The Three Dynamisms of Faith

Is the faith journey a matter of reflection, of emotion, or of obedience? Is there valid and convincing evidence that does enable human beings to assent to Jesus Christ and his message? What is the influence of cognitive assumptions and of affective tendencies in the art of believing? Should we distinguish faith and belief? And do we need more than one kind of conversion?

Taking account of the widespread indifference, skepticism, and distrust of organized religion in the West, Louis Roy begins The Three Dynamisms of Faith with the human concern about hope and about a reachable happiness, both in our contemporary world and in the Bible. He then traces these themes in three historic giants of Christian thinking: Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, and Bernard Lonergan, presenting their converging descriptions of the three dynamisms of Christian faith: the quests for meaning, for fulfillment, and for truth.

Fr. Roy shows how The Three Dynamisms of Faith are lived in today's culture and how they are systematically related; sometimes in alliance and sometimes in apparent opposition. Having led the reader to a plausible answer to the human condition in Catholicism, in his final chapter he discusses some classic issues that result: possible tensions between meaning and truth, between feelings and insight, and about the role of religious experience in becoming attuned to Christian revelation.

All along, Fr. Roy describes concrete examples of problems that may occur in the journey of faith: blindness and distortions, the varieties of self-deception, the limitations of natural reason. Logical stages on the way to faith are also identified. A pastoral conclusion brings those multiple threads together; it insists on the legitimate diversity of emphases in people's journeys, and it proposes a balance between the rich strengths available in persons and groups.