Theology: The Basics - Chapter 1: Faith

Intellectual Dialogue and External Ideas in Christian Theology

• Christian theology frequently interacts with secular intellectual traditions and external philosophical frameworks, incorporating their methods or starting points:
  • Aristotelian concepts regarding the proper methods of logical reasoning have been utilized within theological discourse.
  • Cartesian principles concerning the appropriate foundational starting point for intellectual disciplines have influenced theological methodology.
• The integration of external philosophical systems can yield varying outcomes:
  • Neutral development: Secular philosophical tools serve as helpful structural or communicative aids without altering core doctrines.
  • Negative implications: Uncritical adoption can undermine the integrity of Christian theology, introducing distortions into core Christian teachings.
  • Historical critique: German reformer Martin Luther argued that medieval scholastic theology permitted significant distortions because of an excessive and partially uncritical reliance on Aristotelian philosophy during the Middle Ages.
• Modern examples of theological dialogue partners:
  • Nineteenth-century German theologians frequently engaged with the philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) and Immanuel Kant (1724–1804).
  • Twentieth-century theologians Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) and Paul Tillich (1886–1965) found structured dialogue with existentialism to be theologically generative.
  • Contemporary methodology demonstrates that the assumptions and empirical working methods of the natural sciences provide valuable tools for theological exploration.

The Nature and Dimensions of Christian Faith

• Christian theology distinguishes between mere intellectual assent and authentic religious faith:
  • Philosophical vs. theological definitions: In general philosophical discourse, "faith" often denotes accepting a proposition as factual (e.g., believing that a deity exists).
  • Theoretical conviction: Philosopher Richard Swinburne (born 1934) defines a "person of religious faith" as someone possessing the "theoretical conviction that there is a God."
  • Beyond theoretical conviction: Swinburne notes that genuine religious faith extends beyond propositional belief. Citing Martin Luther, he highlights that a person of faith does not merely believe that God exists or accept facts about God, but actively trusts Him and commits to Him.
• Existential nature of faith:
  • Faith provides an existential foundation and framework of trust through which human life acquires meaning and structural purpose.
  • Faith engages both the mind and the heart, prioritizing personal commitment over cold cognitive agreement.
  • English theologian William Temple (1881–1944) articulated this multi-layered reality: "Faith is not only the assent of our minds to doctrinal propositions: it is the commitment of our whole selves into the hands of a faithful Creator and merciful Redeemer."

Distinction Between Content and Act of Faith: Objective and Subjective Dimensions

• Christian theology maintains a fundamental distinction between the objective content of belief and the subjective human act of believing:
  • Fides quae creditur (translated loosely as "the faith that we believe"): Refers to the objective body of Christian beliefs and doctrines, such as those formally summarized in historic creeds like the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed.
  • Fides qua creditur (translated loosely as "the faith by which we believe"): Refers to the subjective, internal act of trust, commitment, and assent whereby an individual person accepts and internalizes core Christian truths.
• Integration of dimensions:
  • Objective content and subjective trust are complementary, forming a complete understanding of religious faith.
  • Faith engages the totality of human nature, encompassing the intellect, emotional core, and active volition.
• The tripartite model of British Anglican theologian W. H. Griffith-Thomas (1861–1924):
  • Mental conviction: Commences with the conviction of the mind based upon adequate and relevant evidence.
  • Emotional confidence: Continues through the confidence of the heart or affective self, grounded upon that initial mental conviction.
  • Volitional consent: Reaches completion in the consent of the human will, expressing conviction and confidence through lived conduct.
• Dynamic functions of faith:
  • Cognitive dimension: Believing a specific state of affairs to be true.
  • Affective dimension: Utilizing that belief as the bedrock for personal trust, security, and existential commitment.
  • Practical dimension: Embarking on an active venture of living, framing human behaviors as direct expressions of belief.

Biblical Foundations of Faith as Relational Trust

• Old Testament paradigm:
  • Genesis 15:1–6 details the calling of Abraham, illustrating faith as an attitude of informed trust in divine promises.
  • God promised Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars in the night sky.
  • Abraham "believed" God, meaning he actively trusted the promise and acted upon it, demonstrating that faith requires placing oneself into the hands of the one who promises.
• New Testament paradigm:
  • Narratives involving crowds seeking Jesus Christ (e.g., Luke 5:20; 17:19) depict faith as trust combined with spiritual discernment.
  • Individuals recognized Jesus' unique status, identity, or authority, trusting in his ability to heal physical infirmities and address human needs.
  • Belief in God is fundamentally relational—trusting God directly—and secondarily cognitive, involving the articulation and formulation of doctrinal statements about God.

