Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 152

128

FAITH

§ 40.

[Div. II

posed on us from which we cannot escape.

Or, as far as our consciousness itself desires this stability, this " underlying

foundation and support" tarch expressed

it,

or, as

(^eSpa koI'

Heb.

xi.

^daL^

ance " and this "proving" are offered of the TTiiOeiv (persuasion)

is

v^ecrrcoo-a), as

1 states

it,

Where

us.

ended, certainty

Plu-

this "assur-

is

the action obtained.

In the middle voice weiOeadai (to be persuaded) expresses the function of the soul by which it establishes itself in that sta-

And

bility.

faith therefore

may

express this certainty

as well as the action by which I grasp

it.

The same

itself,

root-

1p^ (amen) is that which stands fast and does not change. The Hiphil expresses that by which this certainty is born in us. And our believing comes from a difidea

lies in

p^^fH.

ferent source, but

it

allows the self -same universal tendency.

With

the Latin luhet^ allied to the

means

to appropriate

Sanscrit luhh, which something to oneself, and which stands in immediate connection with the Dutch words lieven and loven, it points to a cleaving to

to something,

pathy.

Thus

than in

ttio-ti';

something, to holding fast

and to being linked

to it

in he-lieving the relation

by an inner symis more prominent

or in HJIDSI, but that relation

is

taken as

something not uncertain, but certain. He who cleaves to something holds himself fast to it, leans upon and trusts in it while in this believing lies the fine secondary meaning, that this cleaving unto, this holding fast to, is accomplished by an inward impulse. And if the etymology of any of these expressions does not prevent a more general application of this word, the difficulty presented in the accepted use of these words is equally insignificant. Not only was this Trierriv e^civ (to have faith), a current term in Greek, applied to every department of life, and the tendency of ]'^^^r) almost wider still (see, for instance, Deut. xxviii. 66^ Judges xi. 20, etc.), but, what is more noteworthy, in our ;

Christian society the use of the

word

" to believe "

so little to the religious

and

more come common property There is no objection,

for every relation.

is

limited

soteriological domain, that even than " to have faith " the term " to believe " has be-

therefore, to the use of the term faith

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