William James ' Untenable Defence Of Faith

Sometimes when we hear the word justification we find it accompanied by other “ation” words: sanctification, glorification, propitiation, regeneration and imputation. These words are from time to time used interchangeably. This can be confusing and needs to be clarified before continuing. Imputation is where credit has been given. It can also mean to lay responsibility on someone. With God, imputation is where He accounts righteousness to the believer. Sanctification is separate from justification. Justification is about one’s position with God; sanctification is about one’s spiritual condition. Propitiation is defined in “Reformation tradition as the satisfaction of divine wrath upon sin”. Regeneration is the creation of a new heart and new spirit. This change of heart and spirit is what allows us to live righteous lives. Glorification comes once we receive our heavenly reward. It is the completion of our salvation.

stay believing that they will change their habits, but truth is the chance is less likely. In my papas

Human reason is the perception of how things might have came to be. It is the ability to consciously making sense of things and apply knowledge. Faith is the complete and total trust or confidence in someone or something. It can either be the belief in God or in the principles of religion. Faith and reason have each been sources of rationalization for religious belief. Many different authors provide evidence for the claim faith and reason is compatible. Saint Augustine believes that faith provides us with reason, but without reason faith would have never been known to man. Man’s knowledge cannot solely understand reason alone. Reason allows human beings to be brought to God and it is faith that provides us with those reasons. Saint Thomas Aquinas talks about how faith and reason are connected to one another. Both faith and reason are ways of finding the truth because faith is consistent with reason. In Plato’s Allegory of the cave, he expressed that the prisoner’s reasons within the cave misguided them towards faith and God. In the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, the fundamental claim of faith and reason is compatible is brought about in ways someone can find the truth.

In verse 15, Paul writes, "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners" Paul seems to be telling his gentile reader that the Torah has no bearing on their salvation. I feel that he purposely or inadvertently gives the law merit more merit than intended by suggesting that Jews are not sinners because they received the law. He draws a distinction between himself and "the gentile sinners" yet he is telling his audience that the ways, some of which are still a part of his own way of life, are irrelevant. He seems to almost make a separation of culture and religion. He seems to be saying that the rectitude of the Jews dates from birth, because the Jewish religion is a part of their culture. Peter claims to

William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation gives insight to typical seventeenth century Puritanical thought. The Puritans believed that God’s will directs and guides all aspects of the universe. Puritans further believed the Bible could help them understand God’s will in their personal lives. Bradford’s writing was meant to express an understanding of God in everyday life and to teach future Puritans how to see God in their lives.

Being that it is such a controversial topic it would be foolish to believe that religion, in this case, Christianity, would not be subject to criticism. Of course, there are many who accept Christianity, just as there are many who reject the religion. Among those who have famously rejected the faith is the Enlightenment philosopher, Thomas Paine—the man who, has been credited with writing “the most influential” (Introduction, pg. 10) of the deistic books published during the later portion of the eighteenth century; said book being, The Age of Reason. Through this publication, Thomas Paine, makes compelling arguments against Christianity, as well as other revealed religions, in attempt to prove that the key to a good life is to find meaning through science and reason.

James argues that Clifford pushes too much to avoid errors at all cost, risking the loss of certain truths. As another solution, James offers to seek the truth by any means available, even at the risk of error. Using this way, we are no longer denied access to possible kinds of truth, which James describes as an inadequate strategy. “Only genuine options that are intellectually open are decidable on a passional grounds” (James 208). A genuine option is one that is living, forced, and momentous. A living option is a decision between two hypotheses. To be a forced option means that the decision cannot be avoided. Finally, a momentous option means that the option may never again present itself, or cannot be easily reversed. To put it simply, a momentous option is not a trivial matter. So James’s argument is contradicting Clifford’s Principle prohibiting the belief of whether the evidence is

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan tells the story of Christian, a deeply religious man whose self-imposed pilgrimage takes him through a variety of locations in his quest to reach Celestial City. However, to better understand Bunyan's perspective on Christianity as given in his novel, we must examine the life experiences of the author. Born in 1628, Bunyan lived in a time period that was undoubtedly heavily influenced by the Reformation movement incited by Martin Luther only a century earlier. The lives of Luther and Bunyan parallel in that both disagreed with fundamental doctrines applied by the Church in their lifetime. Additionally, both were labeled as dissenters and subsequently persecuted for adhering to their own principles

Justification by faith (Sola Fide), which known to be the core value of the Reformation. Is the believe that righteousness from God is viewed as being credited

Due to these methods, no scientific progress can be made, or even started on the area of theology.

In a time when faith and hard labor kept the majority of society alive, the introduction of reason by the Enlightenment was initially perceived as a threat. People had focused on their faiths and grasped the traditions and rituals of their dogmas. The Enlightenment introduced the possibility of faith and reason coinciding and cooperating to form a more civilized and equal society to replace the Old Regime, and the changes lasted far after the period of the Enlightenment.

If so, then justification by faith would be of no need or value but if

In Philip Roth’s, “Defender of the Faith”, Sergeant Nathan Marx is the “Defender” of whom the title speaks. Reluctant at first, Marx defended his faith on two fronts, one across the sea in Europe and the second in the United States. The battle in the states was of a different type. Marx learned what it was like to defend his and the faith of his fellow Jews against prejudice and abuse by those who waged the war. Marx is not an orthodox Jew. He does not follow the doctrine as most of those in his religion would and did not realize until asked by Grossbart that he was still religious. Though Grossbart showed him he was not like others, Grossbart was not the central antagonism, The war was.

Faith and reason were two modes of belief that dominated the history of Western Civilization. Both faith and reason were popularized as tools to understand the universe in Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian eras. By conflicting with each other, these two modes of belief sparked a lot of controversy. Reason or rationality is belief based on concrete evidence and logic. The development of one’s reason relies heavily on observation and questioning. Greco-Roman philosophers believed in the power of the human mind to understand the world. So in order to find ultimate truth, Greco-Roman philosophers dedicated their lives to perfecting their reasoning skills and encouraged those around them to do the same. Contradictory to reason, faith is the

The main theme of James is faith and what it results in the lives of believers. It examines the different effects of faith, such as authentic works, endurance, and godly wisdom. James 4:1-10 develops this idea as it addresses the consequences of ungodly wisdom and pride being found in the church. James expands the idea of humble submission to God and the results of this choice.