Faith

We explain what faith is and what the origin of this concept is. Also, what is faith according to Christianity and Buddhism and what is philosophical faith according to Karl Jaspers.

What is faith?

Faith is the belief in the truth of an entity or a certain statement for which sufficient evidence is not available or needed that turn it into rational knowledge.

Many times Faith is related to the belief in an entity that transcends the material plane.as is the case of the monotheistic god of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, or as is the case with the belief in the cosmos as an energy.

In most cases, faith relates and applies to a religious and supernatural contextsuch as that of a religion or a set of beliefs. In these cases, faith involves the adherence of the person who practices it to divine revelation.

In general, faith is the belief in a god (or in God, as in monotheistic religions), or in the doctrines or teachings of a religion. Those who believe in more than one god are considered polytheists.

Some dictionaries maintain that faith is a word with multiple meanings, so finding a single meaning of the concept is complicated. The word “faith” has its origins in Latin fides (“loyalty” or “trust”), which was the name given in Roman mythology to the goddess of trust, daughter of Saturn and Virtus.

Etymology of the word “faith”

The term “faith” comes from Latin fides. Fides It means “trust” or “loyalty” and is the equivalent of the Greek pistis (πιστις), which translates as a noun-verb hybrid.

In Roman mythology, Fides was the goddess of trust, daughter of Saturn and Virtus. In Greek mythology, Pistis was the personification of good faith, trust and reliability. In many stories he appears alongside Elpis, who is the personification of hope.

In the case of pistisis a term that has no exact equivalent in Spanish. Most often it appears in ancient fragments in which, by context, it can acquire a verbal or adjectival meaning. This makes its translation complex. When its verbal form is taken, which is pisteuotranslates as “believe.” When it takes its adjectival form, which is ratatouilletranslates as faithful. For this reason, every time the term appears pistiswhether in its verbal or adjectival form, it is assumed that we are talking about an act of faith.

The Christian faith

Christian faith is the act of belief that the believer performs based on his own desire and his own will as a consequence of an act of God's goodness.. This means that faith is a gift from God, it is a grace. For there to be faith, the grace of God is necessary, which moves the hearts of his faithful to direct them to him.

That faith is a consequence of God's grace means that, in the Christian faith, the person responsible for the believer's faith is God. However, this does not mean that it depends exclusively on him but that it is the responsibility of each person to make grace manifest. Every believer can depart from the faith voluntarily.

In his capital work, the Theological SummationThomas Aquinas (1225-1274) defines faith as an act of the understanding that assents to divine truth through the will. That will is moved by God through grace. Thus, faith has four basic dimensions:

• Faith is knowledge because it is an act of understanding.
• Faith is a knowledge of truths relative to God.
• Faith is a consequence of one's own will to believe.
• The willingness to believe ultimately depends on allowing God's grace to manifest.

From these four dimensions of faith, in which its relationship with knowledge, will and grace comes into play, three types of truths emerge:

1. The truth that is reached only by reason. These are knowledge that is not necessary for salvation, such as scientific or mathematical knowledge.
2. The truth that is reached only by faith. These are the knowledge that are not achieved through natural forces, such as the Holy Trinity.
3. The truth that is only reached by faith and reason. These are the knowledge that are necessary for salvation and that depend on the use of reason and the exercise of faith, such as the immortality of the soul or the existence of God.

Philosophical faith according to Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers (1883-1969), German philosopher, maintains that faith is not an irrational act. This does not mean that faith is universal knowledge, but rather an act of self-conviction tied to the value of knowledge. This means that faith is made up of an act of conviction and an act of knowledge.

Faith, as Jaspers understands it, is called “philosophical faith,” and the content of its knowledge (what is believed in) takes a backseat because conviction is more important. In self-conviction, the subject confirms a secure knowledge for himselfand that is why it is not universally valid knowledge.

There are two aspects of philosophical faith:

• subjective aspect. It is the assent made by the subject, faith without object, without content of faith.
• Objective aspect. It is the content of faith, what the subject affirms. This is the thesis or dogma affirmed.

These two aspects of philosophical faith interact with each other. Faith is always faith in something. However, faith is neither an objective truth not determined by the subject, nor a subjective truth not determined by the object. It is faith that determines truth, on the one hand, and truth that determines the object of faith..

Faith according to Buddhism

In Buddhism, Faith refers to the serene commitment assumed when carrying out the practice of the Buddha's teachings.. It is also assumed that faith is the commitment to trust in the enlightenment of superior beings such as other Buddhas or the bodhisattvaswho are those who want to become Buddhas.

While it is true that the Buddhist faith does not imply blind trust, it does require a certain degree of trustespecially in the spiritual attachment to Gautama Buddha (the first Buddha who lived in South Asia during the 5th century BC). Thus, faith includes the knowledge that the Buddha is an awakened being, that he is a teacher, that the dharma (his teachings) are true and that the community should be trusted (Sangha).

References

• Jaspers, K., & and Díaz, GD (1968). Philosophical faith in the face of revelation.
• De Aquino, T., Viejo, FB, Ramírez, SM, Martínez, A., & Colunga, A. (1947). Theological Summa (Vol. 1). The Catholic Publishing House.
• New Testament. Christianity Editions, 1987.