NSoC 18: Faith

See Notes on this series...

A wrong idea about faith will hinder your quest to be a contemplative.

So declares Merton, and to back that up he lists a variety of things that faith is not. When he gets around to saying what faith is, he defines it foundationally as an "intellectual assent," namely possessing truth that could not be obtained by mere natural means. In other words, there is no natural reason the things we have faith in are either true or false. Something else drives our acceptance of them. Our reason alone can't tell us anything about God. In the matter at hand, our intellectual assent to the truth that God has revealed himself is based on the authority we believe him to have to do so (if I've read Merton correctly).

Faith is more than just intellectual assent, Merton continues. It has substance, also. We don't assent to just an idea about God, but to God himself. Faith is not just beliefs about God, but trust in God. Arguments, controversies, hatreds and divisions result when our faith goes no farther than the idea. The ideas are important, of course, for we are seeking truth, and that truth is revealed to us through the ideas by the ultimate object of our faith, God himself. We must strive for the right ideas and defend them to the death, but we must not forget that they are to transform us, not transfix us.

Finally, Merton says, faith is "the only key to the universe." None of the critical questions we have about the meaning of life can be answered without it.

Quaff:
I recently heard a very brief synopsis of post-Enlightenment thought that bifurcated theology into branches: systematics and ethics. In other words, the study of theology and the practice of theology were separated. I see parallels in this definition and Merton's admonition not to divorce the idea of God from the person of God, or to keep climbing upwards once the idea is reached, for we aren't to the top yet.

Any time I speak, teach, or write I do so with fear of speaking, teaching, or writing something wrong. Sometimes that fear prods me to deeper study. Sometimes it paralyzes me from taking too great a stand. Most times, if I would just climb a little higher, and rest in who God is rather than what I think I know about him, these things might sort themselves out.

Query:

• How do I take the ideas I have about God and turn them into true faith in God?
• When I talk to others about God, do I direct them to him as an idea or as a person?
• How does the Church keep from majoring on the ideas it differs on and minoring on the relationships it shares in Christ?