Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T09:09:49.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Faith and Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Steven Matthysse
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Pitzer College, Claremont, California

Extract

As traditionally understood, faith rests on an interior illumination which makes the believer certain that the doctrine proposed for belief is true. St Thomas calls this illumination ‘the light of faith’, and Calvin, ‘the interior testimony of the Holy Spirit.’ The claim of certainty encounters some serious difficulties, however, and it seems tome we have to accept an interpretation of the ‘light of faith’ in which some doubts are left unresolved. Faith turns out not to be a simple state at all, but is composed of three distinct elements. The first element is an intuition that what is proposed for belief is true, which is accompanied by hesitation and fear of error. The second element is the infusion of a doubt-free state, in which doubts, while not resolved, are removed to the periphery of consciousness, and lose their power to cause anxiety. The third element is an intuition which makes the believer certain that he is morally required to allow this state to continue. Although many of the sources I will be discussing use ‘faith’ in an exclusively Christiansense, I believe my conclusions will hold for theistic faith in general.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 253 note 1 See also Schepers, Maurice B., ‘The Interior Testimony of the Holy Spirit—a Critique of Calvinist Doctrine.’ Part One. The Thomist (1965), Vol. 29, pp. 140–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 253 note 2 Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion. ed. McNeill, John T.. Philadelphia, The West minster Press, 1960Google Scholar (Library of Christian Classics, Vol. 20), I, vii, 4, p. 78.

page 253 note 3 Calvin, I, vii, 4, p. 79.

page 254 note 1 Aquinas, St Thomas, ‘Summa Theologica’. In Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ed. Pegis, Anton C. (N.Y., Random House, 1945), Vol. 2. II–II, q. 1, a. 5, ad. 1, p. 1062.Google Scholar

page 254 note 2 Ibid., II-II, q. 2, a. 9, ad. 3, p. 1088.

page 254 note 3 Aubert, Roger, Le Problème de L'Acte de Foi (Louvain, E. Warny, 1945).Google Scholar

page 254 note 4 Duroux, Benoit, La Psychologic de la Foi Chez Saint Thomas d' Aquin (Paris, Desclée, 1963).Google Scholar

page 255 note 1 Edwards, Jonathan, Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, ed. Smith, John E. (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1959), p. 306.Google Scholar

page 255 note 2 Rousselot, Pierre, ‘Les Yeux de la Foi.’ In Recherches de Science Religieuse, vol. 1, pp. 241–59, 444–75 (1910). P. 251.Google Scholar

page 256 note 1 Trethowan, Illtyd, An Essay in Christian Philosophy (London, Longmans, Green, 1954), p. 161.Google Scholar

page 256 note 2 Ferré, Frederick, Language, Logic and God (New York, Harper, 1961), p. 104.Google Scholar

page 256 note 3 Gunderson, Keith, ‘Are There Criteria For “Encountering God?”’ In Faith and the Philosophers, ed. Hick, John (New York, St Martin's Press, 1964), pp. 57–8.Google Scholar

page 256 note 4 Sell, A. P. F., ‘John Baillie and Christian Epistemology.’ In London Quarterly and Holborn Review, vol. 189, pp. 224–31 (1964), p. 229.Google Scholar

page 257 note 5 Robb, J. Wesley, ‘Faith Not Knowledge.’ In Religion In Life, vol. 34, pp. 102110 (1965), p. 103.Google Scholar

page 256 note 6 Clarke, Norris, ‘Some Criteria Offered.’ In Faith and the Philosophers, pp. 5860, p. 60.Google Scholar

page 256 note 7 MacGregor, Geddes, God Beyond Doubt (Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1966), p. 221.Google Scholar