Unscrambling Faith and Beliefs
John Chuchman July 2012
In the New Testament
an Act of Faith
meant to commit, to trust, to pledge,
to dedicate oneself;
it did not mean
subscribing to a set of propositions.
An Act of Faith
is a highly personal act
addressed to God.
It does include a cognitive component,
not in terms of a series of propositions,
but in recognizing and perceiving one's Truth.
There are very few references in the New Testament
to belief in propositions,
with many references to
rich, personal, practical experiences
of turning one's life to God.
Credo (I believe)
does not in any sense
signify a theoretical activity of the mind
regarding acceptance of a series of propositions.
Credo is a word that
combines the word for heart
and the word for do.
Thus, it really means
"I give my heart to."
In Baptism,
it means
"I pledge myself to."
Clearly, Faith in the early Christian Community
was NOT primarily about
certain theoretical positions or propositions;
instead, it was about
a personal and practical way of living
centered in Jesus.
In the 17th and 18th centuries,
the content of Faith as taught
by church authorities
moved away from heart and living
while being detached from
Believing IN God
instead being attached to
Believing THAT God . . .
Faith was moved from
a commitment of oneself to God in Christ
with all one's heart and mind
to
an assent to theoretical expressions of the faith.
Church hierarchy
has replaced Faith with Beliefs
with the result that
Faith is less personal and more propositional,
Faith is more passive, e.g. the simple acceptance of supposed truths
without any personal engagement,
and
Faith seems more a mind game,
than a heart action.
Let's help hasten the move
out of passive assents to intellectual propositions
back into
a commitment to live our lives in Love
as Jesus taught.
Jesus asked no one what they "believed"
before he healed them.
He did not say,
"Your Beliefs have healed you."
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