Alister McGrath Theology Basics (2018) Chapter 1: Faith — Transcript

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1. 0:01hello its Alister McGrath again and this
2. 0:03is a second of eleven short
3. 0:05presentations helping you to use my
4. 0:07textbook theology the basics which is
5. 0:10now in its fourth edition now my topic
6. 0:13in this presentation is the nature of
7. 0:16faith what does it mean to believe and
8. 0:20that's a topic of the first chapter of
9. 0:23this book lots of people think that to
10. 0:25believe in God means something like well
11. 0:28you know I think there's a God but I
12. 0:29can't be sure about this and yes that's
13. 0:33the everyday sense of the world but that
14. 0:35doesn't mean it's the Christian sense of
15. 0:38the word the Apostles Creed opens with a
16. 0:41Latin word credo which is almost always
17. 0:44translated as I believe yet the proper
18. 0:48meaning of a Latin word credo back in
19. 0:50the fourth century when as Creed was in
20. 0:53the process of emerging was to trust or
21. 0:56confide in a personal thing or to have
22. 0:59confidence in or to trust so while we
23. 1:03now tend to think of faith in terms of a
24. 1:05theoretical judgment the Creed's
25. 1:08actually see it as a personal commitment
26. 1:10and the theologian fasters of Reagan
27. 1:13writing in the fifth century explains
28. 1:15that to believe in God means to respond
29. 1:19to God in worship and adoration by
30. 1:23giving ourselves and our affections
31. 1:25completely over to God and you know
32. 1:28that's a great start to our thinking
33. 1:30about the nature of faith and you can
34. 1:33see how that links up with the idea of
35. 1:35Metanoia this mental transformation that
36. 1:38I discussed in the previous presentation
37. 1:41now Christian writers down the ages have
38. 1:44distinguished two senses of the word
39. 1:47faith first it means a faith by which we
40. 1:50believe in other words the act of trust
41. 1:53and descent which says yes to God and
42. 1:56which reaches our to grasp and hold fast
43. 2:00to God as a secured grant of our life
44. 2:02and thought but it also refers to a
45. 2:06second sense of faith to a faith which
46. 2:09we believe in other words to a set of
47. 2:12beliefs
48. 2:13such as those that are set out in the
49. 2:15creeds and in this sense of the word
50. 2:17faith refers to the content of what we
51. 2:20believe rather than the act or attitude
52. 2:23of believing and trusting and in some
53. 2:26words of theology you'll find these two
54. 2:27kinds of faith referred to using the
55. 2:30Latin terms fides quite creditor the
56. 2:33faith by which we believe and fides
57. 2:37quite creditor the faith which we
58. 2:40believe now this doesn't mean there are
59. 2:43two different kinds of faith one form
60. 2:46that trusts in God and one's beliefs
61. 2:48propositions no no no it means that
62. 2:50there are two different but inseparable
63. 2:53aspects of faith and the theologian
64. 2:55Romanist rosario points out that the act
65. 2:58of faith reaches beyond the formal
66. 3:01content of doctrines and attains the
67. 3:04very referent the res ipsa of
68. 3:07theological faith so let me explain what
69. 3:09he means as I think you find this both
70. 3:12interesting and helpful
71. 3:14Azaria was picking up on the theme from
72. 3:17the great medieval theologian Thomas
73. 3:19Aquinas and the act of faith Aquinas
74. 3:23remarks doesn't end with what may be
75. 3:26said but it ends with reality and Chas
76. 3:30REO is making the same point yes faith
77. 3:32does indeed engage with the core ideas
78. 3:36of Christian belief but it goes through
79. 3:38them it goes beyond them to grasp of
80. 3:41those ideas point two namely the greater
81. 3:44reality of God
82. 3:46now the Christian Creed's think of faith
83. 3:49in terms of commitment and entrustment
84. 3:52in which believers place their trust and
85. 3:55hope in a trustworthy God and
86. 3:57Christianity is not primarily a set of
87. 4:00beliefs to which he must have sent but
88. 4:02rather a trustworthy and reliable way of
89. 4:05thinking and living which we are invited
90. 4:07to enter and to embrace and faith is
91. 4:11about taking hold of the reality of God
