Monday, 22 August 2005

What is faith?

I have tried a couple of times to explain what I think “theology” is all about (here and here). But since this is a blog for “faith and theology,” I should also have a go at explaining what I mean by “faith.” And I can hardly do better here than to quote Eberhard Jüngel:

“The faith of human beings is their heartfelt Yes to Jesus Christ and to the divine judgement that has been passed and enacted. This Yes comes from the heart, because the divine judgement has come into the heart of believers, striking them in the centre of their existence.... The affirmation, the Yes that the believer says to God’s judgement, is not just some arbitrary word which could just as well be replaced by some other word. Rather, by this Yes ... the whole person, human existence as a whole, is expressing itself. The Yes of faith is the most concentrated expression of human existence. When we believe, our whole existence becomes a single Yes by which we are affirming God’s decisive judgement over all human existence and thus over our own existence.” —Eberhard Jüngel, Justification: The Heart of the Christian Faith(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2001), p. 238.

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

my experience with faith has been
one in which i made a multitude of errors because it wasn't theology
but a personal experience seeking salvation. the point i'm making is the difference between bible study
theology , and the war torn experience of faith which needs to realize it's just a beginning mostly made up of a mystical experience which ignores theology and traditional bible study.i believe these experiences shared with theology and traditional methods of learning faith can be strengthened for the enlightenment of all involved!

Anonymous said...

"blessed is he who doesn't see yet still believes"a line from scripture that sums faith up for me,as a farmer plants his seeds in his fields to bear fruit , a man plants seeds in his heart to grow in his faith,the farmer needs sunshine and rain, the man needs prayer and complete surrender,as the farmer and man sow their seeds one reaps fruit the other faith..

steve sawczuk said...

my experience with faith has been
one in which i made a multitude of errors because it wasn't theology
but a personal experience seeking salvation. the point i'm making is the difference between bible study
theology , and the war torn experience of faith which needs to realize it's just a beginning mostly made up of a mystical experience which ignores theology and traditional bible study.i believe these experiences shared with theology and traditional methods of learning faith can be strengthened for the enlightenment of all involved!

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