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Show "FAITH AND DOGMA. Editor Intermountain Catholic: I have read some of your articles on the soul, faith, hope and other kindred subjects. I have attempted to group them together, but in ithe attempt I got badly mixed. There is the existence of a Supreme Being, the immortality of the soul, religion, faith, theology dogmas, and beliefs in all man must have before he can be saved. The following fol-lowing Questions suggest themselves. Are faith and theology one and the I same? What is faith? What is the relation oetween raith and dogma? An answer ito the above will be appreciated appreci-ated by one who must admit that he is AN AGNOSTIC. In replying to our esteemed correspondent corres-pondent the Intermountain states that a very wide field in the religiaus world has been opened up by his queries, too wide to do it justice in a newspaper article. Faith and theology are not the same. Faith is necessary for salvation. sal-vation. "Without faith it is impossible I to please God. Theology is not necessary neces-sary for salvation. It is as expressed by an able writer. "A science constructed con-structed by human reason from principles princi-ples derived from the light of nature and the supernatural revelation made Immediately to faith." It lakes in revelation and reason, and from both constructs the ground work of faith, j It gives to the human mind convincing proofs of the reasonableness of faith, though not always persuasive. Why Because "faith is a gift from God." The intellect may. be convinced of the force of a theological argument, but to persuade the will in the absence of God's grace, is another thing. It is the hand-maid of faith, and helps to J strengthen it, but it is not necessary for salvation. Faith, taken as a theological theo-logical virtue, consists in believing. without doubting, explicitly or implicitly, implic-itly, all the truths revealed by Almighty Al-mighty God, on the veracity of God alone. Faith excludes doubt. It must have some authority on which to rest. That authority could not be man's inner in-ner consciousness. It must be outside of, or distinct from the believer, also from the matter believed. Regarding revelation the old and new testaments what authority has man for the intrinsic in-trinsic truth in that good book? The veracity of God. How know we that God revealed the matter in question? We need a witness, who can testify not only to revelation in general, but to particular cases in which there may be a question of the meaning of sense of the revealed word. To make faith a rational act the witness must be universal, uni-versal, taking in all ages and nations; and must be known unmistakably to all inquiring minds, the simple and illiterate il-literate as well as the wise and learned. learn-ed. That witness finally must be infallible. in-fallible. Faith excludes doubt, because be-cause it is a firm assent founded on the veracity of God alone, who is absolute ab-solute -truth, from whom all other truths emanate. Being certain that God has revealed Himself, His veracity alone becomes the ground work of faith. Next comes the sense of God's revelation. If man in interpreting the mind of the Deity, does so in a false sense, he does not believe what is actually ac-tually revealed, but something entirely different from what God has revealed and for the truth of which the veracity I of God could not be claimed an intr preter is than needed, and one who can neither deceive or be deceived, otherwise an act of faith conformable to reason is impossible. Inner consciousness, con-sciousness, illuminated by the Holy Spirit is such a witness. Yes if we are Certain of such a witness. But the fact of an individual pointing his finger to his heart and saying, "here is the wit-I wit-I ness" does not satisfy the demands of reason, nay the contrary is evident when we find different persons, according accord-ing to their training, education, and physical constitution, claiming the same high and holy privilege interpret j the mind of God, as revealed to us. differently. But has riot God, a loving, just and benevolent Father made known His will to men in a perfect manner, and Intelligible to all. Yes toy appointing a body of teachers who in His name and under the guidance of the Holy Ghost are sent as teachers, and who Interpret the revealed word. But why' did not God in revealing himself make known His will as clearly and intelligibly intelli-gibly as language could convey. Mak ing faith a necessary condition for life eternal, reason would demand in the part Qf a just and merciful Father, that He make known His will in clear, concise con-cise and intelligible language. That is precisely what our Heavenly Father has done, by appointing a supreme infallible in-fallible court which defines an article of faith with certainty. When the ven- j crable head of the Catholic Church speaks authoritatively, and in his ca- ' pacity as universal teacher, defines a I doctrine there is no mistaking his sens- of the dogma defined. I Faith, under the form of dogma, is what reason craves. It satisfies rea-pon, rea-pon, giving it certainty, and with this certainty the intellect can make an act of faith. We look back, study man, and through past history can we safely judge the present and the future. Always Al-ways and everywhere man had some notion of God, the immortality of the soul and just retribution. Outside of Christianity these notions were vague, uncertain and incomplete, because thev were subjected to the ever-varying changes of human speculations, "and under the disintegrating influence of human passion. Through this Influence the sublime ideas that originally existed ex-isted w?re gradually shaped to suit human hu-man passion. To pander to the passions pas-sions and square one's belief with their actions, the imaginative powers of men created their own gods. Hence we read of the heathen gods, and pagan deities, who are represented as monsters mon-sters of cruelty and lust. Jesus, who declared Himself the primitive reason from which reason derives de-rives its active force, changed nothing of the original design either in dogmas or morals. His mission, in the spiritual spirit-ual education of humanity, was to redeem re-deem the crumbling edifice of dogma and morals and restore them to their primitive beauty and sublimity. To effect this he gave instructions 'which were necessary to preserve from decay and placed it under the bulwork of nfallible authority, so that it may no longer be subjected to the vicissitudes I of human frailty. Through this means the original idea of God, made known by Himself to Adam, was restored by the second Adam, and it was endured In all its beauty, being unaffected in its integrity by infidelity during the past nineteen centuries. In proposing dogmas for our belief Jesus commanded command-ed new virtues to be practiced, for He i came to save the whole man, heart and reason. He always balanced the motive mo-tive with the end to be obtained. AVhen He points out a duty He lays down a truth which should act as a motive for its observance. When He tells those who weep that they are blessed He tells the reason, because in this wise they possess or wiil acquire the kingdom of God. Thus He opens to man's reason as to the heart new lights for his direction. di-rection. He illuminates his intellect by giving clear positive notions of God, and His own destiny man's primary relations to God. his actual and .final relations. Throuo-h this moan He changed the confused slate of man's mind, developed; enlarged and completed com-pleted his knowledge, solidified the same with the certainty which he 'gave. He brought this knowledge within the range of our vision and enabled us to see the invisible world with the instrument instru-ment of faith, which is the necessary link between dogma and morals, being their indispensible support. This faith participates of dogma by its object of moral by its motive principle. It is the blossom of charity, and the root of hope; it carries man by charity to the practice of all virtues, and by hope to the possession of all supernatural truth, thereby establishing an immediate immedi-ate and continuous change between the mind and heart, between the intellect and the moral world, between heaven ana eartn. An old philosopher in the enthusiastic enthusias-tic pride of his discovery nce u'eclared that he could raise the whole earth if he only had a fulcrum. In the supernatural super-natural order Jesus has placed this fulcrum, and through its instrumentality instrumen-tality he has renovated the whole face of the earth. That fulcrum is faith, the possession of which, be it only as much as a mustard seed, he declares, would be sufficient to remove mountains. |