Faith Beliefs, Symbols, or Myths - Essay Example

Dermot Lane, the of "Experience of God", an Irish theologist has put down his views on not only Christian theology but its reflection and impact upon other different theologies, and most importantly the way he has defined "Faith", is the extravaganza which actually revolves around three things in particular, "Faith", "God" and "Theology". He considers this aspect of modernist era to be one of the most crucial, which is often faced and ignored by not only Christian theology but also men and women of other religions and cultures. One of the two dimensions on which he emphasizes his focus onto, is an individual's faith and the response of a common man towards its implementation. He urges for such an attitude built upon the grounds of faith, effective for a common catholic so that he can built and enhance his faith on the pillars of human spirit which breaks boundaries, advances knowledge and expands horizons. He argues that a positive approach is leaded by the faith, automatically enforced when instructs itself out of the past and not in disregard of history, culture or tradition. According to Tillich Paul, "Faith is not simply the will to believe. It is a cognitive affirmation of the transcendent nature of ultimate reality. This is achieved, not simply by a process of intellectual inquiry, but by an act of acceptance and surrender". (Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith, p. 7) The experience in Theology has been affected by the influence of Modernism, which created a distrust regarding the experience in Theology, distrust created by a spectrum of psychological and social events turnover continued to narrow at the turn of the century. It was due to this turn that created a huge gap between Catholicism and Buddhism. This development of widening bridge can be seen as a result of changes in certain perceptional aspects like historical, social, scientific, and cultural expressions of experience. These aspects created unique influences along with experiences that turned Buddhism towards catholic theologies to some extent. What were behind those theologies that the lack of strong pan-Buddhist national organizations simply reflected the current stage of development in Buddhism. Catholicism was present in the colonial period, only developed strong national institutions over the course of the nineteenth century. But Buddhists may forego the development of comparable national organizations; the current decentralization could become a permanent condition. This approach to the dharma may be strength rather than a weakness. It has so far meant that Buddhism is characterized by variety and complexity at a time when the nation's ideals are increasingly being recast in terms of multiplicity and autonomy at the local and regional levels. In each theology, there is a faith, which is theoretical and practical, with the latter trying to understand the devotional and mystical writings. The theological approach traditionally rested on a given faith position, but during the last two centuries, has adopted a more liberal stance with a freer interpretation of scripture and a much greater interest in religions other than Christianity. But revelation in its various forms - free inquiry, truth claims - continues to be a subject of debate. An impact on theological methodology has been made by the rise of Religious Studies, which considers religion in general, and each religion in particular uses the various approaches. The evolution of faith starts from where uncertainty ends. The difference between faith and doubt is the difference between uncertainty and certainty. To be certain is to be sure, to believe in something by accepting all the facts, all the realities, whereas to be uncertain is a skeptical condition, which creates chaos within a person. A chaos that leads a person towards the threshold of confusion and distortion. Dermot Lane analyzes the situation and the loopholes of the Christian Theology being percepted by the Catholics, so he invites them to deepen their thoughts and analyze their beliefs as to how and what extent they are true in their perceptions and theologies. The pattern of relationship between Buddhism and Catholicism in changing circumstances gradually brought about new constellations and other types of relationships between the two religions. While the initial period was characterized by a one-sided Buddhist concern with Christianity, in contrast to the almost total disregard of Buddhism on the part of the Catholicism, the relationship in eighteenth century was characterized by increasing mutual antagonism. Lane's approach is to recognize God, from several other alternatives, he characterizes by suggesting and examining different techniques that take us to the threshold for proving the existence of God. In dealing with this phenomenon he assembles and judges different approaches, like when he discusses the "proof" approach, he likely discusses the rudiment dilemma with this approach is that "God" is examined critically on behalf of "proofs" and on finding no "proofs", God is reduced to the extent of a modal status. As far as he talks about the history, he emphasizes upon the particular challenge for the Churches to develop a new imaginative framework which, as Lane puts it, is able to express and hold in existence the reality of a Christian faith that is at least inclusive, historically self-conscious and pluralist. There are often conflicts with the multiplication of faith theologies. Even if their relation is not severely conflictual, to whatever extent they are calls to reorganize all theologies from a particular perspective, they are in a continuous mode of clash with one another. Some people can live in such clash and find it fruitful, but many find it bewildering, and the church as a whole, even when it has goodwill toward the many claims placed upon it, becomes confused about its mission. The multiplication of theologies has been a valuable stage in the church's thinking, but something more is