It is obvious from all the above that the term “faith” can mean a multitude of things to many different people. If you doubt this, just look up the word in a modern dictionary. But
Page 25
part of the confusion also comes from the similar uses of another word, “belief.” Wilfred Cantwell Smith, in his scholarly study Faith and Belief, has shown how the original English meaning of the word “believe” meant to “give one’s love” to someone or something, particularly in the sense of pledging one’s allegiance to the object of that love. This original meaning of “believe” can be traced to a common Germanic root word from which the modern German lieb or “love” takes its same origin. So in English, at least, “believe” should mean something very sacred and powerful. Unfortunately, the modern use of the word often means just the opposite, and we often end up using the word to describe any opinion regarding any matter that suits our fancy, even going so far as to say which team we “believe” will win the next world series.
As a practical note, I should say at this point that in this book I will try to restrict my use of the word “belief” to the contents or convictions that we hold in faith, even while occasionally using the verb “believe” to describe the act of faith, hoping that some of the ancient power of this word will sink in with its emphasis on a loving trust in and faithfulness to God. But on the whole, I think the time has come to try to gather in all these approaches to the meaning of faith into one basic understanding that takes in all these points of view. To do so would help us to arrive at a dynamic understanding of faith.
The Anatomy of Faith
Looking at the dictionary definitions as well as the various understandings of faith down through history, and even recent opinion polls, it is possible to see three basic meanings.
First, faith can mean commitment, fidelity, or allegiance; this is what the polls indicate that most people today mean
Page 26
by “faith.” This meaning centers on the act of believing or having faith. Dulles calls this the “subjective” aspect or pole of faith, the personal element that we as responsible, deciding individuals bring into this relationship with God and ultimate truth.
Second, faith can also mean the contents or the system of beliefs that we speak of as a “religion.” Dulles calls this the “objective” aspect or the pole that centers on what we believe. This is the part that Catholics and other Christians who lay great stress on doctrine sometimes speak of as “the faith.” I will generally call this aspect the conviction of faith or “faith convictions” — that is, the things that we are convinced are the ultimate truth.
Finally, by “faith” people also mean a certain quality in their lives that involves a sense of optimism, or trust, or, if I may use a word based on the Latin word for faith ( fides) , a certain kind of confidence. It is also the meaning that has caused the greatest amount of confusion and misunderstanding about the nature of faith.
But I think I see something else. Recall the diagram that we saw in the last chapter, the one based on Viktor Frankl’s. There we saw an upside down right-angled triangle with the agent-self at the bottom, and at the top-left corner, where the right-angle is formed, “meaning.” Then off to the right side, “happiness” or “fulfillment.” But we also learned, from elsewhere in Frankl’s writings, that “religion is the search for ultimate meaning” and that “faith is trust in ultimate meaning.”
Now, if we think of “ultimate meaning” as referring to the objective aspect of faith (which I prefer to call “ conviction”), while the “search” part refers to our subjective “commitment” to truth, then I think we can take Frankl’s description of faith as “trust” (or as I would term it, “confidence”), fit it into the third slot, and come up with this picture: Page 27
FIGURE 2
Just from comparing this diagram with the earlier one in the previous chapter, I think it is obvious why there is so much confusion about “faith” and why this third understanding of the word as “trust” or “confidence” has caused so many problems. As soon as we think of faith in terms of trust or confidence (the upper right of the diagram) we must also be led to the conclusion that this type of “faith” cannot be directly sought or achieved, or produced on command. It is, like “happiness” or “fulfillment” in Frankl’s basic scheme, something that cannot be successfully “pursued” but can only “ensue” — it can only result as the by-product of the willing commitment of self to the ultimate meaning or truth.
This is why Frankl wrote in the new preface to his book, The Unconscious God, that faith, in the sense of a “will to believe,” cannot be produced. Frankl is very clear about this. As he tells us, “There are certain activities that simply cannot be commanded,” among them “the triad, faith, hope and love.”
Why did he say this? It should be obvious if the emphasis is put on the “trust” in his definition of faith as “trust in ultimate meaning.” If “religion is the search for ultimate meaning” (parallel to his “will to meaning” in the first
Page 28
diagram) then the present happiness or fulfillment of faith which is experienced as “confidence”— which I prefer to think of as the “security” of faith — can only come as a by-product of the search for greater or “ultimate” meaning.
From this we must conclude that the search for confidence or security for its own sake in the guise of religious faith is no less selfish than any other search for pleasure, power for its (or our) own sake nor any less futile than the quest for pleasure, happiness or fulfillment. It can’t come to us this way. To attempt it is to defy the psychological laws of nature. Thought of in terms of baseball (but in this case involving a triangle rather than a “diamond”), we simply cannot get from home-base (self) and back (with the prize of happiness or fulfillment) without passing through first base first-a “meaning” greater than self. The confident security of faith (second base) can only “ensue.” It can’t be “pursued” directly, or if we do, we will commit a major error. If so, the result will turn out to be something less than faith in God. Faith, especially in this sense of “confidence,” is always a gift, or, in biblical terms, a grace or “charism.”
Faith, Hope, and Love
If faith is, in biblical and especially gospel terms, a loving trust, it is also a demanding one. If union with the God who is love is the only true “object” of our faith, it is only through the love of God, as God has first loved us, that faith in God or hope for ourselves is possible. As Cardinal Newman once put it: “It is love that makes faith, not faith love.”
Newman’s remark, I suggest, should prompt us to rethink the relationship between faith, hope, and love on the basis of the threefold understanding of faith as we have adapted it to Frankl’s scheme. Personally, I’ve always found it particularly difficult to distinguish between faith and hope. As a “definition,” the description of faith given in the epistle to the Hebrews as “confident assurance of things
Page 29
hoped for…” does not seem to clarify matters much. Nowadays it has often been said that in the face of uncertainty, hope has replaced faith as the major expression of religious consciousness. This may very well be true. But is it an adequate replacement?
I do not believe so, for if we were take hope simply as our future expectations, we must ask what our present grounds are for such hope. The only answer can be the conviction we have that because something is already the case (for example, the resurrection of Jesus Christ) , that what is not yet (in this example, our own “resurrection” to eternal life) is surely to come about. In other words, only the contents of faith, or faith understood from the viewpoint of “conviction,” can bring about that “assurance