Faith or Belief?
What is the difference between faith and belief? I have heard many answers. A common one is that faith is trust, or articulated differently, belief + action. This is a good answer in that it opens up what “faith” means beyond mere assent to claims. But I’d like to draw out this distinction even more, using the latest cognitive scientific of how humans “believe” and “know” things.
This article builds upon the four kinds of knowing, so if you are completely unfamiliar with them, feel free to take a look at this article where I explain in detail. Here is a brief refresher:
Propositional knowing is about facts, rules, and “saying.”
Procedural knowing is about skills, routines, and “doing.”
Perspectival knowing is about awareness, framing, and “seeing.”
Participatory knowing is about relationship, identity, and “being.”
So… how does this model help to differentiate belief and faith?
“Belief” as the word seems to be used today, typically refers to the top-level of knowing (propositional knowing), by which one can assent to propositions and creeds. Being able to articulate one’s beliefs is important for communication: for dialogue, for sharing insights, for finding those with shared values… but beliefs, even though they may describe faith (to varying degrees of success), are not the same thing as faith.
"Faith" lives in the deepest level of knowing (participatory knowing). It is our knowing of who we are (our identity), which is bound-up in (or even defined by) our participation with others, reality, and God. This is the core of faith, found at the core of the person.
Believing is “the holding of certain ideas.”Faith is “an orientation of the personality to oneself, to one’s neighbor, to the universe. . . a capacity to live at a more than mundane level; to see, to feel, to act in terms of a transcendent reality.”
—Wilfred Cantwell Smith in Faith and Belief (1979)
Now while I say faith “lives” in the participatory layer,
that’s not to say it doesn’t affect the other layers.
For if we “have faith” in our heart,
we will be dawn to see the world through faith,
which unveils opportunities for faithful action,
and then our beliefs are likely to mirror and support our faith.
With this in mind, I’ll proceed with reflecting upon how Jesus, the Hebrew scriptures, and the Bible all support this “deeper” view of faith — which extends through all kinds of knowing — and how the fundamentalist and literalist approach corrupts faith, by reducing it to primarily belief.
Note: While it seems most people today use the word “belief” to refer to propositional knowing, some people understand the word “belief” more deeply. They extend its meaning down through the levels of knowing… saying that if someone really and truly believes something, then they will act in accordance with it, and frame the world by it, and form their identity around their belief. With this understanding, (deep) belief can indeed be a way to talk about faith. To give a mundane example, let’s say I claim to “believe” the tap-water in Spain is safe to drink. But if I only drink bottled water while I’m there, do I really believe it? And even if I drink the tap-water, but am continually thinking about the potential risks, how much has that belief really “sunk in”?
Faith Described in the Bible
Below, I have sorted several Bible verses into the 4 kinds of knowing, sometimes italicizing a part I find particularly relevant to that kind of knowing.
Yes, I know there’s concerns with pulling stand-alone verses, but my point is not to prove anything, but simply note the way the 4 kinds of knowing show up in the Text.
While I separate the 4 levels here (separation has its use), it’s important to remember that all the levels are connected, and many of these passages can (and probably should) be taken to refer to multiple levels of knowing. Many of the Greek* and Hebrew* words used for “faith” and “knowing” in the Bible can refer to any or all of the 4 levels! (Which, of course, is also quite true of our words “faith” and “knowing.”)
*In the Greek NT, the most common word for “faith” is πίστις (pistis), which is also translated “trust” or “faithfulness” or (as a verb) “to believe in” or “to have faith in.”
In the Greek NT, “knowing” is usually either γνῶσις (gnosis), which carries a more participatory, experiential flavor… or οἶδα (oida), which is more about seeing clearly and mental certainty… though alas, even between these two words, the meanings blur.
*In the Hebrew Bible, the most common word for “faith” is אֱמוּנָה (emuna), which is also translated “steadfastness,” “faithfulness,” “trust,” “stability,” “integrity,” and “honesty,” being related to אָמֵן (amen), which means “truly” or “so be it.”
The most common Hebrew Bible word for “knowing” is יָדַע (yada: to know), which primarily refers to experiential, participatory knowing (which includes the example “he knew his wife.”). It’s sometimes translated “perceive” or “recognize” or to be “shown…” but I agree with the El Grover Fricks choice in her translation, where yada is always translated as “to experientially know.”