needed. Unless the vitality and creativity that has been expressed in the theologies make a further breakthrough, the church will relapse to the doctrinal approach to theology. It will learn something from what liberationists, women, and others have said, but it will incorporate only what can be assimilated into the mainstream of a relatively unchanged tradition. If that were the church's destiny, it would be better for us to drop talk of a theology of nature and simply reflect together on how we can contribute to the enrichment of the church's doctrine of creation. The tendency of Catholic theology was to image grace in a way that suggests external relations between God and the recipient. Protestantism in many ways carried individualism further than Catholicism had. Nevertheless, at this point its Biblicism helped. Grace could not be viewed as something external to God and externally added to the human recipient. Grace came to be understood as the living and effective presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Lane while discussing different aspects of the historical era when people used to have their own ideas devoid of a supreme authority called "God" and while discussing about the historical events of such era, besides the particular Jewish faith interpretation he visualizes people's perception of different decades believing in different theologies resulting in various faiths. Some think that God arbitrate directly in history in a way that compels faith, while others possess the belief relating to the history of miracles. Lane's focus takes him to the simplest approach that serve as the grounds for building faith, such approach that can be felt by the existence of God but towards the diversity of human creativity and abstraction to understand him. It depends upon the person as to how he builds his faith, on what criteria he develops his grounds and what are those conditions that lead him to the circumstances to make strong what he believes. Tillich's theological perspective is no different from that of Lane's in a sense that Tillich's belief is constructed upon the beliefs of own human understanding, as to understand oneself is the mere understanding of God and in a situation he urges as to how much difference a single prayer can make in achieving the contentment of God's will, as according to Tillich it is the God whose spirit is living and praying within us, the spirit which we often referred to as "soul". It is to this experience that he has suggested in different terminologies, in different ways and often in the terms of "faith". The divine Spirit in the light of human experience is the expression of Tillich's philosophy of faith that leads him in understanding God. It is this spirit or faith of God that answers and resolves the vagueness of life. The human being as a religious being is an organism in which the dimension of the spirit is dominant. Tillich claims that human life integrates itself in the life of the Spirit in such a way that human beings experiences the Spirit as the unity of power and meaning in life. So, it would be better to say that both possess a single perception in common, to understand oneself is to understand God, to identify one's approach is to identify God's will. For those who rejected the doctrine of God's existence, they might be seen as those who possess their own ego for not identifying God, but unsceptically God still seems to be with them. As we are His creation, in our veins is his life given to us, just like an artist whose pride lies in his pictures, we, the humans are the pictures of God. To understand Revelation, we must realize that it is a series of visions, which are disreputably difficult to interpret. By considering different Prophets we are able to see through their visions, the perception about faiths and the realization as to how much they were dependant upon their believes. The book of Revelation communicates truths that are far too great for ordinary language. These truths needed the fantastic images and wild creatures of Revelation. For us this wild imagery comes more or less like a bolt out of the blue. The book of Revelation fits in with a style of literature that was quite popular in that day called apocalyptic literature. Through these visions, Jesus took a popular style of literature in that day and used it to express everlasting truths. Which brought to an assumption about understanding Revelation: Our plans are disordered: we have places to go and people to meet. If you have children at home you have to coordinate all of their plans and events and doctor's appointments along with your own and your spouse's. Our relationships are chaotic: most of us have family members who live all over the country. Most of us here have been through divorce or have children or siblings who have been through divorce. Divorce cuts across the heart of the most important relationships in our lives and adds tension and pain to our lives and the lives of our children and stepchildren. Some children are growing up with abusive fathers or mothers and have the emotional and physical scars to prove it. Relationships with friends are chaotic. Just when you really start forming a close friendship, they move away. Friends betray us, or we betray friends, and the love ends. Our everyday lives are chaotic. Morning commutes on dangerous roads. Feeling the squeeze between bosses above us and employees for whom we are responsible. Parenting children who sometimes fight and bicker much more than they get along. Injuries and illness and depression push us around. Many people are the victims of crime. Our spiritual lives are chaotic too: we say we want to be close to God, yet spend so little time with him. We ask God for all kinds of things, and complain when our prayers are not answered. But we rarely remember to say thanks for the ways in which God blesses us so richly. In the last three decades, however, extensive reflections have been done on the relationship between Christianity, and by implication, Jesus Christ, on the one hand and non-Christian religions, and especially Judaism, on the other. A new theology of religions has re-assessed the role of Christ as the unique and universal savior and the function of non-Christian religions themselves within God's plan of salvation. (Peter C. Phan) In a recent work Catholic theologian Paul F. Knitter, who has written extensively on religious pluralism, has helpfully categorized contemporary theologies of religions into four basic types, which he terms "replacement," "fulfillment," "mutuality," and "acceptance". 