RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Faith
by gnosis as the knowledge of revelation, and became nothing more than a rudimentary step in the development of the Christian. For Augustine, too, faith means only the ' ' beginning of religion . " To believe, means cum assensione cogitare (De pradestinatione sanctorum, v.) and assent is obedience to the law of a formal authority which primarily is Scripture, but then also the Church. Faith is decisive for the reception of salvation only in so far as it is active through love. The consummating effect of grace is therefore the inspiration of love (inspiratio dilectionis). Similar thoughts were advanced by Anselm of Canterbury, and Peter Lombard first coined the expressions fides informis (=mere faith) and fides jormata (=faith connected with love). Thomas Aquinas defines faith on the basis of Augustine's formula (cum assensione cogitare) as an act of the intellect which is impelled to assent by the will. Although in the last instance related to the first cause or deity, faith has reference principally to the Church; it is a faith of authority.
The Reformation gave back to faith its immediate relation to the revelation of salvation and understood it again in the Pauline sense as the personal apprehension of divine grace in Christ. Luther describes faith as a living trust of the heart. The assensus, according to him, is an assenting impulse of the will which originates in the 2. The Ref- impression of the truth of the divine
ormation word upon the conscience and heart, and Modern God's revelation, which awakens faith,
Theology, sets all spiritual powers of man into motion, and the assent to his Word and knowledge of his grace are born only with the trust in salvation. Love can not be separated^ from faith. Melanchthon taught the same views, but in the later form of his Loci distinguished between notitia, assensus, fiducia, and prepared the way for the mechanical view of the later orthodox school which regarded notitia and assensus as preliminary steps of fiducia. Johann Gerhard advanced this view. According to it, a rational knowledge of divine revelation is necessary before we can inwardly assent to it. David Hollaz drew the consistent conclusion that such an abstract conviction of the truth of Scripture can be only a faith of authority.
In modern theology Schleiermacher's conception of religion as an original inner experience, distinguished from knowledge and action, has exercised a decisive influence upon the treatment of the conception of faith, by the establishment of a psychological scheme; but owing to his insufficient appreciation of historical revelation, his doctrine of faith bears the traits of a general religion rather than of the Christian faith of salvation. R. Rothe prepared the way for a more definite grasp of Christian faith by emphasizing more strongly the historical and yet at the same time supranatural element of revelation. A. Ritschl defined faith as, trust (fiducia) in the revelation of God in Christ" and demanded rightly that the faith of providence should be understood as the realization of the Christian faith of atonement, but bis connection of justification with the existence of the community of believers led him to the conclusion that the
reception of the forgiveness of sins forms rather the presupposition than the content of individual faith. In general it may be said that there exists in modern Protestant theology an agreement on the following points: (1) Faith does not originate from logical processes, but from an immediate inner experience. (2) It is not a human achievement and not the acknowledgment of a human authority, but an effect of God through his revelation. (3) The assensus in the sense of conviction of faith and knowledge of faith can not be separated from fiducia. (4) Trust in salvation presupposes an awakened knowledge of sin and the desire for salvation. (5) The new moral life of the Christian has as its basis the forgiveness of sins, which has been received in faith.
The conception of faith is usually treated in systematic theology both in a general way as the principle of Christian knowledge, and more specifically, in the doctrine of salvation, as the medium of the appropriation of sal- 3. Faith in vation. In the former case it refers Systematic to revelation in general and is Theology, treated in its relation to knowledge; in the latter case it refers to the salutary gift of the forgiveness of sins and is treated in its relation to repentance and works. Since Christian revelation culminates in redemption, only the faith of salvation is the truly Christian faith of revelation. In redemption God reveals himself as holy love which saves the sinner; the faith of the Christian bears therefore the character of a grateful trust in God who effects his salvation in Christ. This trust has its basis and support in the revelation of salvation which is appropriated by the believer. Faith may therefore be traced back to two primary elements, to an activity of God, in which he realizes his holy love through redemption, and to an experience of man in which he recognizes and seizes the revelation of salvation as his own possession. Because trust of salvation is based upon historical revelation, it includes a certain representation of God and his activity which develops into knowledge of faith; but because this revelation can be understood only by him who seizes it in trust, knowledge of faith can not exist without experience of faith. Objections might be raised against the statement that faith rests upon an inner experience because in this way its objective basis in God's revelation might be obscured; but the origin of faith must be traced back to the effect of God and not to man's own decision. The fundamental act of God which awakens Christian faith is to be found in the sending forth of Christ and in his work of redemption. The deciding motive of faith is Christ as he is represented in the testimony of his first disciples. Although faith is a spontaneous and original experience which can not be derived from anything else, a definite psychic disposition may be spoken of without which faith of salvation does not originate; namely, knowledge of sin and its misery. Christ as the redeemer can be seized with real trust only by him who desires to become free from sin. Therefore it is pertinent that the reformatory doctrine of salvation places repentance before faith.
Faith Fallows