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William Robinson Essays on Christian Unity (1924) |
B
BELIEF.
ONE of the most important factors in our religious experience is belief--in fact in all experience. There is to-day a movement away from belief of a certain kind, which may end in its relegation to a very inferior place. Certainly this movement has in it an element which tries to divorce belief from conduct. But in the main it is surely true to say that a man is conditioned by what he believes. His conduct in particular, and in general his whole [252] attitude towards the world and the universe, must be based on some belief, even if that belief is negative. And yet it would be wrong to define religion in terms of belief only. Yet this is what so many people do, especially when presenting an apologetic for Christianity; and what still more do when they make an attack upon Christianity. The attacks of secularism are always purely intellectual, and their ground is the assumption that Christianity is purely a matter of intellect and has no concern with the will and the emotions. As a writer in The Times said, "Certainty in religion cannot be acquired by our intellectual faculties alone. For if the mind has its rights--and nothing can justify the attempt to restrain intellectual freedom in the supposed interests of faith--we must confess that its logic is not sufficient for certitude in religion. . . . religion takes us beyond the limits of our natural faculties. It must evoke the emotions and the will before it can be in any real sense living, personal, dynamical. Indeed, it is distinguished from all other departments of life because it demands the concurrent action, on terms of equal freedom, of all man's powers, and only when each is fully operative in true harmony with the rest can we apprehend its full significance."1
Faith itself is of a matter of intellect alone, for it is associated with personal trust and can never be equated with an intellectual assent to dogmas. Personal trust means loyalty, and this is bound up with the will and emotions. So that the old Lutheran opposition between faith and works [253] disappears in the light of psychology, as it was never really present in the documents contained in our New Testament. St. Paul and St. James are not really in opposition, but perfectly harmonious, and St. James is right when he looks to the will--the sphere of conduct--for the final test. Whatever we believe we accept as true, but in such a way that it compels action. There must be an intellectual attitude, but that attitude, must function--activity is the real test. "Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows."2
An active belief of this kind can only be the result of certainty or conviction in the intellectual realm--the grounds of this certainty or conviction will vary with different people. True, we may have an instinct to believe, but in the main our belief is a matter of experience and training. Not only in different people do the grounds of conviction vary, but in the same individual at different stages of his training or education. So that in a way, unless we give ourselves over to intellectual torpor--or commit the soul-destroying act of keeping our intellect in water-tight compartments, all through our life the challenge of faith is with us. Intellectual development will always mean a battle in the realm of faith; but it need not mean defeat. In fact it is usually with the intellectually indolent--creatures of sentiment--that it does mean defeat. But this battle is not a fight in the dark. At every stage the note of certainty can be struck, and for the individual at any stage it brings complete satisfaction [254] when he himself regards the grounds of his faith as adequate. "Every religion which has taken its place in history has claimed this note of certainty, and yet we cannot think that they are all alike true. Yet we shall be wise to welcome what is true in them rather than denounce their errors. For truth is larger than our measures, and no one can grasp it in its full orbit. But this does not mean that there can be no certainties of faith and no ground for compliance with the realities of the spirit; there are mysteries in God, in ourselves, and in the world. Yet these very mysteries may be so real, so operative, so immediate to the consciousness of men, that they can have no doubt that they are based, not on fiction, but on fact."3
And so at every stage we demand certitude in the realm of faith. Otherwise there can be no real activity, and we sink back into doubting, drifting creatures, powerless to satisfy our own needs or the needs of those with whom we associate. Whatever revelation of truth we possess demands our loyalty. In the realm of scholarship the academic attitude of not proven may be of value; but in the realm of real vital belief, and more especially in the realm of preaching, nothing but certitude will satisfy. We may be uncertain of this or that detail--a little doubtful of this or that speculation--but preaching must deal with affirmatives and not with negatives, and above all we must trust ourselves to those facts which without doubt we have established in our own minds. Belief is not credulity--it is a real judgment on data supplied to creatures who are [255] capable of rational thought. There are many things which pass for belief--such as a mere stirring of the emotions unaccompanied by any intellectual effort; but the effect is never very lasting, and the result as far as the will is concerned is almost negligible. "It is only by the certitude of faith that men can move in the world with courage and joy. Only by the convictions on which it is based, can they make the world their servant and remain undismayed amidst the buffets of fortune or the numbing chill of care and doubt. Only in this confidence can they hope that their faith will win the consent of others and persuade a critical world of its truth and worth. Men do not become martyrs for hypotheses; they do not leave the prizes of this life and endure hardship for vague aspirations; they do not convert others by raising puzzling questions to which no clear answer can be given. It is conviction that counts. This is the true reward of faith and only faith can win it."4
[EOCU 252-256]
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