{"id":4957,"date":"2021-10-20T14:43:59","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T12:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/?p=4957"},"modified":"2025-07-03T17:59:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T15:59:35","slug":"faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith \u2014 Superstition"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAITH and PROMISE<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

According to the Church, revealed truth is the unchanging, unchangeable truth given by God to humanity.\u00a0 This truth constitutes the dogma as expressed in the scripture and handed down by the Church. Dogma contains mysteries, and acceptance of these mysteries defines faith<\/span> [1] and characterizes believers. Faith is beyond the reach of human reason alone, and, therefore, beyond the reach of critics of reason.<\/p>\n

Revealed truth can either be used as an argument, or disputed as a claim.<\/p>\n

1. Revealed Truths as Arguments<\/span><\/h2>\n

Revealed truths as found in scripture and in dogmatic writings are fundamental resources for believers<\/span> when justifying their worldview, a way of life or course of action.<\/p>\n

These arguments are grounded in other creeds belonging to the same corpus of revealed beliefs. For example, we adhere to the Divine Law because our God gave it to us promising to reward those who obey His rule, and do good while punishing the wicked.<\/p>\n

However, appeals to religious belief can be dismissed as appeals to superstition, see threat and promise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2. Revealed Truths as Claims<\/span><\/h2>\n

The possible conflict between revealed and demonstrated truth can lead to the complete rejection of reason and argument.<\/span> Thomas Aquinas (1225\u20131274) discusses \u201cwhether sacred doctrine is a matter of argument?<\/em>\u201d and quotes St. Ambrose’s (circa 340 \u2013 397) categorically negative answer: \u201cPut aside argument where faith is sought<\/em>\u201d (ST<\/em>, Part 1, Question 1, Article 8) [2]<\/a>.
\nFor a believer, revealed truths take precedence over all other forms of truth. Atttempting to prove a revealed truth would degrade it. It should be emphasized that for believers, renouncing argument<\/em> does not mean submitting to an argument from authority<\/em>, since they consider authority<\/em> to be of human origin, and faith <\/em>to be of divine origin. The origin of religious tradition\u2014whether human or divine\u2014is a controversial topic among theologians.<\/p>\n

However, the primacy of faith does not negate the need for argumentation to strengthen the believer’s faith or persuade the nonbeliever.<\/span> Thomas Aquinas distinguishes three types of situations, depending on whether one is addressing Christians, heretics, or nonbelievers.<\/p>\n

\u2014 When a religious speaker addresses a <\/strong>Christian<\/strong><\/em> audience<\/strong>, argument has two important uses. First it connects two articles of faith, to show that one can be logically deduced from the other. For example, if one believes in the resurrection of Christ, then one must also believe in the resurrection of the dead. Second, arguments can be used to expand the realm of faith to include deeper truths, derived from elementary ones.<\/p>\n

\u2014 When arguing with heretics<\/strong><\/em> who agree on some point of the dogma, an argument is built on that point to show that they must also accept the validity of related points.
\nThe technique is basically the same as in the previous case. In both cases, the deductions are based on a systemic<\/a> argument, that assumes the sacred text has all the characteristics of a code.<\/p>\n

\u2014 When confronting unbelievers<\/em><\/strong>, the argument is essentially ad hominem<\/em><\/a>, showing that their beliefs are contradictory (after Trottman 1999, pp. 148\u2013151). [3]\n

As can be seen, the Angelic Doctor does not exclude situations of deep disagreement<\/a> from the field of argumentation.<\/p>\n

3. Superstition<\/span><\/h2>\n

See Threat and promise.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

[1] Latin ad fidem<\/em> argument, fides<\/em>, \u201cfaith\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Quoted from Thomas Aquinas, The Summa Theologica<\/em>. Benziger Brothers, 1947. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province: http:\/\/dhspriory.org\/thomas\/summa\/FP\/FP001.html#FPQ1OUTP1<\/a> (11-08-2017)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0[3] This was the situation in the 13th century. In the 16th century, the evangelization of the American Indians, after the Spanish conquest, was quite different. See Fray Bernardino de Sahag\u00fan, Los di\u00e1logos de 1524<\/em>.Edici\u00f3n facsimilar, introducci\u00f3n, paleograf\u00eda. Versi\u00f3n del nahuatl y notas de Miguel Le\u00f3n-Portilla. Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico. 1986.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FAITH and PROMISE According to the Church, revealed truth is the unchanging, unchangeable truth given by God to humanity.\u00a0 This truth constitutes the dogma as expressed in the scripture and handed down by the Church. Dogma contains mysteries, and acceptance of these mysteries defines faith [1] and characterizes believers. Faith is beyond the reach of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4957"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14569,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957\/revisions\/14569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}