28 Jan

In religion, faith is necessary for total belief in God, if we are taking our understanding of God seriously. Faith aids reason, and in some ways, faith fills in the gaps of knowledge. Wilken finds it necessary to define terms, and asks readers to reconsider what one really means when they use the words “knowledge” and “belief”. He argues that few instances of knowledge occur without a reliance on what many might label as faith. For example, “The knowledge of an event that happened in the past … is always indirect and dependent on someone else’s world” (169). The events of Jesus Christ and the ways God has worked in the world are mostly based on historical accounts, which always depend on witnesses. In other words, some “faith” in these witnesses is required to even claim knowledge on any historical subject. Wilken furthers his position by stating that “(i)n matters of religion it is reasonable to begin by following” (174). Faith is unavoidable for many because it is the vehicle by which many believers can even begin to search for a deeper knowledge in religion. After he identifies the importance of authority and its requirement for faith, Wilken argues “there can be no knowledge of God without faith, for faith is the distinctive way we know God” (179). Faith is beneficial for true belief because it turns one’s adherence to religion from knowing the existence of God to seeing his involvement in one’s life. Faith and knowledge are complimentary and often cannot work without the other. In many cases, one cannot foster knowledge without first grappling with faith. And even when one finds knowledge of God, the search was in vain if they do not reach even further on the basis of their faith in him.