Glocal Christianity

What is faith?

Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church? (John Calvin)

I know nothing – NOTHING!

In an entertaining and informative review of Terry Eagletons book "Reason, Faith, and Revolution", Andrew O'Hehir writes:

Atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens, Eagleton insists, are playing to the high-minded liberal-humanist prejudices of their elite audience and, in the process, are displaying a shocking ignorance of their supposed subject, one that would be deemed unacceptable in almost any other intellectual forum. Would anyone be permitted to write a book about courtly love in the Middle Ages based on several visits to a Renaissance Faire, or a book about Nazism based on episodes of "Hogan's Heroes"?

I hear Sergeant Schultz now!

And I like how Eagletons describes contemporary Christian fundamentalists as faithless. I have often though so myself. Too often fundamentalists confuse suppressed doubt with faith. Mature faith faces doubt head on.

When Suffering From Anxiety

Cast all your anxiety on him 
    because he cares for you.
Be self-controlled and alert. 
    Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion 
    looking for someone to devour. 
    Resist him, standing firm in the faith, 
    because you know that your brothers 
    throughout the world 
    are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
And the God of all grace, 
    who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, 
    after you have suffered a little while, 
    will himself restore you and make you strong, 
    firm and steadfast. 

1 Peter 5:7-10

Visualization in Meditation

In his masterwork, New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton (p154) writes:

“It is faith and not imagination that gives us supernatural life, faith that justifies us, faith that leads to contemplation … Imagination only enters into it accidentally. If you need to use your imagination in order to remind yourself of the Christ in whom you believe, go ahead and use it. But if you can exercise your faith in him without the bother of always conjuring up some picture of him, so much the better: your faith will be simpler and purer.”

As with all Christian practice, trust is far more important than technique, and who you are orientated towards is far more important than what path you follow.

How would you describe your beliefs?

John Drane made this observation in a recent interview with my friend John Morehead:

I did a survey of how churches present themselves on their websites, and one of the first things I noticed was that if you wanted to know how to follow Jesus then for the most part a church website would not be the place to look. Most of them have the sort of information that I guess needs to be available, but would only interest committed members (things like rotas for who arranges the flowers, who staffs the crèche, and so on). Many churches say very little about their beliefs, but among those that do there is a similar internal preoccupation, using buzz words like "Bible-believing" (who are the Christians who would say they don’t believe it?) or "welcoming and affirming" (what Christian would say they are not?) – or offering creedal statements couched in language that doesn’t really tell people what you are about, but constitutes a social marker to distinguish yourself from some other type of church (usually one you disapprove of). All of that only makes sense to an internal market, where you have people who want a church, and their major question is, which one? In a churched culture (such as the U.S. still is, to a considerable extent), you can still grow a church by offering that sort of religious service to the existing constituency, and you might even gain a few new people by offering a bigger or better experience than some other church in the neighborhood. But the real missional challenge doesn’t focus around questions of that sort. Increasing numbers of people know next to nothing about Christian belief, and are completely baffled by internal arguments about interpretation of scripture or theological angles. They are looking for something that will give meaning and purpose to life. In effect, they will say, “cut the crap: just show me that it works”. That invites us to be into what I called the transformation business.

This captures something that has long disturbed me about the emerging and missional church conversations as well: so much of the conversation is inward and buzzwordy. Now I am not playing judge here, I admit to being less than perfect myself, but I am constantly seeking to see how I can open up conversations about Christianity to a wider audience (without loosing my Christian audience!) At times I have thought of going back to authoring 2 blogs but it makes me feel to schitzo. During the break I resolved to tell more stories. But sometimes I think some clearer statements would be helpful. Anyway, this observation of John Drane's makes me wonder, how could I articulate my beliefs in more accessible ways? What do you think? How would you articulate your own beliefs?  

Faith in the Bible

Sometimes I find it interesting to do keyword searches on the Bible and today I focussed on faith. The results were very thought provoking.

I found faith was mentioned 256 times in the NIV translation of the Bible, but only 15 of those mentions were in the Old Testament. Intrigued, I did another search on faithfulness and found that of the 60 mentions to be found in the Bible, only 6 were in the New Testament.

