Faith is unavoidable as faith attempts to answer the questions that perplex the whole of society. Humans inherently seek solutions, to feel as though they can reason and use logic to understand what confronts them. As Wilken’s describes with Augustine, there is a difference between the act of knowing and believing. No one can know for certain the events of the Bible, yet people have the ability to trust in it. Faith confers a trust in authority that was handed down through the actions of Abraham and onto the disciples. Trust is necessary as without it the “sacred bond of the human race would be shattered” (171). Human beings were made in communion- made not to just exist alongside one another but to depend on each other. Therefore, some level of trust is required as the feelings and words of another person can never be felt with absolute certainty.
Faith, not being something concrete, must be developed and tended to just like any other form of knowledge. God does not immediately enter one’s heart fully and completely. There are inevitably points of doubt and points of exuberance. Our relationship and knowledge of God “sinks into the mind and heart slowly and hence requires apprenticeship.” The apprenticeship goes against blind faith, rather a trust in the love of others that in turn reveal God’s own love. It is not sudden or simple, nor should it be. Just like with any skill, faith requires constant tending to and a sense of hope to bind to. Loving goes beyond what is told. Wilkens explains it was through the coming of Christ that “the eye sees what the eye cannot see and the heart love what is not seen.” When the heart loves that which is not seen- that is faith- as it loving and trusting in the “mystery of God” (184).
Kathleen's Theology Blog 