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CHAPTER 2. Faith: Responding to God’s Invitation. A Question of Worldviews. Read the Jewish folktale on pg. 33-34. These two traveling companions had two entirely different ways of looking at life.
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CHAPTER 2 Faith: Responding to God’s Invitation
A Question of Worldviews • Read the Jewish folktale on pg. 33-34. • These two traveling companions had two entirely different ways of looking at life. • As the story suggests, the way we see the world around us and all reality—our worldview—influences how we experience life.
How do we get a Worldview? • Family • Culture • Our relationships with others • Our life experiences • The personality we inherited *However, our worldview is not simply imposed on us. *It is something we freely choose and say yes to, not all at once but in thousands of ways over a lifetime.
Matters of the Heart and the Head • Worldviews are matters of the heart as well as the head. • They are expression of our thoughts and beliefs about life and the world (“head issues”), but also our feelings and attitudes about life and the world (“heart issues”). • When we answer the questions that help develop our worldview, we rely on both our head and our heart. • Faith in God is one kind of worldview.
Struggling to Speak of Great Mysteries • As humans beings we are limited in what we can say about God because the mystery of God is immensely beyond us. • We need to recognize that our descriptions of God and how God works and relates to us are never going to capture all that God is. • We can only try to understand.
Using Metaphors • When we speak of God, we must realize that we are using metaphors about God. • Metaphors are means of expression that try to describe, by comparison, with something else, a trait or characteristic of a person or thing. • Ex: “You are the light in my life”
The Meaning of Faith • Read the story of Eddie and Vince on pg. 37 • The story of Eddie and Vince serves to illustrate the meaning of faith at the human-to-human level. • The process of putting faith in another human being is like putting faith in God. • It involves both TRUST and BELIEF, matters of the head and heart.
It’s About Trust • We can grasp the significance of trust in our life by reflecting on what happens when our faith in another person is destroyed (Ex. Eddie and Vince) • Faith in God, like faith in a human being, is about trust.
It’s About Trust (Continued) • In religious faith a person invests trust in God. • This process, like trust in human beings, is a matter of the heart—a whole attitude and movement . • A person who trusts in God is aware of God’s love and loves God in return.
It’s About Belief • Faith in God is also a matter of the head, of beliefs about God. • Belief and trust are two sides of putting faith in someone.
You Can’t Have One Without The Other • When it comes to faith in God, a similar relationship between trust and belief exists. • You can’t have one—trust or belief—without the other and still have genuine faith. • People of genuine faith trust in God because of what they believe about God; that God is all good, he created them and loves them, etc.
St. Thomas Aquinas • Born in 1225 to a noble family. • At 18, joined the Dominican Order. • Studied under the brilliant St. Albert the Greatat the University of Cologne. • Merited the nickname the “Dumb Ox” for his quiet manner and huge size (most brilliant student of all students). • Named a Doctor of the Church- a person of great learning and knowledge whose works the Church has highly recommend for studying and living the faith. • Declared a saint in 1323.
St. Thomas Aquinas • Thomas’ masterpiece is the Summa Theologica—reconciled Christian faith with human reason. • Contributions include his arguments for the existence of God (Five Intellectual Proofs for God’s Existence). • Taught that many truths can be known through human reason, others through divine revelation.
Five Intellectual Proofs for God’s Existence • Created by St. Thomas Aquinas • The Unmoved Mover • First Cause • Everything Comes from Something • Supreme Model • Grand Designer
The Unmoved Mover • There is motion in the world. • Whatever is in motion had to be moved by something else. • This something else also must have been moved by Someone or Something.
2. First Cause • Nothing causes itself. • Example: Artist who creates a painting • Even believers of the “Big Bang” Theory ask questions.
3. Everything Comes from Something • “Nothing” cannot create “something.” • We must conclude there must be one necessary, eternal Being (God) who always was and brought other beings into existence.
4. Supreme Model • Persons and things have different degrees of qualities such as beauty, goodness, truth, etc. • We can only speak of these qualities by comparing them to a Supreme Model or reference point. • That perfect model of beauty, goodness, and truth is God.
5. Grand Designer • There is a beauty, symmetry, immensity, and power in our world that forces is to conclude that a Grand Designer made it all. • “Show me a watch without a watchmaker, then I’ll take a Universe without a Universe-maker.”
How did we humans get here? • Scientists have yet to explain how life could have evolved from matter. • Statisticians say it is virtually impossible for intelligent, human life to appear by mere chance. • We can detect a hidden but powerfully present Intelligence that is leading and guiding us.