92. 4:14which is disclosed reliably yet
93. 4:17incompletely in Christian beliefs the
94. 4:22German theologian Martin Luther
95. 4:24is one of many to stress that faith in
96. 4:27the Christian sense of the word is far
97. 4:29more than just passive intellectual
98. 4:32assent it's the means by which
99. 4:34Christians take hold of the realities of
100. 4:37faith and Luther put it like this true
101. 4:41faith is a kind of sure confidence of
102. 4:45the heart and a steady ascent by which
103. 4:48Christ is apprehended sure faith is
104. 4:53believing that certain things are true
105. 4:56but there's more to it than that for
106. 4:59Luther faith is fundamentally trust and
107. 5:03Luther often uses the Latin word fiducia
108. 5:07a word that could be translated as
109. 5:09confidence to denote this aspect of
110. 5:12faith he wants to emphasize faith is
111. 5:15about trusting a God who makes promises
112. 5:18and whose promises may be relied upon
113. 5:22for Luther faith is a relational notion
114. 5:26it's about trusting God and trusting
115. 5:29God's promises and thus receiving what
116. 5:33is promised but this doesn't mean that
117. 5:36faith is simply about the personal
118. 5:39attitude of trusting God it's also about
119. 5:42trusting a specifically Christian way of
120. 5:45seeing ourselves and our world which we
121. 5:48often express in terms of beliefs but
122. 5:52this doesn't mean that faith is simply
123. 5:54about the personal attitude of trusting
124. 5:56God
125. 5:57it's also about trusting a specifically
126. 6:00Christian way of seeing ourselves and
127. 6:02our world which we often express in
128. 6:05terms of beliefs and one of the most
129. 6:08important recent discussions of the
130. 6:10relation of faith and reason is fard and
131. 6:12Pope John Paul the second 1998 and
132. 6:15signal letter known by its Latin term
133. 6:18fides at Wratten
134. 6:21that just means faith and reason and in
135. 6:24this letter john paul ii set out a
136. 6:26classic christian approach to the
137. 6:29relation of faith and reason in a very
138. 6:32accessible way for john paul ii faith
139. 6:36and reason can
140. 6:37work together listen what he says faith
141. 6:40and reason are like two wings on which
142. 6:43the human spirit rises to the
143. 6:45contemplation of truth and God has
144. 6:48placed in human heart a desire to know
145. 6:51the truth in other words to know himself
146. 6:54so that by knowing and loving God men
147. 6:58and women may also come to the fullness
148. 7:01of truth about themselves and you know
149. 7:05that's a rich and powerful statement
150. 7:08which expresses the basic idea that
151. 7:10human beings long to know the truth and
152. 7:13they're constantly searching for it and
153. 7:16john paul ii goes on to say this
154. 7:19something really interesting in the far
155. 7:22reaches of the human heart there's a
156. 7:25seed of desire and nostalgia for god so
157. 7:31can reason alone lead humanity to find
158. 7:35this truth and john paul ii describes
159. 7:38philosophy as one of the noblest of
160. 7:40human tasks it's driven by the desire to
161. 7:43discover the ultimate truth of existence
162. 7:46but all its own unaided human reasons
163. 7:50simply cannot fully penetrate to the
164. 7:53mystery of life it cannot answer
165. 7:56questions like why are we here and for
166. 8:01this reason john paul ii remarks god
167. 8:04graciously chooses to make these things
168. 8:06known through revelation things which
169. 8:10would otherwise remain unknown and you
170. 8:13writes these words the truth made known
171. 8:16to us by revelation is neither the
172. 8:19product nor the consummation of an
173. 8:22argument devised by human reason now
174. 8:27john paul ii goes on to suggest that
175. 8:29clues to God's existence and nature are
176. 8:31built into the fabric of our world and
177. 8:35our deepest intuitions and he appeals to
178. 8:39the Apostle Paul's sermon preached at
179. 8:41the Areopagus in Athens and this is set
180. 8:44out in chapter 17 of the Acts of the
181. 8:47Apostles and John Paul the second says
182. 8:50this show
183. 8:50it's entirely reasonable to infer the
184. 8:53existence of God from the wonders of
