Faith is a measure of irrationality

[Strongbad]

Favorite quote time!


Faith is being persuaded and fully committed in trust, involving a confident belief in the truth, value, and trustworthiness of God. When it comes to Christianity, 'faith' is defined by three separate but vitally connected aspects (especially from Luther and Melancthon onwards): notitia (informational content), assensus (intellectual assent), and fiducia (committed trust). So faith is the sum of having the information, being persuaded of its truthfulness, and trusting in it. To illustrate the three aspects: "Christ died for ours sins" (notitia); "I am persuaded that Christ died for our sins" (notitia + assensus); "I deeply commit in trust to Christ who I am persuaded died for our sins" (notitia + assensus + fiducia). Only the latter constitutes faith, on the Christian view.

Consequently, notitia and fiducia without assensus is blind and therefore not faith. This shipwrecks the egregious canard that faith is merely a blind leap. Faith goes beyond reason—i.e., into the arena of trust—but never against reason. From the Enlightenment onwards, faith has been subject to constant attempts at redefining it into the realm of the irrational or irrelevant (e.g., Kant's noumenal category); but all such attempts are built on irresponsible straw man caricatures that bear no resemblance to faith as held under the Christian view: notitia, assensus, and fiducia.

Got it, thanks Ryft!

So, when applied to a different bit of “information” given in the bible, Christian faith sounds like this:

Numbers 22:28 “Yahweh then gave the donkey the power to talk, and she said to Balaam “What harm have I done to you, for you to strike me three times like this?”

“I am persuaded that a donkey spoke” (informational content + intellectual assent)

“I am deeply committed to the belief that donkeys can speak” (informational content + intellectual assent + fiducia)

"Faith" truly is an amazing thing.