Faith as Understanding

“The atonement is a hard problem in theology, 

but its scientific explanation is, 

that suffering is an error of sinful sense which Truth destroys, 

and that eventually both sin and suffering 

will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.

Rabbinical lore said: 

“He that taketh one doctrine, 

firm in faith, 

has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him.” 

This preaching receives a strong rebuke in the Scripture, 

“Faith without works is dead.” 

Faith, if it be mere belief, 

is as a pendulum swinging 

between nothing and something, 

having no fixity. 

Faith, advanced to spiritual understanding, 

is the evidence gained from Spirit, 

which rebukes sin of every kind 

and establishes the claims of God.

In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, 

faith and the words corresponding thereto 

have these two definitions, 

trustfulness and trustworthiness. 

One kind of faith trusts one’s welfare to others. 

Another kind of faith understands divine Love 

and how to work out one’s 

“own salvation, with fear and trembling.”

“Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!” 

expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; 

whereas the injunction, 

“Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!” 

demands self-reliant trustworthiness, 

which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.”

- Mary Baker Eddy

I don't like to throw books across the room, and it's unlikely that I'd do it when I'm reading a book written by someone that I admire. But it happened last week. I won't name the Author, or the book - it's not necessary for the purposes of this post - but I will say that the subject matter was "Faith."

What frustrated me in this particular case was that throughout the book the Author continually spoke about "choosing faith," as if it was like picking out a China pattern or a pair of socks.

FAITH VERSUS BELIEF?

The fundamental issue is that the words Faith and Belief are often misused and confused for one another. The phrase "Having faith in what you believe," sounds very much like sound advice and a positive affirmation of strong spiritual intent, but, more often reveals a confused state of mind and potentially undermines the power of strong faith.

To believe something obviously does not necessarily make it true. Belief does not determine reality. My motto these days is "Truth is not a belief we choose, it is reality that we learn to accept." I've learned this the hard way.

Everyone has beliefs about something. It's important to know what you believe about important matters and to be able to defend those beliefs. But to place your faith in what you believe is to risk losing your faith when your beliefs are found to be irrational, or, at the very least, incomplete. This has happened to me and is happening more and more to others, as evidenced by the decline in traditional church memberships and the rapid growth in groups that encourage more "open-ended" spiritual discussions and fellowship groups that encourage an attitude of "seeking."

Faith is not the unconditional acceptance of a set of opinions. Faith is an open-minded embrace of the life-affirming power that pervades all of existence - Christian Science and other Metaphysical philosophies refer to it as the Divine Mind or God. This power is everywhere and has revealed itself personally and impersonally in an almost unlimited variety of forms, and has done so since time immemorial.

REALITY CAN BE TRUSTED

To live a life of faith is to meet reality head-on without fear. This is not the kind of faith that the Author of my discarded book was proposing.  Rather, he wrote of the kind of faith that requires constant bolstering, as if it goes against the flow of life. The kind of faith that lives in fear of the power of the "Evil One" - in complete denial of the Master's assurance that He had overcome evil, and that His followers should "fear not." Faith is not a struggle - it is the reassurance that God, the Source of Life, can be trusted - beyond our understanding. That kind of faith grows in proportion to, and in conjunction with, understanding.

FAITH AND UNDERSTANDING

It's time we re-discovered the real meaning of faith. To drop the "easy-believism" that pervades much of Evangelical Christianity, that drives people to an attitude of condemnation of outsiders or those with differing beliefs, in an attempt to "protect their faith." Also, we should be more discerning in appropriating the real meaning of a sacred ritual; rather than falling prey to superstition or false belief that reduces the Omnipresent reality of God into a presence that is only REAL when the right words or objects are venerated. That is faith with no understanding. The Master said that the Kingdom is here NOW - if we act otherwise we fall short of our true humanity - the Divine humanity that Jesus and others revealed and demonstrated.

I wish that I hadn't thrown that book across the room. But I'm glad I thought about why.