This book was mentioned and quoted from by Brian Hines, who has a blog called "The Church of the Churchless" that I follow. It's exactly what I need to read right now. It was first published in 1951. Here are some quotes I have picked out, after having only read Chapter I. The italics are mine:
- We must here make a clear distinction between belief and faith, because, in general practice, belief has come to mean a state of mind which is almost the opposite of faith. Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would “lief” or wish it to be. The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes. Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be. Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown. Belief clings, but faith lets go. In this sense of the word, faith is the essential virtue of science, and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception.
- You will not see the sky if you have covered the [window] glass with blue paint. But “religious” people who resist the scraping of the paint from the glass, who regard the scientific attitude with fear and mistrust, and confuse faith with clinging to certain ideas, are curiously ignorant of laws of the spiritual life which they might find in their own traditional records. A careful study of comparative religion and spiritual philosophy reveals that abandonment of belief, of any clinging to a future life for one’s own, and of any attempt to escape from finitude and mortality, is a regular and normal stage in the way of the spirit. Indeed, this is actually such a “first principle” of the spiritual life that it should have been obvious from the beginning, and it seems, after all, surprising that learned theologians should adopt anything but a cooperative attitude towards the critical philosophy of science.
- ... the incredible truth that what religion calls the vision of God is found in giving up any belief in the idea of God.
Alan Watts had a Master's degree in theology and a doctorate in divinity.
Wonderful food for thought, I often confuse faith with being religious, and have recently been trying to look at faith with a broader mind set. What is said above seems to clarify some of my questions.
ReplyDeleteI will also have to check out "The church of the church-less" always trying to find like minded and/or new perspectives on the ever changing meaning of life.
I thank you for sharing Malcolm.
Thank you for your comment Anna May, I had a look at your blogs. I'll look through them more carefully later. I liked the pictures with your words; and wish you success in your dating. It's a tricky business.
ReplyDeleteYou might care to check my tumblr blog.
Yes it's possible to be very religious but have very little faith, I knew someone like that very well.