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DSB27
Guest
I realized recently that I didn’t really know the definition of what faith was. I did some research, and now I think I have an understanding of it, but I wanted to test that and hear others’ thoughts and feedback.
It seems that faith, in the Christian context, is the act of the intellect assenting to Divine truths (that are ultimately beyond its grasp) owing to an act of the will, itself moved by the grace of God. Such faith is certain and free of doubt in that its object is infallible truth and its author and perfecter is God himself (Heb. 12:2).
The intellect doesn’t (and can’t) fully comprehend the full object of faith (i.e. Revelation) in this life, and if it is capable of critical thinking, must find aspects of Revelation unbelievable if assessed exclusively from a naturalistic perspective. For example, if you assume that the laws of nature as we know them are immutable, then people don’t rise from the dead. This is why faith is the evidence of things not seen/understood (Heb. 11:1), and why now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face-to-face; why we now know in part, but then will know just as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12). If we fully saw now, we would not need faith, because we would have knowledge. For now we, by the grace of God, bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).
We have faith in Revelation not necessarily because we are persuaded that its content is true based on naturalistic evidence or reasoning; but because of: (1) the grace of God, (2) the infallible authority of the Revealer, and (3) our hope in its truth. As St. Aquinas puts it: ""The disposition of a believer is that of one who accepts another’s word for some statement, because it seems fitting or useful to do so. In the same way we believe Divine revelation because the reward of eternal life is promised us for so doing. It is the will which is moved by the prospect of this reward to assent to what is said, even though the intellect is not moved by something which it understands”.
This means that faith is assent to understood propositions (that is, statements that can be true or false). Some people talk about faith as “trust in a person” or some kind of “commitment”, but what are these things if not assent to propositions like “God will look after me” or “I will do what God commands”. Other people use figurative language about faith to conceive of it as feelings, or as actions other than assent of the will, which are both of supreme importance for the Christian, but from my perspective are not part of the definition of what faith is.
It seems that faith, in the Christian context, is the act of the intellect assenting to Divine truths (that are ultimately beyond its grasp) owing to an act of the will, itself moved by the grace of God. Such faith is certain and free of doubt in that its object is infallible truth and its author and perfecter is God himself (Heb. 12:2).
The intellect doesn’t (and can’t) fully comprehend the full object of faith (i.e. Revelation) in this life, and if it is capable of critical thinking, must find aspects of Revelation unbelievable if assessed exclusively from a naturalistic perspective. For example, if you assume that the laws of nature as we know them are immutable, then people don’t rise from the dead. This is why faith is the evidence of things not seen/understood (Heb. 11:1), and why now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face-to-face; why we now know in part, but then will know just as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12). If we fully saw now, we would not need faith, because we would have knowledge. For now we, by the grace of God, bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).
We have faith in Revelation not necessarily because we are persuaded that its content is true based on naturalistic evidence or reasoning; but because of: (1) the grace of God, (2) the infallible authority of the Revealer, and (3) our hope in its truth. As St. Aquinas puts it: ""The disposition of a believer is that of one who accepts another’s word for some statement, because it seems fitting or useful to do so. In the same way we believe Divine revelation because the reward of eternal life is promised us for so doing. It is the will which is moved by the prospect of this reward to assent to what is said, even though the intellect is not moved by something which it understands”.
This means that faith is assent to understood propositions (that is, statements that can be true or false). Some people talk about faith as “trust in a person” or some kind of “commitment”, but what are these things if not assent to propositions like “God will look after me” or “I will do what God commands”. Other people use figurative language about faith to conceive of it as feelings, or as actions other than assent of the will, which are both of supreme importance for the Christian, but from my perspective are not part of the definition of what faith is.
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