Dynamics of Faith by Paul Tillich

Author:Paul Tillich [Tillich, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-203146-4
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1957-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

3. MORAL TYPES OF FAITH

The moral types of faith are characterized by the idea of the law. God is the God who has given the law as a gift and as a command. He can be approached only by those who obey the law. There are, of course, laws in the sacramental and mystical types of faith, and no one can reach the ultimate without fulfilling these laws. But there is an important difference between the laws in the two types of faith. The law in the ontological types demands subjection to ritual methods or ascetic practices. The law in the moral type demands moral obedience. The difference, certainly, is not absolute. For the ritual law includes moral conditions and the ethical law includes ontological conditions. But the difference is sufficient to make understandable the rise of the various great religions. They follow the one or the other type.

One can distinguish the juristic, the conventional and the ethical in the moral types of faith. The juristic type is most strongly developed in Talmudic Judaism and in Islam; the conventional type is most prominent in Confucianist China; the ethical type is represented by the Jewish prophets.

The faith of a Moslem is faith in the revelation given by Mohammed, and this revelation is his ultimate concern. The revelations mediated by Mohammed are largely ritual and social laws. The ritual laws point to the sacramental stage out of which all religions and cultures have arisen. The social laws transcend the ritual element and produce a holiness of “what ought to be.” These laws permeate the whole life (as they do in orthodox Judaism). Their source is a matter of ultimate concern, the prophet; their content is identical with his commands. The law is always felt as both a gift and a command. Under the protection of the law, life is possible and satisfying. This is true of the average adherent of Islam and it is true of those who develop on this basis a secular humanism, nourished largely by Greek sources. If somebody who knows the religious attitude of the Islamic nations said that this is faith in Mohammed, conflicting with faith in Christ, one has to answer that it is not the faith in Mohammed as the prophet which is decisive, but the faith in an order which is consecrated and determines the daily life of most people. The question of faith is not Moses or Jesus or Mohammed; the question is: Who expresses most adequately one’s ultimate concern? The conflict between religions is not a conflict between forms of belief, but it is a conflict between expressions of our ultimate concern. The question is whether the manifestation of the divine in the juristic realm is its ultimate manifestation. All decisions of faith are existential, not theoretical, decisions.

This is also true of a system of conventional rules as collected and formulated by Confucius. This system has often been called unreligious and a complete lack of faith has been attributed to the Chinese way of life, in so far as it is determined by Confucius.

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