Abstract
There was a time when Greco-Roman culture recognized faith as an indispensable social good. More recently, however, the value of faith has been called into question, particularly in connection with religious commitment. What, if anything, is valuable about faith—in the context of ordinary human relations or as a distinctive stance people might take in relation to God? I approach this question by examining the role that faith talk played both in ancient Jewish and Christian communities and in the larger Greco-Roman culture in which Christian faith talk evolved. I locate the value of faith and faithfulness in the context of relationships involving trust and loyalty and argue that what is most distinctively valuable about faith is the function it plays in sustaining relationships through various kinds of challenges, including through evidentially unfavorable circumstances and significant periods of doubt. In light of this discussion, I set out a view of relational faith and, taking Mother Teresa as an exemplar, argue for two further conclusions. First, faith can play the valuable role that it plays in sustaining relationships even without belief of the salient propositions. Second, in at least some circumstances, in order for faith to play this valuable role in a way that does not require epistemic opinions that fail to fit one’s evidence, it is important that faith does not require such belief.
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Notes
Comparisons of Israel’s fidelity or infidelity to a faithful or unfaithful spouse is particularly prominent in the prophetic literature: Hosea 1:2–3:5; 4:10–15; Micah 1:7; Zephaniah 3:1–7; Malachi 2:11–16; Ezekiel 16:1–63; 23:1–49; Isaiah 1:21; 50:1–2; 54:5–8; 57:2–10; 61:10–62:5; Jeremiah 2:23–25; 3:1–23; 22:20–23; see also: Deuteronomy 23:17–18; Proverbs 1:20, 2:16–19; 23:27–28. All four of the gospels and Paul take Christ as a symbolic “bridegroom” of his followers or of the church (e.g., Matt 9:15; 25:1; Mark 2:19–20; Luke 5:34–35; John 3:29; Eph 5:32–33; see also: 1 Cor 7:1, 7, 32–34). This nuptial imagery carries into later theological traditions. In The Liberty of a Christian (1520), Luther speaks of the “wedding ring of faith” and writes: “Faith unites to soul with Christ as a bride is united with her bridegroom.” Mother Teresa explicitly understood her own vows and the vows of sisters in the Missionaries of Charity order she founded, as a marriage to the crucified Christ.
Strictly speaking, I am focusing on Judeo–Christian faith as the human contribution to what one takes (perhaps mistakenly) to be a relationship. One could have faith in God even if God does not exist. That faith would consist in that complex of attitudes and actions (a psychological and behavioral stance) that constitute the response and are involved in inaugurating and maintaining it.
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Acknowledgements
This project was made possible through the support of a Grant from Templeton Religion Trust. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Templeton Religion Trust. I would like especially to thank Trent Dougherty, Dan Howard-Snyder, Jonathan Kvanvig, Sam Lebens, Matthew Lee, Michael Pace, Dale Tuggy, and the participants in the 2016 Faith Project Summer Seminar (June–July 2016) and also Sara Koenig and participants at “The Virtue of Faith” conference in Bellingham, WA (September 22–24 2016) for discussion and feedback on earlier versions of this project. Funding was supported by John Templeton Foundation.
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McKaughan, D.J. On the value of faith and faithfulness. Int J Philos Relig 81, 7–29 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-016-9606-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-016-9606-x