by other names in Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, in addition to the many other religious traditions. A question found in the New Testament, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8), embraces the need for some precondition in man (faith) and the coming of a human vehicle, Savior, through whom God works to establish a gateway for the reunion. This article will discuss faith in this context.

Meaning: Faith vs Belief

The word faith has various meanings; its central meaning is similar to "belief", "trust" or "confidence", but unlike these terms, "faith" tends to imply a trans-personal rather than interpersonal relationship with God or a higher power. On the other hand, the object of faith can be a person (or even an inanimate object or state of affairs) or a proposition (or body of propositions, such as a religious credo). In each case, however, the faithful subject's faith is in an object, or some aspect of an object that cannot be rationally proven or objectively known, although it may be experientially known. So, we can say that faith is a firm or unquestioned belief in something for which there is no visible proof. It is, therefore, an act or state of wholeheartedly and steadfastly believing in the existence, power and benevolence of a supreme being having confidence in his care, and loyalty to his will as it is understood.

Belief, on the other hand, is a mental acceptance or assent to something offered as true, with or without certainty, according to common usage and dictionary definitions. What is most distinguishable in the definitions is the fullness of certainty, or conviction. Example: I have belief in my ability to distinguish between the two, but lack the faith to be certain of it. Thus, the level of acceptance is crucial to establishing faith. I may have faith in God or faith in myself, but both reveal a level of conviction (acceptance) that has been confirmed by positive personal experience. And so, we can speak of absolute faith. But, belief can not be spoken of so confidently, even many use the terms interchangeably. Ultimately, faith in God, for example, incorporates certain beliefs about God, adding intellectual and common sense agreement and/or experience into the equation, resulting in acceptance and conviction.

Faith, therefore, stands upon the foundation of belief, or the accumulation of beliefs about God. Here, a rational is given for faith, in terms of sufficient support to make a fairly confident claim of faith. It follows from an "I have faith in God because . . . " type of statement. This relates more to indirect evidence of experience than more personal experience. A faith in God resting upon such more intellectual and rational foundation might not, during a severe test, hold-up as well as a faith which is grounded in real religious experience. In this way, belief is understood as a more cognitive function and faith as a unique commitment to an ultimate fundamental decision, or "ultimate concern," to borrow a phrase from Paul Tillich, which stands upon real personal religious experience and around which life is organized. In other words, there is a dynamic interplay between the two.

Finally, some religious believers and many of their critics often use the term "faith" as the affirmation of belief without an ongoing test of evidence, and even despite evidence apparently to the contrary. Most Jews, Christians and Muslims admit that whatever particular evidence or reason they may possess that their God exists and is deserving of trust, is not ultimately the basis for their faith or believing. Thus, in this sense faith refers to belief beyond evidence or logical arguments, sometimes called "implicit faith". Another form of this kind of faith is fismsmsmsm]]: one ought to believe that God exists, but one should not base that belief on any other beliefs; one should, instead, accept it without any reasons at all. Faith in this sense, grounded simply in the sincerity of faith, belief on the basis of believing, is often associated religious thinkers; his views are presented in Fear and Trembling.

Faith in Religious Contexts

In particular religious contexts, "faith" has several different meanings. Sometimes, faith means a belief in the 'existence' of a deity, and can be used to distinguish individual belief in deities from belief in deities within religion. However, it can also be used in the context of belief in deities within religions. Many Hindus, Jews, Christians and Muslims claim that there is adequate historical evidence of their God's existence and their God's interaction with human beings. As such, they may believe that there is no need for "faith" in God in the sense of belief against or despite evidence; rather, they hold that evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that their God certainly exists, and that particular beliefs, concerning who or what their God is and why this God is to be trusted, are vindicated by evidence in the historical record and by logic. For people in this category, "faith" in a God simply means "belief that one has knowledge of [any particular] God."

