CHAPTER ONE 5.

FAITH AND DOUBT Faith is an act of human personalityan act of a finite being who is grasped by and turned to the infinite. It is a finite act with all the limitations of a finite act, and it is an act in which the infinite participates beyond the limitations of a finite act. 16 The doubt which is implicit in every act of faith is neither the methodological nor the sceptical doubt. It does not question whether a special proposition is true or false. It does not reject every concrete truth, but it is aware of the element of insecurity in every existential truth. At the same time, the doubt which is implied in faith accepts this insecurity and takes it into itself in an act of courage. 20 If doubt appears, it should not be considered as the negation of faith, but as an element which was always and will always be present in the act of faith. 22 Existential doubt and faith are poles of the same reality, the state of ultimate concern. 22 So what about the loss of faith?serious doubt is confirmation of faith. 22 6. FAITH AND COMMUNITY Relation of individual faith and community faith. Faith is dependent on language and therefore on community. 24 Religious language of symbol and myth. 24 Only in a community of language can man actualize his faith. 24 Church as community formulate the content of faith in a definite way as a creedal statement and demand that every member of the community accept it. The community guard this statement against outside influence, guard individuals.24 The church community must be protected against the distorting influences of individuals. The church excludes from its community those who are thought to have denied the foundations of the Church. 25 heresy Society and faith community are separate and society should not force everyone on with the faith creed, for faith looses its ultimate goal instead.27 How is a community of faith possible without suppression of the autonomy of mans spiritual life? 27 Creedal expressions of the ultimate concern of the community must include their own criticism.29 CHAPTER TWO WHAT FAITH IS NOT 1.. THE INTELLECTUALISTIC DISTORTION OF THE MEAING OF FAITH First, faith is an act of knowledge that has a low degree of eveidence. 31 Faith is not belief then, belief needs evidence. 1 Faith is more than trust in authorities, although trust is an element of faith. 32 The Christian may believe the Biblical writers, but not unconditionally. He does not have faith in them. 32 2. THE VOLUNTARISTIC DISTORTION OF THE MEANING OF FAITH He denies the faith which is done by the will moved by grace of God to believe without evidence what is taught by the church. 35-6 For protestant, he denies saying, the demand to be obedient is the demand to be what one already is, namely, committed to the ultimate concern from which one tries to escape. Fath precedes the obedience and is not the product of it. 37-38 3. THE EMOTIONALISTIC DISTORTION OF THE MEAING OF FAITH

Faith claims the whole man and cannot be restricted to the subjectivity of mere feeling. It claims truth for its concern and commitment to it. Faith is an act of the whole personality. 39 CHAPTER THREEE SYMBOLS OF FAITH

1.. THE MEAING OF SYMBOL Symbols as signs, point beyond themselves to something else. 41 But symbols participate in the reality of that to which they point, signs do not. 42 Symbols cannot be replaced. 42 unless its reality is changed in history. Symbols opens up levels of reality which otherwise are closed for us. Symbols unlocks dimensions and elements of our soul which correspond to the dimensions and elements of reality.42 Symbols cannot be produced intentionally, they are created or at least accepted by the collective unconscious of the group in which they appear. 43. Symbols cannot be invented. They grow and die on right times. They die because they can no longer produce response in the group where they originally found expression.43 2. RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS Mans faith must be expressed symbolically. ??? why can it not be expressed directly and properly? Everything which is a matter of unconditional concern is made into a god. 44 Concepts designating ordinary realties become idolatrous symbols of ultimate concern. 44. Faith: The fundamental symbol of our ultimate concern is God. It is always present in any act of faith.45 Atheism, consequently, can only mean the attempt to remove any ultimate concern to remain unconcerned about the meaning of ones existence. 45 In any case, he who denies God as a matter of ultimate concern affirms God, because he affirms ultimacy in his concern.46 God is symbol for God. 46 It is meaningless to question the ultimacy of an ultimate concern. 46 God as the ultimate in mans ultimate concern is more certain than any other certainty, even that of oneself.47 God symbols from humans such as love and justice are taken from our daily experiences. 47 3. SYMBOLS AND MYTHS Myth are symbols of faith combined in stories about divine-human encounters.49 They are often misunderstood as they are interpretated literally. 49 Why attacked: Uses material from human experience ordinary.49 They need demythologization. It should not be replacement but takes symbol as a symbol.50 Catholic Church believes that there is no substitute for the use of symbols and myths: they are the language of faith. 51 Demythologization is feared because of its interpretation by literalisms. 51-2 Nothing less than symbols and myths can express our ultimate concern.53

CHAPTER FOUR

TYPES OF FAITH

1.. ELEMENTS OF FAITH AND THEIR DYNAMICS Faith has subjective and objective states.55 In every experience of the holy, there is the element of the presence of the holy ONTOLOGICAL FAITH; second is the holiness of what ought to be. 56 MORAL FAITH 2. ONTOLOGICAL TYPES OF FAITH There is sacramental faith where the ultimate is reached through the sacred or holy objects. The objects become holy as they are touched or used by the ultimate to the human being. Problem of eucharist. There is mystical faith where the mystic goes beyond the objects and goes tublar laser, erase all experience and goes deeper into the soul where the infinite and the finite meet. There he transcends sacramental objects to go deeper. There is humanistic faith, secular faith. Where the ultimate is reached in other human beings. Other human beings are not sacramentals but are the ultimate himself. It reaches the ultimate in the man. 3. MORAL TYPES OF FAITH There is the juristic, the conventional and the ethical types of faith.65 Examples are Justic is Islam religion with Muhammed and revelation as his ultimate concern.65 Conventional faith Confucius religion, unreligious, Confucianism, commands.66 Old Testament Judaism, Ethical faith, obedience to the law of justice. 4. UNITY OF THE TYPES OF FAITH The experience of the holy, the ontological and the moral element are essentially united, while in the life of faith they diverge and are driven to conflicts and mutual destruction. 69 He says that they are intertwined as they have elements of each type in each of them all. Catholic Church has displayed this unifying character of all faith types but today fails as it concentrate on the authority and obedience to that authority. He sees Protestantism as the one who can unifiy as it contains all elements. CHAPTER V THE TRUTH OF FAITH. 1.. FAIH AND REASON