Faith: Two Contrasting Approaches
The Classical Catholic Tradition and the Contemporary Analytic Approach
Mark Twain famously wrote: “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so”1. Though this characterization of the nature of faith has some adherents, most experts on the question (philosophers working in the field of pistology, the study of the nature of faith) reject it as little more than a humorous caricature. What, then, is a better understanding of faith? Though there is no consensus on the specifics, we can try to get closer to an adequate picture of faith by comparing and contrasting two broad approaches: what I call the Classical Catholic tradition (CCT), and the Contemporary analytic approach (CAA). My research project focuses on exploring the concepts of faith found in both, comparing the issues they face, and puting them into contact and dialogue with a synthetic prospective.
1Mark Twain, Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World (Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1897), 132, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar,” chap. 12.
Pietro di Francesco degli Orioli: Allegory of Faith (detail), Web Gallery of Art
Two Approaches
CCT is represented by great figures such as Aquinas, Scotus, Suarez and others. It is explicitly theological. This means that its domain is revealed (specifically Christian revealed) theology. The answers it provides are given normative shape by the various loci theologici (sources of theologically authoritative considerations), such as revelation itself (which is assumed as true), Church teaching etc. The modus operandi in CCT is to take what those sources say about faith, and come up with a theory that fits the normative outlines they provide. I propose that CCT has at least these three features: (1) it is particularist (it takes a specific tradition as a starting point); (2) it is religious (it privileges the non-secular domain); and (3) it is multivalent (it has multiple normative types of sources, differing in authority).
CAA, on the other hand, is represented by the many analytic philosophers writing today on pistology, such as Howard-Snyder, Jackson, Byerly, Buchak, Audi, McCraw, McKaughan, etc. Though not necessarily so, the tendency here is not explicitly theological (i.e. its domain is usually that of philosophy of language, or philosophy of religion. Sources of purported revelation are not granted privilaged status). The modus operandi is basically to survey faith language practices, take commonalities, and come up with a theory that best explains the best part (though not necessarily all) of them. Contrasting it with CCT, I propose that CAA is characterized by at least the following features: (1) it is universalist (privileges no particular tradition); (2) it is neutral (it deals, in principle, equally with the secular and religious domain); (3) it is univalent (there is only one kind of normative source: language practice).
Research Questions
What is the difference between attitudinal faith and propositional faith? How does this relate to the classical distinction of fides qua and fides quae?
Is there a difference between religious and secular faith?
What is the relationship between faith and other mental states (such as hope, desire etc.)?
Methodology
My research is basically theoretical. It is analytical (I analyze the concepts of faith in the two broad approaches, check them for consistency and test them against potential objections, counterexamples etc.), as well as comparative (I compare the results of the previous analysis and asses their respective merits, and demerits), with a view towards synthesis (I explore whether the defficiencies of any singular theory of faith might be supplemented by elements from other theories).
Literature
Alston, William P. “Belief, Acceptance, and Religious Faith.” In Faith, Freedom, and Rationality: Philosophy of Religion Today, edited by Jeff Jordan and Daniel Howard-Snyder, 3–27. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996.
Aquinas, Thomas. The Summa Theologica. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. 5 vols. New York: Benziger Bros., 1947–48.
Audi, Robert. “Faith, Belief, and Will: Toward a Volitional Stance Theory of Faith.” Sophia 58, no. 3 (September 2019): 457–74.
Byerly, T. Ryan. “Faith as an Epistemic Disposition.” European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 4, no. 1 (2012): 109–28.
Duns Scotus, John. Ordinatio. Vols. 1–14 of Opera Omnia. Edited by C. Balić et al. Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1950–2013.
Supervisor
Prof. Dr Bruno Niederbacher SJ
Department of Christian Philosophy
Student
Hrvoje Juko SJ
Hrvoje.Juko@student.uibk.ac.at
