
The Act of Faith
Eric O. Springsted(Author)
Wipf & Stock Publishers
Published on 9. February 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
284 pages
978-1-4982-2001-9 (ISBN)
Description
While the question ""Is faith reasonable?"" has continually occupied philosophers and theologians, little attention has been paid to what faith itself is. The Act of Faith remedies this neglect by looking at what it means for a person of Christian faith to believe.
Eric Springsted contrasts modern views of faith with the Christian tradition running from Augustine through Aquinas and Calvin. In reviewing such thinkers as Locke and Hume, Springsted discovers that behind modern discussions of the reasonableness of faith lie key assumptions about the human self, including the views that the good is a matter of choice and that we can exercise objective, uninvolved reason. According to Springsted, however, the church has not viewed faith in this way. His survey of the Augustinian tradition shows that the self our most esteemed Christian thinkers had in mind when talking about faith was a ""moral self""--one defined by character and self-involvement. Christian faith is at root a participation in the good, and reasoning within faith is reasoning within the life of God.
Drawing on contemporary philosophers and theologians like John Henry Newman and Simone Weil, Springsted builds a fresh understanding of faith for today. He shows how the ""inner act"" of faith is ultimately a radical willingness to be open to God, and he argues that the faithful self is one that develops within a community that shapes its members through the morally formative activities of interaction, teaching, and sacramental practice.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Eugene
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
421 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4982-2001-9 (9781498220019)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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E-Book
02/2015
Wipf and Stock
€32.99
Available for download
Person
Co-founder of the American Weil Society in 1980, and its President since then, Eric O. Springsted is the author and editor of six books and numerous articles on Simone Weil, which have appeared in half a dozen languages. He is also author and editor of several other books in philosophy and theology. He has taught at Illinois College, Princeton Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary, and has been a resident member of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton several times.