KARL JASPERS FORUM
TA 115 (Lothane)
Commentary 1
( BELIEF,
FAITH, RELIGION )
by Gary Schouborg
29 May 2009, posted 13 June 2009
Being asked to comment on any
writing of Zvi Lothane's is
like being asked to review the Encyclopedia
Britannica. Any overview is beyond my ability.
However, a quick reading of his article on spirituality inspires two
related observations:
1. Belief/faith is often, but not
necessarily, to be identified with conviction. It also functions as a
second-level heuristic expressed by St. Anselm's fides quaerens
intellectum. I'm not a history scholar and can't attest
to his intended meaning. But a possible one is that he meant to reference faith
as a heuristic: the commitment that there is something worthwhile expressed in
a belief (e.g., God exists, Jesus is God, science yields reliable truth), but
that one must spend a lifetime understanding its riches. In faith of this sort,
one is committed to the value of searching out the meaning, but one is not
committed to any particular belief that emerges in the inquiry. For example, in
believing that God exists, one is not committed to the childhood belief that
God is just like a human only bigger and more powerful, who answers one's
prayers in mysterious ways.
2. Religion provides structures
that nurture and maintain faith. In its more spiritual function, religion
nurtures and maintains faith as a heuristic, open-ended inquiry. In its pharisaical and idolatrous function, religion ossifies
faith into dogmatic belief, so that an individual's development is arrested.
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Gary Schouborg,
PhD
Performance Consulting
Walnut Creek, CA 94597
e-mail<gary (at) garynini.com
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