Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 153

Cum:

FAITH

§ 46.

II]

for that function of the soul (i/^i^x^)

129

by which

it

obtains cer-

tainty directly and immediately, without the aid of discursive

This places faith over against "demonstrabut not of itself over against hnoiving. This would if our knowledge and its content came to us exclu-

demonstration. tion "

be

;

so,

sively j)rove

by observation and demonstration, but, as we To know and knoivledge, in § 37, this is not so.

tried to

to

know

and understanding^ are not the same. I krioiv all those things the existence of which, together with some relations of this existence,

is

No

actual fact to me.

demonstration can ever

establish with mathematical certainty the question that gov-

—

life, who it is that has begotten you and yet under ordinary circumstances no one hesitates to For though declare, "I know that this man is my father."

erns your whole

men may

talk here of the theory of probabilities,

A

the point.

all to

and

nitely

;

proof proves only what

it

and everything which

conclusivel}^,

misses this conclusive character

it is

not at

proves

defi-

in the

end

not obtained by your

is

demonstration but from elsewhere; and this other source of Or rather, for certainty is the very point in question.

even

now we do

not speak with sufficient emphasis,

other source, which

we

— —

this

the only source of cer-

call faith, is

what you prove definitely and conclusively by demonstration. That this is not generally so understood can only be explained from the fact that, in the search after the means at our command by which to obtain knowledge, the investiThe building is gation is abandoned before it is finished. examined, and its foundation, and sometimes even the piles that are underneath, but the ground on which the lowest tainty, equally for

points of these piles rest

is

not explored.

another way, let us say that the need line

drawn from the outermost point

object to the centre of your ego;

Or

is felt

this

is

a chain

it is

not bridged

;

we

not lawful, because

must

fall

when

still

is

in

separates

simply vault the gulf.

it

it

in the periphery of the but when the ego is as

nearly reached as possible, the distance which

us from

to state

of a continuous

illogical.

a single link

is

Of

And

necessity

wanting; for the

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