Faith, Evidence, and the Limits of Enlightenment Rationalism

• Everyday language distortions:
  • Modern secular usage frequently reduces "faith" or "belief" to a weak or uncertain form of knowledge (e.g., contrasting verifiable statements like "the chemical formula for water is $H_2O$" or "the capital of the United States of America is Washington, DC" with unproven statements like "I believe in God").
  • In theological terms, this reduction is inaccurate and fails to capture the cognitive and existential complexity of faith.
• Enlightenment positivism and rationalism:
  • 18th- and 19th-century Western philosophy asserted that beliefs are legitimate only when verified by logical proof or empirical scientific demonstration.
  • British mathematician W. K. Clifford (1845–1879) encapsulated positivism: "it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence."
  • Rationalist thinkers dismissed faith in God as irrelevant or irrational unless verified by conclusive proof.
• Collapse of Enlightenment rationalism:
  • Modern philosophical critique highlights that the Enlightenment failed to provide a universally valid, neutral standard of rationality to evaluate competing worldviews.
  • In Which Justice? Whose Rationality?, philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre (born 1929) concluded that the legacy of the Enlightenment was an unachievable ideal of rational justification.
• Living with uncertainty:
  • Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) defined faith as "an objective uncertainty held fast in an appropriation process of the most passionate inwardness," recognizing that ultimate existential truths cannot be empirically verified yet remain vital to human existence.
  • English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) highlighted the boundaries of proof in his 1885 poem The Ancient Sage:
  • "For nothing worthy proving can be proven,"
  • "Nor yet disproven: wherefore thou be wise,"
  • "Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt,"
  • "And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith."
• The limits of human reasoning:
  • Human reason easily demonstrates superficial truths, but struggles to prove deeper truths concerning meaning, morality, and ultimate value.
  • German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously remarked that there are "no facts but only interpretations."
  • Australian atheist philosopher Graham Oppy (born 1960) maintains that theism, agnosticism, and atheism are all "rationally permissible" positions based on available evidence.
  • Oppy notes that atheism itself relies on a specific evaluation and interpretation of complex evidence, meaning that belief in the absence of God is an unprovable faith commitment, parallel to theistic belief.

Demonstrating and Justifying the Existence of God

• Core Christian principles regarding rational proofs:
  1. The existence of God cannot be conclusively proven by human reason alone, yet divine existence is not contrary to reason.
  2. Rational arguments offer valid justifications and pointers toward God's existence, though they do not constitute rigorous logical demonstrations or empirical experimental proofs.
  3. Faith remains fundamentally relational (trust in God) rather than strictly cognitive (assent to an abstract proposition).
• The Thomistic Approach:
  • Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), key medieval theologian born in Italy who taught at the University of Paris, addressed the rationality of faith in his major works Summa Theologiae and Summa contra Gentiles.
  • Aquinas formulated the "Five Ways"—five distinct lines of argument drawing on observations of the natural world that serve as pointers (preambula fidei) to God.
  • Analogy of Being (analogia entis): The created world mirrors its Creator. Just as an artist leaves a signature on a masterpiece, God leaves a divine signature on creation.
• Aquinas's First Way: The Argument from Motion / Change:
  • Observation: The natural world is dynamic and constantly changing (Latin motus).
  • Premise: Everything that moves or changes is set in motion by something else.
  • Premise: An infinite regress of secondary movers is logical nonsense.
  • Conclusion: There must exist a primary, original cause of all motion and change from which all secondary causality derives—this original cause is understood to be God.
• The Cosmological Argument:
  • Modern cosmological formulations align Aquinas's observations with contemporary astrophysics (e.g., the Big Bang theory):
  1. Everything within the universe depends on something else for its existence.
  2. What applies to individual internal components applies to the universe as a whole.
  3. The universe depends on an external reality for its existence throughout its entire duration.
  4. The universe depends directly upon God for its sustained existence.
• Aquinas's Fifth Way: The Teleological Argument:
  • Derived from the Greek term telos (meaning "purpose" or "goal").
  • Observation: Natural processes and non-intelligent objects exhibit design, order, and orientation toward specific functional goals.
  • Premise: Complex objects oriented toward defined goals do not design themselves; they require an intelligent agent.
  • Conclusion: An intelligent divine designer exists as the source and explanation of natural order.
• Developments and Counterarguments to Design:
  • English theologian William Paley (1743–1805), in Natural Theology (1802), used the Watchmaker Analogy. A complex watch implies a watchmaker ("contrivance"); similarly, complex organic structures like the human eye necessitate an intelligent designer.
  • Charles Darwin (1809–1882), in On the Origin of Species (1859), challenged Paley's model by providing a naturalistic mechanism—evolution via natural selection—to explain biological complexity without requiring direct divine intervention.
  • Nature of Thomistic Proofs: Aquinas's Five Ways are not strict logical proofs that convert non-believers, but philosophical confirmations that demonstrate the internal coherence and reasonableness of believing in God.