So I did some digging and found some interesting comments in the Manual of Christian Doctrine, which stated:

The Old Testament really has no word for faith, though there are especially three words which denote various aspects of the activity of faith. The most common word for “to believe” (he’emin) stresses the intellectual element and signifies the acceptance of something as true on the testimony of another. The other two words (batach and chasah) emphasize rather the element of confident reliance on or trust in someone else. The New Testament has one very important word for faith (pistis), which denotes (1) general confidence in a person (2), the ready acceptance of his testimony on the basis of this confidence, and (3) trust reposed in him for the future. As a designation of saving faith it denotes a conviction respecting the veracity of God, a believing acceptance of his word, and a heartfelt trust in him for the salvation of the soul. The corresponding word for “to believe” is used with various shades meaning, in some cases stressing the element of knowledge, and in others the element of trust.

So I did a further search on believe, and found 151 mentions, only 20 of which were in the Old Testament. The variant, belief, was mentioned only once in the entire Bible, in 2 Thessalonians 2:13. Trust was mentioned 87 times, 78 of which were in the Old Testament, and many of those in the Psalms.

Now this was not an exhaustive study of course, but I found it interesting to observe that the NIV translators had used faith and believe more commonly in association with the New Testament and faithfulness and trust more commonly in association with the Old Testament.

Blind Faith?

What is faith? How would you define it? The very fact that the phrase "blind faith" involves an adjective should tell us that there are forms of faith that require no such adjective, that are not blind but grounded in evidence and insight. 

I was reading one commentor who wrote, "Blind faith is faith without evidence ... The Bible does not call us to blind faith. The Bible calls us to faith in evidence. We submit that various truth claims, including Christianity, should be evaluated on the evidence."

Evidence of course does not stop with historical eyewitness, evidence also comes from the life lived faithfully, from the evident transformation it brings. This led me to reflect on Martin Luther's definition of faith, here excerpted from "An Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans" in Luther's German Bible of 1522

Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear much about faith. "Faith is not enough," they say, "You must do good works, you must be pious to be saved." They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, "I believe." That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn't come from this "faith," either.

Instead, faith is God's work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. (John 1:13). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn't stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters about faith and good works with many words.

Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire! Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who think they're smart enough to define faith and works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask God to work faith in you, or you will remain forever without faith, no matter what you wish, say or can do.

So, what is your experience of faith? Of the blind sort and the eyes wide open sort? Of the impotent sort and the life transflorming sort?

Faith and Experience

Pagans sometimes say to me, "You Christians emphasize faith but we emphasize experience." But this is to misunderstand faith, for faith is an experience. Sure, there is a confessional dimension to faith that goes beyond experience. Faith is not just experience. But faith is certainly not less than that ... and you haven't understood faith till you've experienced that.

Faith and Law

When talking about law versus faith, is Paul focussed on the relationship between Jews and Christians or between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians?

Although the former is the more common interpretation I am inclined towards the latter. See for instance Romans 2:17 and Galatians 2:14-16 and 3:26-29.

Which way you go on this?

It has significant implications.

Faithful Mysticism

What’s your understanding of Christian mysticism and contemplative prayer? As an evangelical Christian I shy away from defining mysticism as “union with God” for I find the phrase too soteriologically loaded. If we are justified by faith then we are already united with God in our baptism. We are already one with God through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. To speak of a union beyond this risks marginalizing the importance of justifying faith in following Jesus, so we need to be very cautious here.

But is there no place to speak of mystical transformation? Well yes, I think there is, most definitely, but here is where we need to shift our focus to sanctifying faith. In Romans 1:5 the apostle Paul speaks of “the obedience that comes from faith” and in Romans 12:2 he urges us “be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” So yes, the New Testament makes it quite clear we should expect tangible change in our awareness, our character and our lives. But this transformation comes from God’s initiative. We are sanctified as we are justified – through faith.

As Thomas Merton observes in the New Seeds of Contemplation, “True contemplation is not arrived at by an effort of the mind” (p147), “The first step to contemplation is faith” (p146), “Faith, then, is the only way of opening up the true depths of reality.” (p137) Quite simply, union with God is found in faith, from beginning to end.

Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed.
Proverbs 16:3

I am memorizing this verse this week to help me remember, ministry is an everyday thing and that I should seek to glorify God in everything.

Faith: What is it and how does it relate to my spiritual journey?

I have recently joined an interfaith blogging network and the topic we’ll be dialoging on this month is, “What is your view regarding the meaning and the role of faith? What importance does it play in your community and in your daily life?”

The problem with conversing about “faith” is that the word is interpreted differently by different communities. Some would define “faith” in opposition to “reason” such that a phrase like “reasonable faith” would strike them as oxymoronic. “Faith”, they would say, is “blind” by definition. Obviously I have issues with that. Others might associate “faith” with verbal affirmation of particular doctrinal positions, such that a “What is your faith?” question would be interpreted as a query into your religious or denominational affiliation. Hmmm.

For me, it is different. I interpret the word faith very much in terms of trust. Having faith in God is about trusting in God. It goes far beyond mere acknowledgement of God’s existence, and in this respect I am reminded of the scriptural passage that wryly jokes, “You believe in God? Good for you, even the Devil does that!” or words to that effect. Mere belief in God has no virtue. Affirmation without action has no virtue. Your true faith is revealed in your actions.

Following this I would affirm that even atheists have faith or a sort. Everyone trusts in something or someone.

So, how does such faith relate to my spiritual journey – well, I consider faith to be one of the sharpest measures of spiritual growth, along with hope and love. Observing how you are growing (or not!) in faith, hope and love is an essential reality check for both Christian communities and Christian disciples. If your communities are growing and numbers but not in faith, what does that say about your practice? If you are reaching profound states of meditation but not growing in your trust or trustworthiness, what does that say about your practice?

Given the attention given to the Gnostic Gospels these days, what, with The Da Vinci Code and all, I think it is also worth saying a few brief things about the relationship between pistis (faith) and gnosis (knowledge). One of the distinguishing features of the New Testament scriptures is the primacy they give to faith over knowledge and wisdom in comparison to the Gnostic scriptures. Why is that? Well if you look to Proverbs, which forms a core element of the Old Testament wisdom tradition, you will find a repeated refrain that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom”. Now this is difficult to understand but what it basically means is that wisdom begins with trusting God to be God and holding him in appropriate reverence and awe. Ultimately it’s about faith – about who and what you have faith in – God or something other. Though the semantics may differ, the New Testament scriptures universally affirm the centrality of faith, hope and love to the Christian way and that true wisdom is found in the foolishness of the cross.

I have been writing from an eclectic Christian perspective. If you would like to read the comments of others in the interfaith network see below. Jon from Jesus Followers Journal will be writing from a Protestant Christian perspective, Sojourner from A Pagan Sojourn will be writing from a Pagan / Unitarian Universalist perspective, Jeff from Druid Journal will be writing from a Druidic perspective, and Mike from Unknowing Mind will be writing from a Mahayana Buddhist perspective.

Should doubts be silenced?

It saddens me that some churches encourage the silencing of doubts.

Every now and again I come across people who express anger at the ‘blind faith’ of churched Christians. I had one of those conversations today. At issue was the ‘hissing’ responses this guy had received in the face of his questions and dissenting opinions, and his conclusions about churches in general that he’d come to as a consequence of that. I had this to say on the issue of blind faith:

“…the fear reactions you have encountered in conversations with others speak to me of shaky faith. Deep faith is incompatible with fear. Deep faith can handle tough questions. Deep faith can weather doubt, and indeed come out stronger on the other side. How? Because it has faced many such crises before and seen God’s faithfulness! How can you know how deep your faith is until you have faced your doubts? Hiding from your own doubts and suppressing them is a recipe for eventual disaster. Doubt is the necessary state you must come to if you want to grow beyond your current limitations. I came to faith when I began to doubt my doubts, having given doubt full reign. I don’t know all the answers. I cannot. But I’ve seen enough and learnt enough and experienced enough to take the risk of taking this path. I cannot give you ‘evidence that demands a verdict’. All I can offer is evidence that invites further exploration, to be open to being tested as you test things out. I identify most with churches (read: communities) that respect that.”