Nature and Object of Faith

Abstract

Abstract The term “faith” is frequently used in a generic sense without any religious or theological significance. Philosophers and others use it to mean the acceptance as true or real of anything that is not immediately evident or demonstrable. In this sense faith is an ingredient in virtually all human knowledge and activity. Whenever I read the newspapers, speak about history or science, and in fact whenever I get on a train, eat a meal, or perform many other ordinary actions, I am implicitly making acts of human or natural—that is to say, non-theological—faith. In so doing I may be following a spontaneous instinct, an acquired habit, or a free, voluntary decision. I may be said to be exercising faith in my senses, in my memory, in the reliability of a machine, or in the competence and integrity of other persons. The term “faith” is especially appropriate in the case of firm beliefs involving implicit trust in another person or other persons. Faith in this case is closely connected with love and loyalty. The English word “believe” is etymologically connected with the word “love,” just as the Latin credereimplies a gift of the heart (cordare). Faith normally leads to faithful action, which is a matter of”keeping faith” with persons or living up to one’s commitments. When a person is said to have or profess a faith, the reference may be to a com­prehensive vision that serves to give an interpretation of life as whole, including a scale of values. For convinced adherents, philosophical systems such as Platonism and ideologies such as Marxist Communism serve as faiths of a quasi-religious type. Faith in the theological sense includes everything connected with the secular meaning of the term. But over and above this, it is a response to God as he acts and manifests himself in the world and in human consciousness.