Critiques and Limitations of Rational Proofs for God

• Blaise Pascal (1623–1662):
  • In his work Pensées, French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal presented two major objections to abstract rational proofs:
  1. Conceptual mismatch: Abstract metaphysical arguments yield a distant, philosophical concept of God, rather than revealing the living, relational God of the Old and New Testaments.
  2. Intellectual overemphasis: Rational proofs assume God is apprehended exclusively through intellect. Pascal asserted: "We know the truth, not only through our reason, but also through our heart." Human desire and deep existential longing play a crucial role in reaching God.
• Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951):
  • Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein observed that formal proofs of God's existence are almost exclusively constructed by individuals who already believe in God.
  • These arguments function as internal intellectual analyses and justifications of an existing faith commitment, rather than primary instruments for producing belief.
  • Value of proofs: Despite these limitations, rational arguments affirm that Christian belief is intellectually defensible and non-arbitrary.

The Harmony of Faith and Reason

• Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio (1998):
  • Authored by Pope John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła, 1920–2005), setting forth a integrated framework for faith and reason.
  • Opening metaphorical declaration: "Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself…"
  • Philosophical valuation: Honors philosophy as a noble human endeavor driven by a desire for ultimate truth.
  • Role of Divine Revelation: Human reason alone cannot solve ultimate questions about human existence (e.g., "Why are we here?"). Revelation provides truths beyond the reach of human rational deduction.
  • Corroboration: Citing Paul's sermon at the Areopagus in Athens (Acts 17:16–34), the encyclical highlights that natural wonder and internal spiritual awareness offer corroborative evidence of God.
  • Anselm of Canterbury (11th Century): Formulated the classic principle fides quaerens intellectum ("faith seeks understanding"), indicating that genuine faith naturally seeks deeper intellectual clarity.
• John Polkinghorne (1930–2021):
  • British theoretical physicist and theologian who argued that Christianity and natural science both seek to make sense of observed evidence.
  • Core assertion: Faith is not blindly believing the impossible; it represents a "leap into the light rather than the dark," defined as "motivated belief, based on evidence."
  • Seven key characteristics of the universe pointing to a divine Creator:
  1. Deeply intelligible structure.
  2. Rational beauty.
  3. Fine-tuning for fruitfulness.
  4. Intrinsic rationality.
  5. Partly veiled character.
  6. Openness in its natural processes.
  7. Information-generating nature.
  • Historical anchor: Polkinghorne locates the centerpiece of faith in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth as encountered in the Gospels, the testimony of the church, and the sacraments, supplemented by scientific clues pointing to a Creator.