185. 8:56nature and from a sense of divinity
186. 8:59within each of us now these don't count
187. 9:03as proofs of faith but they are some
188. 9:06kind of confirmation or corroboration of
189. 9:10the basic themes of faith lines of
190. 9:14argument a bit like us are developed by
191. 9:16John Polkinghorne poky hoards one of
192. 9:19Britain's leading theoretical physicists
193. 9:21and he developed a strong interest in
194. 9:23Christian theology late in life and
195. 9:25pocky all points out that Christianity
196. 9:28like the Natural Sciences is concerned
197. 9:31about making sense of the world on the
198. 9:34basis of evidence available to us and he
199. 9:37writes like this faith is not a question
200. 9:40of shutting one's eyes gritting one's
201. 9:44teeth and believing the impossible it
202. 9:47involves a leap but a leap into the
203. 9:51light rather than the dark
204. 9:53so her poky own faith is to be
205. 9:56understood as motivated belief based on
206. 10:00evidence faith is rigorously based on
207. 10:03reflection on the world such as the
208. 10:05various clues it offers to its origins
209. 10:09and nature faith isn't blind trust
210. 10:12opposed to the evidence of the world
211. 10:14although it's true that some very
212. 10:16aggressive atheist suggests that all
213. 10:18faith is blind faith and that I think
214. 10:21overlooks a lot of their own
215. 10:23unacknowledged moral and intellectual
216. 10:26beliefs atheists believe things as well
217. 10:30so can we prove God's existence or can
218. 10:35only shallow truths be proved in this
219. 10:38way I mostly allowance take the view of
220. 10:41the existence of God is something that
221. 10:43reason can't prove conclusively yet the
222. 10:47fact that the existence of God lies
223. 10:49beyond reason does not for one moment
224. 10:52mean that the existence of God is
225. 10:55contrary to reason certainly very good
226. 10:59reasons can be given for suggesting that
227. 11:02God exists but these don't however
228. 11:04Cantus proofs in the sense of rigorous
229. 11:08logical demonstrations or conclusive
230. 11:10scientific experiments
231. 11:12I hope this introductory material will
232. 11:16help you get the most out of engaging
233. 11:18with this first chapter in this book so
234. 11:21let's look at the structure of this
235. 11:22chapter in theology the basics in more
236. 11:24detail and look at the questions we'll
237. 11:26be exploring we begin by looking at the
238. 11:29question what is faith and then move on
239. 11:33to this really interesting question can
240. 11:35God's existence be proved
241. 11:38it's a classic question and the answers
242. 11:40people to give today are really
243. 11:42interesting but we still need to ask
244. 11:44another question which is the next
245. 11:46section this chapter are proofs of God's
246. 11:49existence actually any use who find some
247. 11:53help form that's a really interesting
248. 11:55question
249. 11:56so we then begin to explore this general
250. 11:59proposition yes faith is beyond reason
251. 12:02but it's not concrete reason and then
252. 12:06picking up on this theme of faith as
253. 12:08Trust we look at the relationship
254. 12:11between faith and the promises of God
255. 12:14and then move on to look at the question
256. 12:17the whole problem of suffering which
257. 12:18brings up this question of faith and
258. 12:21doubt it's a big issue well worth
259. 12:24looking at now every chapter in this
260. 12:27volume ends with a text a text that we
261. 12:29engage with and this chapter is no
262. 12:32exception
263. 12:33and the bringing this chapter on faith
264. 12:35to a close we look at John Calvin on the
265. 12:39nature of faith now it's a lot more than
266. 12:43a spell but faith now said in this
267. 12:44presentation in fact our whole question
268. 12:47of the rationality faith is fascinating
269. 12:49and I think you'll enjoy exploring it
270. 12:52and I'll leave you to work your way
271. 12:54through this chapter I want you done
272. 12:57that we can move on and turn our
273. 13:00attention to the Christian idea of God
274. 13:02which is the topic of the next
275. 13:05presentation and I look forward to
276. 13:07speaking to you again very soon