The odds are 3:1 that faith & belief are not the same.There ". . . is a conflict between two visions of the Christian life--one that emphasizes believing and one that emphasizes relationship. Within the earlier paradigm or way of seeing the Christian life, believing has been central--believing in God, believing in Jesus, believing in the Bible, believing in Christianity, believing in the creeds, and so forth. Within the emerging paradigm relationship, not believing is central. It is a relationship with God as disclosed in the Christian tradition, but the Christian tradition itself is not the object of belief. . . .
. . . the original meanings of the English words believe and believing are relational. They do not mean agreeing to accept dubious or problematic propositions to be true. They don't even mean believing divinely revealed propositions to be true.
To relate this to the four meanings of faith . . . originally the word believing covered all of these meanings. It was synonymous with faith in all of the senses I've described. Thus, in the Modern Period we have suffered an extraordinary reduction in the meaning of believing. We have reduced it and turned it into propositional believing, believing a particular set of statements or claims to be true." Faith, Not Belief by Dr. Marcus Borg This article was revealed to me by Peter, The Big Fisherman.
1 comment:
Borg also reminds Virgil that "You can believe all the right things and still be miserable. You can believe all the right things and still be in bondage. Faith as believing certain things to be true has very little transormative power."
Post a Comment