Bishop Barron on What Faith Is and What Faith Isn't

the president feel urgent paul tillich once said that faith is the most misunderstood word in the religious vocabulary and I'm increasingly convinced that he was right about that and my justification for that is my experience with these YouTube videos because as you know people can comment on these videos and I must say every day I hear somebody say to me that faith is credulity naivete accepting something on the basis of no evidence it's pre scientific nonsense it's the way children would think etc faith is being continually a bad mouth and on the basis of that characterization people will draw these sharp distinctions between faith so construed and modern science modern science is rational it's empirically based it's self-critical it's self-correcting etc and people draw the conclusion isn't it great that the Western mind finally wriggled free of the terrible constraints of faith and moved into the clear well lighted space of Reason and they go on isn't it tragic the head the modern mind is still haunted by this specter from another age faith which is hindering and holding back the modern mind okay as I say almost every day I hear that kind of characterization about what faith means I just heard a couple days ago that Pope Benedict the 16th has announced that next year beginning next fall we will have a year of faith in the Catholic Church I thought okay here's my opportunity to make some clarifications about what serious people mean by faith and what they don't mean by faith here's an analogy which I think is illuminating when you're coming to know someone let's say there's a person that kind of fascinates you you know and you might watch that person for a while maybe you see what she wears how she comports yourself how she relates to other people maybe you check with mutual friends and find out certain things about her maybe today of course you would google her name and you could find out a lot about probably where she's from where she's educated where she works etc right you could find out a lot simply by using your reason looking at things objectively and making of deductions and conclusions you could come to a good deal of knowledge about that person okay let's say you really want to get to know this person eventually you have to meet her right now when you meet her maybe when you're up close some of what you've discovered will be verified you know by your own rational analysis but eventually something kind of wonderful and extraordinary is going to happen namely that person is going to speak now when she speaks some of what she says probably will be in line with what you already knew it'll simply confirm what you've already understood but but the more you get to know that person the more that person begins to open her heart to you the more intimately you come to know or what's going to happen she will reveal things about herself that you would never know in any other way not just where she's from or where she went to school that's data that you can learn through a Google search not just anything you pick up from watching her behave she will disclose to you truths about herself that exist within her own interior own heart and can only come forth through her free decision to speak now at that point and I hope you're catching that this is true of your relation to any person right at that point you've got to make a decision session is well do I believe her or not I don't know I can't verify these things objectively I can't do a google search and find out whether true I have to decide yeah I believe this person I have come to trust her in such a way that I now accept her speech as true now I think this is a very apt and illuminating analogy for what serious Catholics I'll speak for my tradition mean by faith we want to come to know God can we determine a lot about God on the basis of reason yeah sure we can look at the beauty and order and contingency of the world look at some my videos on those things I can conclude that God exists that God is perfect that God is good that God has intelligence and will and freedom that God is the governor and providential is his Providence with care over the universe I can determine all those things on the basis of reason alone if you doubt me take a look at the first part of the great Summa theologia of Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas is a bit like the Sherlock Holmes of theology what I mean is think of how we would ordinarily look at someone and we come to certain conclusions Sherlock Holmes saw with such insight that he could come to all kinds of correct conclusions simply on the basis of examination before the person ever spoke Sherlock Holmes could determine a lot about them right so Thomas Aquinas is the Sherlock Holmes of theology he can determine all kinds of things about God on the basis of reason alone is this good yes the Catholic tradition says authentic faith never involves a sacrificio intellect oh s--- latin for a sacrifice of the intellect in fact one of the signs that you're not dealing with authentic faith is that you've had to sacrifice your mind so you know I would characterize that as a fundamentalism or a fidei ISM to use the technical term in the Catherine we say if you are sacrificing your intellect in any way you're not dealing with authentic faith just as you don't sacrifice what you learn through your google search what you determined through your own investigation you don't leave that behind but but one of the deepest truths about God is that God is a person right God is paradigmatically a person he's the ground of all personhood he's the supreme person therefore if you really want to know God what do you have to do you have to wait for this free person to speak right I can get to know someone you know to some degree but I will never really know that person until she speaks at which point I've got to make that decision do I believe her or not do I trust her or not so with God the claim of the Bible is that God has not remained utterly hidden has not remained utterly in the shadows but the God by his own freedom and choice has determined to speak he thereby reveals things to us that we can never know simply on objective analytical grounds I'm not denigrating in any way what we can know on those grounds but we can't know the heart of God until God decides to speak at which point I have to say okay do I trust him or not what's faith faith for us is that moment of trust when I say yes I accept the truth of the God who speaks and see my point is there's no other way finally to know and relate to a person other than faith and that's true in our human relationships as well if you were to say in regard to another person I will only go on what I can absolutely know through analytical reason how much that person we ever know very little how much that person will ever be able to love very little because you're in utter control of the process of knowing that person in fact you have effectively objectified the person you've made that person an object of your investigation now a fortiori in regard to God right God who is the supreme person over and over again on these innards and the inner tubes and he's YouTube pieces people will say something like unless I can absolutely prove it unless you can show me with pure analytical reason and I was come on I'll show you a lot through analytical reason I'll give you arguments for God's existence and so on fine fine but you see how you locked yourself in to this little narrow space I will only accept what I can absolutely control wack you'll never know a person on those terms if God is a person he invites faith doesn't mean naive take radula t accepting superstitious nonsense you know driving it just as another person finally invites you to have faith how come you married that man or that woman right oh it's because I had absolutely analytical control over every it come on at some point there was an a mutual act of trust call it faith or an exchange of Hearts right so with God faith is the act of saying Lord I accept I trust what you've revealed to me in your own freedom No and it's why faith is not opposed to reason though it goes beyond it just as that trust and another person is not irrational but it does go beyond reason so in regard to God we have finally to have faith precisely because we're dealing with the supreme person

