The Concepts Of Religious Faith

For many people in the world they have their own religions and beliefs. For some this can be a great part of their life. With it being such a great part with their life, it might be the only thing keeping them going through the day. Keeping faith can be hard during hardship some stages some people might experience would be devotion, questioning faith and finally losing faith.

Faith is a state of mind through which goals, desires, plans and purposes are interpreted into spiritual equivalent and transferred it to infinity intelligence. Everything can be achieved if you believe in yourself.

Faith, defined as a strong belief in something which cannot be proven, has been argued over countless generations. Still, even without proof, individuals worldwide hold true to their faith each day. After studying faith and religion in texts written by scholars with varying backgrounds, it is easy to see faith is something which is widely disputed. Comparison of Sigmund Freud’s The Future of an Illusion and Paul Tillich’s Dynamics of Faith, fully displays the discrepancies in points of view on the function of faith, as well as the necessity of faith, in society; while the comparison of Viktor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and Karl Marx’s “on the Future of Religion,” demonstrate both similarities and differences

When discussing faith is it important to look at the word closely and understand its meaning. The basic definition of faith is “confidence or trust in a person; and belief that is not based on proof” (Random House… 693). Whether someone puts their faith in a person or a religious being, faith can be simplified as having

Many people would agree that without faith, the world would be in chaos. The book Christian Foundation by Kathleen Fischer and Thomas Hart gives an interpretation on faith in our time. Many people would question the definition of faith. Faith is a gift, which is given by God to have trust in him and belief in him. This book is a great entry in anyone's life that has speculation on his or her own faith. The book has many ways into understanding ones own religion. It discusses the Bible, Jesus, Church, God's existence and Images of God. All of these chapters helped me get a better interpretation of what my religion entailed.

Faith is defined as the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. Many people choose to either believe

Talal Asad published Anthropological Conceptions of Religion: Reflections on Geertz in 1983. The article focuses on redefining Geertz concept of religion. More importantly, Asad explores the importance of power in religion. Talal's views were simple, Geertz formula was too simple to accommodate different cultures. With this in mind, Zande divination is a notion that explains unfortunate events. The concept of witchcraft supplies the missing link and inexplicable situations lead to rituals, revenge, and oracles. According to Asad (1983: 243), "It was not the mind that moved spontaneously to religious truth, but power that imposed the conditions for experiencing that truth." Agreeing with this, Zande does not profess to understand witchcraft,

What is faith? Scripture tells us in Hebrews 11:1 that “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (NIV) Faith means trusting that various situations will provide results best suited to help us in some way during our life. I’m sure others may have a different opinion; however, throughout my life, that has been the most accurate description.

One argues that today we have a crisis of belief, not a crisis of faith. To explain this crisis, I will briefly examine the relationship between faith and belief, explain why cultural shift is important to note when trying to understand religious issues, go into detail on the three hallmarks of each of the two cultures by showing how they compare to each other, show how Tillich’s notion of correlation deals with this idea of culture and a crisis of belief, and explain how Marsh’s notion of a “theology of negotiation” (33) fits with Lonergan’s definition and allows him to argue that film can help us raise theological questions.

Faith and reason can be viewed as opposites. Faith is an element of belief, something an individual does not necessarily require a reason for accepting without reason. For example, an individual’s reason for believing in God may not seem too rational when they are trying to explain them. They may not even stand up to criticism. On the other hand, reason is constructed as a formula. Faith is basically something we believe in, like something we learn in church. Reason is something we learn in school, such as a math formula.

Some people believe that evidence and faith are incompatible, that the very idea of faith is that faith is a belief that cannot be proven, so that it does not require evidence. However, evidence and proof are two very different concepts. Scientifically, one can only ever disprove a hypothesis. In other words, while it might be possible to disprove the existence of a god or gods, it would be impossible to eliminate all other variables that might provide support for the existence of god. When one fails to eliminate a hypothesis, one gathers support for a theory, or, evidence. It is this evidence that is frequently the foundation for faith. The philosophical ideal that "faith is trusting in an object or person or belief or concept that you first of all have determined exists or is true via some type of convincing evidence" certainly applies in the religious scenario. After all, people are drawn to various religions because of their own life experiences, and those life experiences provide the evidence that forms the backdrop for their faith.

You can not have religion without faith. George W. Forell states that "faith is universal," (Forell 1). By this Forell is saying that everyone has some sort of belief, they believe in something or somebody. Forell is not limiting this belief to God, or gods for that matter, he simply means that all humans believe in something- money, or education, or the general goodness of mankind. Forell goes on to also describe Christian faith; "Classical Protestantism asserts that God wants fellowship with man and that if we trust completely in Jesus Christ and his work we will have communion with God. This complete and utter trust in Jesus Christ is faith," (Forell 19). I tend to side with George W. Forell and his explanation of Christian faith.

Kevin: You asked if our faith and the Church had a connection yet you didn’t know what faith was? Well, whatever. According to Redemptoris Mater, faith is “contact with the mystery of God.” Faith actually starts as a free gift from God that is given to us. Don’t forget that faith is also a human act too though. Any other questions?

‘Fellowship’ and ‘Community’ are fundamental elements to the traditional Christian view attitude, by the fact that the role of the Church is to bring people together and provides them with a sanctuary to express their beliefs. There is a psychological explanation for this, that we are at a lesser stage of anxiety when we seek for belonging and acceptances from others, thus Kierkegaard argues that this leads to complacency. Kierkegaard further argues that Authentic faith is an active faith in that the movements of faith are chosen again and again, thus Active faith is for the individual in their own solitude. Inauthentic faith is inactive and complacent, therefore complacent faith is faith for comfort's sake and not faith in its truest sense. Hence, comfort comes from the community, that of the Church and the concept that others believe what oneself also believes.

Religion and faith are often used hand in hand, but the two are very separate things. They can work together, or may be used separately, if at all, by a person. Religion can be defined as being “tied or bound by obligations to whatever powers are believed to govern one 's destiny.” While personal faith is something that one believes in, without proof or reason, but they are not bound by obligations. The major differences here that I will be discussing is that of written word, obligation, and practice.