Journal 3- What is faith?
1) One paragraph summary of the key idea summarizing the topic of the week.
This week we answered the question “what is faith?” in a variety of ways. Beginning with a secular definition - faith means complete trust in something without knowing for certain that it is true - we progressed through the biblical definition of faith and the Catholic definition and characteristics of Faith. Biblical faith has four key components: it is a loving trust, involves periods of doubt and struggle, involves risk, and is an ongoing series of decisions. According to Catholics, Faith is an intellectual assent to a loving God and his revelation. The seven characteristics of this Faith are as follows: it is a grace, it is a human response, it involves risk, it is reasonable, it is certain, it is a virtue, and it seeks understanding. We recognized that faith is a “middle path” or “the Golden Way,” balancing both trust and belief. Those who reason but believe nothing are called nihilists. They claim that all traditional beliefs and morals are unfounded, there are no objective truths or morals, God does not exist, and the universe is unintelligible. At the other end of the spectrum is radicalism. This system holds its beliefs to be true even in the absence of supporting evidence or in the existence of contrary evidence. We watched different variations of the trust-reason spectrum manifest themselves in the movie The Mission, in which the main characters, Jesuit priests, must choose which instances of faith in their lives are more important as they are confronted with the moral dilemma of staying with or abandoning their Guarani converts.
2) List and explain three of the most important ideas you want to remember from this week.
a. The Golden Way- Faith is a balance of reason and trust. It occupies the "middle path" between two extremes, nihilism (reason only) and radicalism (trust only). It satisfies "the necessity of believing in something in order to live" and is much more healthy and closer to Truth than either of the two extremes.
b. Radicalism- The practice of “adamantly believing something is true without any evidence to support that belief, or in spite of strong evidence contrary to that belief.” Radicalism is a threat to established religions and philosophies in that it disregards the reason behind their teachings.
c. Faith seeks understanding.- In Faith, we move to further understand the mystery of God while opening ourselves to God to be understood. Through this intercourse, we can learn to love God in a new and unique way.
3) One image of that reminds you of the topic. Attribute, link, your source.
Daniel Berrigan, SJ (Sebastian in The Mission)- I Oppose the Death Penalty Photograph Project
4) One good question you should keep with you to ponder.
Where am I in the nihilism-radicalism spectrum?
5) What should you try to do to make yourself a better person, a more faithful person, from this study?
I need to work on recognizing the difference between faith and blind faith. In my mind, of course, I know that blind faith lacks any sort of reason while true faith does not, but in reality it’s much harder to tell the difference. Reason and thinking mix until I can’t tell when a thought is based on logic or emotion. Often, then, it seems safer to avoid placing faith in anything rather than risking the chance of blind faith. Maybe what I fear more is the lack of control in the vulnerability of a faith-filled person, opening oneself up to the motives of another. Blind faith more likely places a person in danger of malicious manipulation, and the possibility of falling victim to this scares me away from faith in general. If I can work on discerning more wisely in whom/what I place my faith, I can hopefully increase the power of faith in my life.