Faith Journal #4
by Paul Marsek
What is Faith?
Summary of the key idea summarizing the major idea of the section.
Faith has many different meanings. The secular definition is having complete trust or loyalty in something. The Catholic definition of faith is, "an intellectual assent to a loving God and his revellation."(RB5) In the Readings Book, this definition is broken up into seven parts. It describes Faith, as a grace, a risk, certain, requiring a free human response, certain, seeking understanding, reasonable, and a virtue. The ideal faith is between radicalism and nihilism, and it requires both beliefs and reason. The two main characteristics of faith a described by Zanzig are trust and beliefs.
The three most important ideas I want to remember from this section.
1. The first thing I would wlike to remember is the "Mr. McBeevee" episode of The Andy Griffith Show. In this episode, Opie meets a man named Mr. McBeevee. He gives Opie gifts, but when Opie shows them to Andy, Andy doesn't believe that this man even exists. Opie gives a very farfetched description about this man who walks in the trees, jingles when he walks, and makes smoke come out of his ears. When Opie takes Andy to meet Mr. McBeevee who isn't there, Andy punishes Opie for lying. Opie says thet he can't sayMr. McBeevee isn't real, because he is. Andy decides not to punish him, because although he doesn't neccisarily believe in the existance of Mr. McBeevee, he believes that Opie wouldn't lie to him. He trusts Opie.
2. The second thing I would like to remember is Faith the golden way. Faith is caught between two extremes, Nihilism and Radicalism. Nihilism is having reason, but no faith. Nihilists believe that existence is senseless and useless. They believe that since the world is always changing that truth and morals are always changing. With the truth always changing, there is no room for trust or beliefs, the two main characteristics of faith. "Radicalism means adamantly believingsomething is true without any evidence to support that belief, or in spite of strong evidance contrary to that belief."(RB12)Radicalism is having beliefs but no reason. There are two main types of Fundamentalism and Fanaticism.The ideal faith is between these two extremes. The middle-ground here is having reason and beliefs.
3. I would also like to remember the movie The Mission. In this movie, the Jesuit Priests have built missions in territiory given to Portugal. The Papal delagate decides that these missions, housing the Guarani peoples. Threatened by excommunication, the Jesuit priests stay to defend the missions against the Portuguese army. The character Rodrigo experiences a metanoia and goes from selling these people into slavery to being a priest defending their land and their rights. These priests believe that the Guarani have a right to live freely and die trying to protect that right.
key images:
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Question to ponder:
Q: If Faith is considered a risk, and there will usually be some evidence against what you believe then can we really be between these two extremes, aren't we much closer to radicalism that nihilism?
