We have said that the most characteristic feature of humanity is the religious
centrality of humankind(§ 32). Religion is not
something to be added to, or taken on, by human nature but is integral. This is
sometimes referred to as direction in
distinction from structure (§5). Direction concerns the opposition
between good and evil, obedience to the true God which must struggle against
disobedience and orientation towards false gods. This opposition occurs in
humans and since it has to do with the direction of human life, with good and
evil, it is not to be found in entities, nor are they modal functions. To find
the proximate origin of good and evil we must look to that which directs these
functions for good and evil. It is with the discovery of the Biblical conception
of the heart we arrive at the central issue of our lives as humans.
In
reformational philosophy a distinction is made between faith, as one modal
function, and religion as the whole person in response to God. Faith is built
into the order of creation as an irreducible and universal human function (§ 16). It is therefore a function common to all people. As such, it is not something additional that
only Christians or ‘religious’ people have, something special, mystical or
irrational. We recognise "faith" in the sense, primarily, of an
active function of the person in the sense of "believing". It is taken to be that last modal aspect to
which all previous aspects anticipate and which therefore also refers back to
all the other modal aspects. Whether someone
is Christian or not, or whether they hold to a religion or not, everybody
possesses faith. This is so because
believing belongs to the structure of human life which, in spite of important
differences in realization, is the same for all. Faith is not identical with
the heart, but is determined by the heart in its direction towards good or
evil, i.e. in obedience to the law of love or not. In other words: the whole person
is religious, and our life is a walk before the face of God in obedience or
disobedience, faith is one avenue of expression of religion. Also since faith is part of the structure of
being human it is not something that was lost with the fall and therefore is
not something that must be added on as a gift of grace, rather grace restores
our faith life to the correct direction of believing God’s Word.
Another
important facet that must be understood is that faith is not just a matter of
the individual. As with the other
functions of being human faith finds its expression in community with others,
in this way it is possible to speak of faith-communities. Just as the heart must be distinguished from
the faith function, so too the church as a faith community with its local and
regular meetings must be distinguished from the body of Christ which is a
religious community that must find its expression in all the activities of
being human. The faith community is the
subject-subject relation of the faith aspect. Our faith-life also has its
typical objects such as the sacraments (§ 23). The sacraments remain what they are as
subjects, not being active in the faith function, however they are taken up
into human faith life and become a sign and seal to serve as a proclamation of
what God has done. Since the faith aspect
comes last it refers back to all the other modal aspects. There is the joy and sorrow of faith, its
thinking and knowing, its sacrifice, and its trust etc. Faith-life has its own
distinctive law which is a norm, that is to trustingly believe in every word
that comes from God. Just as we need to analytically discern the elements of
God’s revelation and understand the meaning expressed in the words of scripture
so we need to trustingly believe the promises it contains. While the Bible functions in all the modal
aspects, whether as subject or object, it is only with true faith that it can
become the bread of life that sustains us in service of God and neighbour.
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