1. Replacement affirms that Christianity is the only one true religion and that it will replace, totally or partially, all other religions, which are considered as basically humanity's sinful attempts at self-salvation. 2. Fulfillment, while affirming Christianity as the one true religion, acknowledges the presence of elements of truth and grace in other religions and advocates a mutual, though not equal, complementarily between Christianity and other religions through dialogue. 3. Mutuality holds that there are many true religions, none necessarily superior to the others, which are all called to dialogue and collaborate with each other, especially in projects of liberation, in order to realize their true nature. 4. Acceptance stresses the diversity of religions from one another and refuses to seek a common ground among them; rather it urges each religion to foster its own aims and practices. Each of these four theologies of religions views the role of Christ as a universal savior and the three adjectives characterizing it very differently and in a unique manner. The first model takes literally the New Testament affirmations that Jesus is the only and exclusive revealer, mediator, and savior of humankind and that an explicit faith in Jesus is absolutely necessary for salvation. The fourth model also professes that Jesus is the unique, universal, and absolute savior, as traditionally confessed by the Christian faith, but leaves the possibility of other "saving figures" and "ways of salvation" neither affirmed nor denied; about the latter it simply pleads ignorance. (Peter C. Phan). The third model takes the New Testament passages cited above and the three adjectives describing Jesus the savior not as literal, rational prose but as poetry affirming Jesus' special ness but not exclusivity. In other words, Jesus is totus Deus wholly God, insofar as he fully responded to God's love in the Spirit but not totum Dei the whole of God or divine, understood in the metaphysical sense. Before attempting a theology of Jesus as savior that is consonant with the Roman Catholic tradition and at the same time recognizes that the redemptive power of God is at work in the Jewish tradition, it is necessary to recall, the teaching of declaration Dominus. Jesus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Jesus as savior Concerned that religious pluralism may lead to relativism, the declaration re-affirms certain Christian doctrines, which it alleges to have been denied by pluralists, such as the "fullness and definitiveness of the revelation of Jesus Christ," the unity between the saving work of the incarnate Word and that of the Holy Spirit, the "unicity and universality of the salvific mystery of Jesus Christ," the "unicity and unity of the church," and the unity between the reign of God and the church. Of interest to our theme are the declaration's statements on Jesus as the unique and universal savior and on the relation between Christianity and other religions. With regard to Jesus as revealer, Dominus Iesus affirms that "in the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God ... the full revelation of divine truth is given" and rejects the "theory of the limited, incomplete, or imperfect character of the revelation of Jesus Christ, which would be complementary to that found in other religions". Concerning Jesus as savior, Dominus Iesus states that "Jesus Christ has a significance and value for the human race and its history, which are unique and singular, proper to him alone, exclusive, universal, and absolute". As to the relationship between Christianity and other religions, Dominus Iesus condemns the view that the church is "one way of salvation alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her, even if these are said to be converting with the Church toward the eschatological kingdom of God ". Hence, it says that even though "the followers of other religions can receive divine grace, it is also certain that objectively speaking they are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation". A major concern of the Christian as Christian is to find truth, and this often leads to sharp divergence from dominant ideas and inherited opinions. (John B. Cobb, Jr). On the other hand, there is also an important place for reflection that is geared to expressing the emerging consensus within the church, the sort of reflection that goes into the making of creeds and confessions. Between these there is a place for reflection that seeks ways of influencing the church, guiding its response to changing conditions and situations. This is badly needed now. How can ideas that have arisen at the private pioneering end of the spectrum be brought into fruitful relation to the pre-existing consensus of the church References Crawford Robert, 2002. What Is Religion Introducing the Study of Religion: Routledge: London. Dermot A. Lane, (2003), The Experience of God: An Invitation to Do Theology. 2nd revised edition. New York: Paulist. Dermot A. Lane, (1991), The Cross of Christ as the Revelation of God. John B. Cobb, Jr, The Role of Theology of Nature in the Church. Available from http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asptitle=2316 Peter C. Phan, Georgetown University. A Roman Catholic Perspective Tillich, Paul. (1956), The Dynamics of Faith. New York: Harper and Brothers Thelle R. Notto, 1987. Buddhism and Christianity in Japan: From Conflict to Dialogue, 1854- 1899: University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu. Read More