What is Faith?

 Novalis, the 18th century German poet, mystic and philosopher of Early German Romanticism, once wrote, "All faith is wonderful and miraculous."

And yes, I would agree with that, up to a point. But I think it depends on what we have faith in. If, like Alice, we try to believe "six impossible things before breakfast", we are going to get spiritual indigestion. I believe that faith has to be supported by reason.

It also depends on what we mean by the word "faith". It is a strange word, with many different meanings. The classic Biblical definition is in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." This seems to imply that it is a quality which, once you have it, you don't lose it. I have friends who have this kind of unshakeable faith, and a small part of me envies them their certainty. They *know* that God exists and that they have been saved by Jesus.

But if this certainty translates into what one might call blind faith ("There's a reason for everything" or "It's all part of God's plan") then I baulk. I'm with Brene Brown, who defines faith as "a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty." This definition encompasses the classic "conviction of things not seen", but rejects the "assurance of things hoped for".

Because I believe that real life just isn't like that. I find the words of Richard Rohr, one of my favourite theologians, on this subject fascinating. He says: "My scientist friends have come up with things like 'principles of uncertainty' and dark holes. They're willing to live inside imagined hypotheses and theories. But many religious folks insist on answers that are always true. We love closure, resolution and clarity, while thinking that we are people of faith! How strange that the very word 'faith' has come to means its exact opposite."

This view is shared by Frederick Buechner, another Christian theologian, who wrote, "Faith is better understood as a verb rather than as a noun, as a process rather than a possession. It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and-for-all. Faith is not being sure where you're going, but going anyway. A journey without maps. [And Paul] Tillich said that doubt isn't the opposite of faith, it is an element of faith. Perhaps this understanding is more palatable to the Unitarian way of thinking.

For example, we can never prove that God exists (or doesn't exist) but we can have faith that He (or She or It) does. And live our lives as though we believed it. Which includes a healthy dollop of doubt - not taking anything for granted, not accepting anything without questioning it first. Unitarians have always been in the habit of questioning beliefs and cherishing doubts. I would guess that many of us came to Unitarianism exactly by that path - by starting to question some of the beliefs we grew up with - our childhood faith. 

In my case, I realised that I could not accept the divinity of Jesus as the unique Son of God (although I have since come to the faith that we are all sons and daughters of the Divine). I also struggled with the idea that Jesus's death on the cross somehow put me back into right relationship with God. When my father gave me Alfred Hall's Beliefs of a Unitarian to read, it was such a relief to learn about a denomination that "holds faith and doubt in reverent balance", to quote Jan Carlsson-Bull.

I have come to believe that faith is a spiritual journey and that it is our willingness to open ourselves to that journey that is "wonderful and miraculous."