Faith is a much maligned virtue. In common usage faith is often described as some sort of flighty mental activity that is the antithesis of evidence and reason. I can’t help but feel a little insulted at this misunderstanding of faith, as if one of the primary Christian virtues Jesus calls us to is shutting our minds off. Of course, genuine faith is nothing of the sort. Faith requires mental content, and well-reasoned reflection. I’ll briefly write about these aspects of faith in turn.
For starters, faith requires content, and is far from an empty-headed activity. I’m not sure if my experience can be applied to everyone, but I find it impossible to exercise faith in something I’m ignorant or uncertain of. Faith as an act requires some knowledge of the person we’re trusting. In fact, I would say it requires a lot of knowledge. How much would you trust a stranger? Would you trust a stranger to give you good directions? Would you trust a stranger with your wallet? How about your soul? Why then would anyone expect a person to come to a meaningful faith in God apart from any knowledge about him? If you're a particularly skeptical kind of person, you likely want some sort of reasoned evidence for faith, and faith just ain't gonna happen without some basic questions answered. In my experience, any kind of faith that isn’t accompanied by a good knowledge of God’s acts and commands, as well as clearly articulated reasons why a person believes, ends up showing itself sooner or later as a fragile faith, or worse, a counterfeit one.
This idea of a good knowledge of God’s acts and commands brings us to the next characteristics of faith I’ve chosen: reasoning. Faith is something that, the moment you try to do it, forces you to reason intensely about it. It’s one thing to say: “I believe in God”, but what is that faith in God unless it’s related to other things in your life? “Faith in God” is not a coherent concept unti it has a context, for it is not as if we are bodiless souls floating about in a void with the Lord. When faith is flexed it is flexed in places and relationships. What does it mean to believe in God in the workplace? What does it mean to believe in God in relation to friends, family members, governments, other religions? Faith demands reasoning because when faith is exercised, it is brought into conflict. A faith that does not reason is a faith that cannot act, and a faith that does not act cannot be faith, for faith is by definition a verb.
To be sustaine
d, faith needs regular education. Knowledge must constantly be on the increase. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for a Christian to work hard at increasing their biblical knowledge-base (and their knowledge of the world where they are doing their believing) early on in their spiritual walk, only to cease studying and reflecting for many years. Some may suddenly find themselves having a crisis of faith in their early 40's as they try to get by on the faith of their early adulthood. Or perhaps more commonly, a teenager may find their Sunday-school faith irrelevant to their growing adulthood, and may cast off their childhood faith altogether. In a sense, we are supposed to cast off our childhood faith, but that is so we may embrace a more mature understanding of God. (1 Cor 13:11) Without regular content, reflection, exercise, and age-and-situation appropriate study, a person’s faith will not and cannot amount to much.
You make some great points. Here is my one question though. You make the point that faith needs education. This makes me consider the phenomenal faith of men in Bible times or even in countries where education is not attainable. What would you say about them?
ReplyDeleteGood point. I think "education" can be applied quite broadly, so it need not be formal classes & courses kind of education that I have in mind. There is always food for the soul to be found in creation (psalm 19) and even illiterate Christians can have an astounding amount of scripture committed to memory. (or so I've heard from those on the mission field).
ReplyDeleteStrictly speaking though, I think your comment does bring out a stark contrast of culture. If you look at literacy rates in the past century, western culture has grown in leaps and bounds as regards education. Western Christians find themselves in a culture that puts an incredibly high value on education. Historically, this grew out of the high emphasis on education within Christianity itself. Culturally, people of faith don't always find themselves in that stream of culture, and perhaps in that context my comments might seem abit out of place.
Anyways, to be direct, faith needs age-appropriate and context-appropriate education. I would suggest the phenomenal faith of men in bible times likely had just that. That doesn't change the weight of the imperative for an educated faith for those who serve Christ in a highly educated culture.