Sometimes, it means 'loyalty' to one's religion. It is in the latter sense in which one can speak of, for example, "the Catholic faith" or "the Islamic faith." For creedal religions, faith also means that one accepts the religious tenets of the religion as true. For non-creedal religions, faith often means that one is loyal to a particular religious community. In general, faith means being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see with your physical senses, but may otherwise sense or experience with your spiritual senses.

And at times, faith means a belief in a 'relationship' with a deity. In this case, "faith" is used in the sense of "fidelity." Such a commitment need not be blind or submissive, although it often shares these types of characteristics. For many Jews, for example, the Hebrew Bible and Talmud depict a committed but contentious relationship between their God and the Children of Israel. For quite a lot of people, faith or the lack thereof, is an important part of their identities. E.g. a person will identify him or herself as a Jew or a Muslim or a skeptic.

Conclusions

Many religious rationalists, as well as non-religious people, criticise implicit faith as being irrational. In this view, belief should be restricted to what is directly supportable by logic or evidence. It is logically impossible that many of the mutually contradictory beliefs in the major faiths, not to mention the myriad others, can be simultaneously true. Therefore, it must be admitted that the majority of believers have faith in a belief system which is likely to be partially true, or at least somewhat incongruent with other believers and belief sysems, and about which they likely have some difficulty describing to other believers. Indeed, some religious observers and even traditions, especially Hinduism, hold the view that the several different faiths are just aspects of the ultimate truth, and mostly have difficulty in identifying the common ground they share, and in adequately describing, or even understanding clearly, their uniquenesses. These observers see the different religions as just different paths to the same goal. This does not explain away all logical contradictions between faiths, but these traditions and observers say that all seeming contradictions will be understood once a person has an experience of the Hindu concept of moksha, or some other similar experience from other traditions, of the central unity among the faiths.

In sum, the precondition of human "faithfullness," appears a common strand in the major religious traditions, if not all religious traditions, and the basis for reunion or unity with the object of faith at every level, be it with a spouce, other family members, one's community, faith tradition, and ultimately with the Creator. Thus, faith connotes a response, or a active demonstration of responsibility, which works to create unity and a community of the faithful governed by universal principles which create a commonality of purpose and goals.

Judaism

Section under development. See Jewish Principles of Faith

Christianity

Faith in Christianity is central to salvation, with Catholic notions apparently adhering to the premise that humankind can be saved by faith alone, referring to faith in Jesus as the Savior and Messiah of all humankind; while Protestant groups generally agree that salvation is dependent on faith in Jesus as the Savior, God the creator, and on works, although there are myriad variations on these points within the hundreds of denominations in Protestantism. While the precise meaning and content of faith in Christianity differs in some respects between the various Christian traditions, there is much common ground. Hebrews Chapter 11, Verse 1 begins the "great chapter" on faith in the New Testament of the Holy Bible: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen," (discussed above). It is observed that the contribution of Christianity to the religious world, is its clarification of the "object" of faith and the "goal" of faith. Clearly, the object of faith in Christianity is Jesus, the Messiah, and the goal is the salvation he ultimately offers to those who have faith in him.

For more, see: Salvation and Salvation in Christianity

Islam

Section under development

Buddhism

Faith (saddha/ sraddha) is an important constituent element of the teachings of the Buddha - both in the Theravada tradition as in the Mahayana. While not of the blind variety and on occasion linked with insight (prajna), Buddhist faith (as advocated by the Buddha of the various scriptures) nevertheless requires a degree of trusting confidence and belief 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, on his unexcelled role as teacher of both humans and gods, in the truth of his Dharma (spiritual Doctrine), and in his Sangha (community of spiritually developed followers). Faith in Buddhism functions as a form of motor, which propels the Buddhist practitioner towards the goal of Awakening (bodhi) and Nirvana.

For more, see Faith in Buddhism

For notions of Faith in other Traditions, and related topics, go to

Faith in Islam
Faith in Judaism
Apostasy
Belief
Religious conversion
Rationalism

External links

Classic reflections on the nature of faith

Martin Buber I and Thou
Paul Tillich The Dynamics of Faith

The Reformation view of faith

John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion
R.C. Sproul, Faith Alone

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