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 326,637

Rating: 4.8822441 out of 5

Keywords: Fr. Robert Barron, Word On Fire, Catholic, ministry, faith, religion, God, Jesus, Christ, spirituality, science, Paul Tillich, Pope Benedict, vatican, Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, bible, christian, athiest

Id: m_4PSgFjtvI

Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 19 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Stopped watching at 5:05 when he says he can conclude, with reason, mind you, that God exists.

Before, this he uses the analogy of a real life human being and being able to determine things about them based on interacting with them and Googling them, but you'll only come to know them when you become really close and they admit personal truths about themselves.

The analogy is bad because it compares a real person to something (god) that is intangible.

[u/Lav1tz]

He is redefining faith as trust which hilariously enough is him shooting himself in the foot. Yes we have "faith" (read trust) in people because we have observable data on their character which determines if said people have earned our trust in them. If someone you know consistently never lies to you about things they earn a trust without too much scrutiny. On the other hand, if you know someone who lies all the time about anything you don't have "faith" in them. This sort of faith is based on evidence and data, which religion and god falls on the latter side of the example I gave. Religion has shown constantly to say false things and lie about events such as the age of the earth, Noah's flood, people rising from the dead, etc, and according to this guys version of "faith" you shouldn't believe in that nonsense.

This guy defeated himself.

[u/slackerdc]

If you have reason it's not faith anymore it's knowledge.

[u/randomrandomwoo]

Yeah it is.

[u/ClemIsNegativer]

You are right. It is dismissive of it.

[u/[deleted]]

Yes it is. You have to have faith in spite of reason. As far as this topic is concerned anyway.

[u/[deleted]]

Liar for Jeebus equivocating "faith" with "trust" based on a false analogy. Does this guy think he's smart or something?

[u/Smallpaul]

Thank you for helping to introduce us to a more intelligent theist. Nothing he said was remotely convincing to me, but it's nice to know that I've been introduced to the best arguments for God and faith rather than the worst.