Faith as Trust in God's Promises: Reformation Perspectives

• Martin Luther's Concept of Faith:
  • In his 1520 treatise The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, Luther defined faith primarily as personal trust (fiducia) in a promising God.
  • Key assertion: Salvation begins when an individual clings directly to the unmerited promises of God offered through divine mercy.
• Three Key Characteristics of Luther's Model of Faith:
  1. Personal rather than historical reference:
  • Faith is not mere historical knowledge (notitia or assensus). Believing in the historical accuracy of the Gospels is insufficient for salvation, as even sinners can accept historical facts. Saving faith requires personal trust that Christ was born and died for oneself individually.
  1. Faith as active trust (fiducia) in divine promises:
  • Nautical Analogy: A person who needs to cross a sea but refuses to step aboard a ship out of fear will never cross over. Faith requires stepping into the ship—actively committing oneself to God's promise.
  • Reliability of the Promiser: The strength or efficacy of faith depends not on the emotional intensity of the believer, but on the absolute reliability and trustworthiness of God, who makes and fulfills promises.
  • Karl Barth (20th century) echoed this view: "In God alone is there faithfulness, and faith is the trust that we may hold to Him, to His promise and to His guidance."
  1. Faith unites the soul with Christ:
  • In The Liberty of a Christian (1520), Luther used a marital analogy based on Ephesians 5:31–32:
  • Faith acts as a "wedding ring," joining Christ (the bridegroom) and the human soul (the bride) into one flesh.
  • The Great Exchange: Everything held by each partner becomes common property. Christ possesses grace, life, and salvation; the human soul possesses sin, death, and damnation. Through faith, Christ takes on sin, death, and damnation, while bestowing grace, life, and salvation upon the believer.
• Supporting Reformational Views:
  • Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560): Stated that "To know Christ is to know his benefits," highlighting that faith provides access to justification, forgiveness, and hope.
  • John Calvin (1509–1564): Taught that Christ is not received merely through imagination or intellect, but through genuine union, grafting believers into his body to share in his benefits and his person.

The Problem of Suffering and the Trial of Faith

• Theological Dilemma:
  • Reconciling the existence of an all-powerful, good God with the reality of evil, pain, and suffering in the created world.
  • Philosophical stance: William Alston (1921–2009) noted that formal logical arguments attempting to prove an absolute contradiction between God's existence and the presence of evil are widely recognized as failed.
• The Irenaean / Soul-Making Theodicy:
  • Formulated by second-century theologian Irenaeus of Lyons.
  • Premise: Human beings are created as unfinished potentialities requiring spiritual maturation.
  • Concept: Spiritual maturity cannot develop in an environment lacking moral choices or suffering. Borrowing John Keats's (1795–1821) phrase, the world operates as a "vale of soul-making."
  • Developed by John Hick (1922–2012) in Evil and the God of Love (1966): Humans were created incomplete to freely respond to God. Genuine choice requires the presence of good and evil; without real choices, moral growth is impossible.
• The Free Will Defense:
  • Developed by American philosopher Alvin Plantinga (born 1932), drawing on Augustinian principles:
  1. A world populated by creatures with free will is superior to a world of controlled automatons.
  2. Forcing free creatures to choose only good destroys genuine free will.
  3. God creates the best possible world, which necessitates creating beings with free will.
  4. God cannot be blamed when free agents choose evil, as God operates under self-imposed constraints respecting human freedom.
• The Suffering God (Passibility) Approach:
  • Jürgen Moltmann (1926–2024), in The Crucified God (1974), asserted that a God who cannot suffer is deficient. Because Jesus is God incarnate, God directly experiences suffering and death on the cross out of love for humanity.
  • Rejection of Divine Indifference: Annie Besant, in Why I Do Not Believe in God (1887), rejected God due to an "Almighty Indifference" to suffering. Moltmann countered that God actively enters into earthly suffering alongside humanity.
• Existential Coping and Discipleship:
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1944) presented a practical, theological response to suffering:
  • "Our God is a suffering God": God shares humanity's suffering, anguish, and pain directly.
  • Role of the Church: The church acts as the continuing presence of the suffering Christ in history, called to share in messianic suffering by bearing the burdens of others.
  • Related literature: C. S. Lewis explored structural theoretical models of suffering in The Problem of Pain (1940).

Textual Analysis: John Calvin on the Definition of Faith

• Textual Source: John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (first published 1536; definitive final edition 1559).
• Verbatim Definition of Faith:   > "Now we shall have a right definition of faith if we say that it is a steady and certain knowledge of the divine benevolence towards us, which is founded upon the truth of the gracious promise of God in Christ, and is both revealed to our minds and sealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit."
• Detailed Structural and Conceptual Analysis:
  1. Trinitarian Structure:
  • The Father: The source of divine benevolence and gracious promises.
  • The Son (Jesus Christ): The foundation, disclosure, and confirmation of God's promises (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:20).
  • The Holy Spirit: The divine agent who reveals truth to human minds and seals it within human hearts.
  1. Nature of Knowledge (Steady and Certain):
  • Faith is defined specifically as cognitive "knowledge," but explicitly narrowed to knowledge of God's personal benevolence toward us.
  • It centers on encountering divine goodness and reliability rather than mere abstract theoretical awareness of God's existence.
  1. Grounding in Objective Truth:
  • Faith is anchored in the