FAITH
456
FAITH
and on vcr. 28, "Faith both justifies and sanctifies without human worlvS, seeinj;; that it contains within itself the noblest energy, and is not slotliful or inac- tive" (Dorner, Person ofChrid, Edinli. transl., div. i, vol. ii, p. 38[t). Hilary (f SGS) : "By faitli we become, not merely in a moral way, but essentially, one with Him" (ibid. p. 418).
2. The Latins, more earnest on the practical than on the theoretical side, seem to have had deeper notions of faith (sec TertuUian, cited above). But the minds of theologians wore turned almost wholh' to the doc- trines of sin, grace, and free will (Pelagian controver- sy), and not to the appropriation of redemption by faith. The relations of faith to knowledge were set forth clearly and strongly, however, in the maxim Fides prcece'dit mtelkctum, first announced by Origen, and adopted by Augustine (Kpist. cxx, 3 ; ed. Migne, ii, 453, cited by Shedd, Bistort/ of Doctrines, i, 162). Compare also Augustine, De Utilitate Credendi, c. x- xiii, where he shows the natural analogies for faith ; c. g. that friendship among men, filial piet}^, etc., are grounded on faith. He makes a distinction between Jides qute and fides qua creditur (Z)e Tiin. xiii, 2); and uses the phrase fides CathoUca in the objective sense, to denote the body of doctrine " necessaiy to a Christian" (i>e temp. serm. 53; and adv. Jud, c. xix). Augustine, saj^s JMelancthon, did not set forth fully Paul's doctrine, though he came nearer to it than the Scholastics {Letter to Brentius, ojip. ed. Bretschneider, ii, 502).
3. In the scholastic period the idea of the kingdom of God degenerated into tiuit of an ecclesiastical theoc- racy, and the outward side of the religious life (pen- ance and good works) was prominent. Nevertheless, the great doctrinal truths of Christianity were care- fully studied, and the aim of the greatest thinkers (e. g. Anselm) was to show that faith can be verified to the intellect as truth, while, at the same time, it is the necessary condition of science, as well as of salva- tion. ''First of all," he says, "faith must purify the heart : we must humble ourselves, and become as lit- tle children. He who believes not cannot experience ; he who has not experienced cannot understand. Noth- ing can be done till the soul rises on the wings of faith to God" (Z)3 Fide Trinitat. c. ii). The great Greek theologian, John of Damascus (8th century), who maj' be considered as beginning the period of scholastic theology, defined faith as consisting of two thin_'s: 1. belief in the truth of revealed doctrines, the — (crric: i'i, (iKoijc (the faith which conieth hyhearinr/, Rom. x,lt) ; 2. firm confidence in the promises of God, the faith whicli is "the substance of things hoped for, the evi- dence of things not seen" (Heb. xi, 1). The first of these, he says, is the work of our own minds; the sec- ond is the gift of the Spirit (Z>j /• «fe Orthnl. iv, 10). "Anselm comprises the whole doctrine of faith and morals in the question, how man ajtpropriates rcdemp- tian to himself. He says, 'Tlie mere idea does not m ike faith, although this cannot exist without an ob- ject; in order to true faith the right tendency of the will must 1)6 added, -which grace imparts' {De Gratia et Libero A rliittio, c. vi). He distinguishes {Monolo- (/ium, p. 72 ; ct)mparc p. 75) between credere Deuni, Christum, and credere in Deum, in Christum ; the for- mer denotes a mere outward faith wliich only retains the form ; the latter denotas the t' ue, living faith, whiidi 1 lys hold of communion with God (credendo tendere in dirinam cssentiam) : the former is value- less and dead ; the latter contains the power of love, and testifies its power and its life b}' love. The faith whicli is connected with love cannot be inoperative; it proves its vitality by so operating. Hugo of St. Victor develops the general idea of faith in connection with the religious nature of man. Faith marks the manner in which invisible blessings dwell, within our souls (quod'xm. mndi in nobis suhs!.stit?it), the real vital communion with God, his true existence in the human
soul. For divine things cannot be apprehended by us through the senses, the understanding, or the imagi- nation, since they have nothing analogous to all these, but are exalted above all images. The only vehicle of their appropriation is faith. Two elements meet in it — the tendency of the disposition, and the matter of cognition. This latter is the object of faith, but its essence consists in the tendency of the disposition ; and although this is never altogether without the for- mer, yet it constitutes the value of faith. Bernard agrees with Hugo in his view of the nature of faith: 'even now,' he sa^-s, ' many who believe with confi- dence have only scanty knowledge ; thus manj' in the 0. T. retained firm faith in God, and received salva- tion by this faith, although they knew not when and how salvation would come to tliem.' Abelard's ex- pressions are also important {Sentent. c. iv). 'Faith,' he says, 'alwa3^s refers to the invisible, never to the visible. But how is this.' when Christ said to Thom- as, " Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed." What Thomas saw before him was one thing, wliat he believed was another. He confessed the man whom he saw to be the Lord, in whom he believed. He saw the flesh, i)ut he believed in the God veiled in the flesh' " (Neander, Church History, Torrey, iv, 375). ' ' Not mere- ly Abelard, l)ut also most of the other schoolmen, un- derstood hy Justificatlo per fidem not objective justi- fication, but a sulrjcctive character of the disposition, which proceeds from faith, the true inward sanctlfica- tion in love which arises out of ftiith. Bernard, on the other hand, was led by his experience to a more olijec- tive view : ' No one is without sin {Sernio on Solo- mon's Song, 23, § 15) ; for all righteousness it is enough for me that he is gracious to me who has redeemed me. Christ is not merely righteous {lb. 22, § 8), but right- eousness itself.' The scholastic doctrine on this point received a fixed form through Peter Lombard {Sen- tent, iii, dist. 28). He makes a threefold distinction in faith : Deum credere, Deo credere, and in Deimi or Christum credere. The two first amount merely to holding a thing to be true, but the last is the faith by which we enter into communion with God. With such a faith love is necessarily connected, and this faith alone is justifying. Love is the effect of this faith, and the ground of the whole Christian life. Ap- plying to faith tlie Aristotelian distinction between the form as the formative principle {tJcoc,form:i), and the inorganic material determined by it (('A?/, matnies), Peter distinguishes faith as the qual'tus mentis informis, the mere material of faith, and the fides format a, when the vivifying power of love is added to it, which forms and determines it. The fides formata is a true virtue, and this faith, working by love, alone justifies" (Ne- ander, History of Dogmas, Eyland, p. 522 sq.).