Well, what is it?? Faith or belief?
If you ever have time, ponder this.
Once I was in a conversation with some people who were discussing the differences between faith and belief. This, of course, is within the context of God and whether or not faith comes before belief and so on. At the time, I was early in my seminary career, so I really did not feel comfortable in answering the question, "So what is it? Belief or faith? Which comes first?" It felt like a chicken and egg type question, so I muttered that I would answer it when I studied it and "figured it all out."
Silly me, I should have known that we English speaking folks have it all confused.
Why do I say that? Well, in studying Scripture in the original language, the word we translate faith, is the same as the word we translate believe, or belief.
Now, I thoroughly understand that "pistis" (the greek for faith or belief) is used in varying degrees with nuance in the New Testament. But nevertheless, in my mind, there really is no distinction between faith and belief. We've just made it that way.
Once I was in a conversation with some people who were discussing the differences between faith and belief. This, of course, is within the context of God and whether or not faith comes before belief and so on. At the time, I was early in my seminary career, so I really did not feel comfortable in answering the question, "So what is it? Belief or faith? Which comes first?" It felt like a chicken and egg type question, so I muttered that I would answer it when I studied it and "figured it all out."
Silly me, I should have known that we English speaking folks have it all confused.
Why do I say that? Well, in studying Scripture in the original language, the word we translate faith, is the same as the word we translate believe, or belief.
Now, I thoroughly understand that "pistis" (the greek for faith or belief) is used in varying degrees with nuance in the New Testament. But nevertheless, in my mind, there really is no distinction between faith and belief. We've just made it that way.
posted by Bobby's blog at 3:21 PM
1 Comments:
What about Tillich's definition: faith is a "matter of ultimate concern"? This certainly is different than mere "belief." It seems to me that trying to limit it to word meanings misses the point of both language and Scripture. There is "belief," the general way we approach the things we don't know or understand. But then there is something that goes beyond that, that centers our whole selves, whether it be in Christianity or Buddhism or Islam or whatever, something that exceeds "belief." To miss this distinction seems to me to miss a very important part of what it even means to be spiritually oriented, no?
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