Belief (propositional)
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1 NRSV)
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9 NRSV)
Righteous Living (procedural)
“I, by my works, will show you faith.” (James 2:18 NRSV)
“Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Phil 4:9 NLT)
“Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.” (Mat 7:24 NRSV)
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15 NRSV)
Spiritual Sight (perspectival)
“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12:2 NRSV)
“For we live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7 NIV)
“May [God] give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. (Eph 1:17-19 NRSV)
“Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.” (1 Cor 2:14-15 NRSV)
“Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.” (Col 3:2 NRSV)
“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” (Rom 8:6 NIV)
Relationship with God / Identity in God (participatory)
“It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." (Gal 2:20 NRSV)
“Abide in me as I abide in you.” (John 15:4 NRSV)
“For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.” (Eph 5:8 NRSV)
“He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4 NIV)
“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3 NRSV)
“The Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” (Rom 8:9 NRSV)
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2Cor 5:17 NRSV)
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.” (Col 3:3-4 NRSV)
“I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.” (Exodus 6:7 NRSV)
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3:20 NRSV)
“He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:5 NRSV)
Jesus’ Way to Read Scripture
When reading the scriptures, it speaks quite differently depending on the attention (spiritual sight) we bring to it. Is the text primarily communicating propositions? Historical claims? Is it making an argument? Is it telling you rules to follow? Is it helping you come alive? Is it sustaining your life in hope and peace? Is it giving you a fresh set of eyes? Is it changing your heart?
I think Jesus, in his way (“way” implying not just rules or beliefs, but navigating and walking a path) of reading (relating to) scripture, prioritized deep readings — moving in the direction of participatory knowing. When confronted by Pharisees in Matthew 22, Jesus reveals his interpretation (and experience) of the scriptures: that all the law and the prophets hang upon two, participatory commandments: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. It seems the Pharisees were over-propositionalizing (if you allow me me that word) the law, but Jesus appealed to the deeper way-of-being that the law was trying to get people to live into and be changed by (not just “obey” on the surface).
From the heart-disposition of love flows all the fulfillment of God’s law.
Old Testament “Knowing”
Many people today find the Bible, and particularly the Old Testament, difficult to connect with. I believe a major reason for this is that its language appears to us to be more “propositional.” After all, it emphasizes obedience and God’s commands and following the law. But I’m convinced ancient readers would have seen this language as much more relational and participatory, and we fail to see it due to the cultural-linguistic barrier.
English speakers today have different mental categories and a language which divides up the non-material realms differently (often less wholistically or richly but with more precision). For example, “perspectives,” “addiction,” “self-awareness,” and the “subconscious” all concepts we could say are pointed to in the Bible but are never clearly referred to with a word, since no word for them existed in the language of the time!
Words like shema (שְׁמַע: “listen/obey”), may feel surface-level to us, but to people of the time, they carried deep perspectival and participatory meaning with them… for they saw listening, understanding, obeying, and loving as deeply interconnected (perhaps even inseparable).
Today, we have “pulled-apart” such ideas: separating love from reason, mind from body, individual from collective, self from world, and natural from supernatural — a fragmentation that stems from a long string of socio-political and intellectual movements traced to around the 1500s, including the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Protestant Reformation, Capitalism, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, Romanticism, and Modernism. (This process is well articulated by John Vervaeke in Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.)
Thus, in BCE times, the need to make a distinction between “belief” and “faith,” or “listening” and “obeying,” or “knowing” and “experiencing” was less important than it is now, because to say one was to mean the others. If you said (in the approximate Greek or Hebrew equivalent): “Believe in God,” people knew you meant “experience the goodness of God,” “pay attention to godly things,” and “live justly and mercifully.”
Unfortunately now adays, “believe in God” often means to people: “subscribe to XXX set of beliefs about God.”
Consider Ezekiel 37, where Ezekiel is brought to a valley of dry bones. Three times, God speaks to Ezekiel that the bones will “know I am the Lord,” not because God persuades them of a doctrine, but because God gives them life… “I will lay sinews on you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” (v6) As I recently heard Taizé brother Jean-Marc comment on this passage:
“To know God is to be truly alive.”
There are a plethora of Old Testament examples of “knowing” actually being about “living” (you will spot them all over the place!).
Consider Psalm 19:7-8:
The law of the Lord is perfect, <—propositional/procedural
reviving the soul; <—perspectival/participatory
the decrees of the Lord are sure, <—propositional/procedural
making wise the simple; <—perspectival/participatory
the precepts of the Lord are right, <—propositional/procedural
rejoicing the heart; <—perspectival/participatory
the commandment of the Lord is clear, <—propositional/procedural
enlightening the eyes; <—perspectival/participatory
All throughout the Biblical library, we see that God is inviting people to “taste and see” His Goodness and Love, in a way which turns our death into life, our mourning into gladness, and our hearts of sin into hearts of love!
So let’s not get hung-up on language that at first sounds like shallow obedience or rigid law, but look deeply at the text, with Spirit-guided sight, finding within it a light to guide us and love to hold us.
Mistake of Fundamentalism and Literalism
A common mistake of fundamentalism and literalism is the confusion of belief for faith, reducing religion down to a set of propositions. In actuality, healthy religion does not see propositions (like doctrines and creeds) as the most important thing to “know” but as helpful tools to serve the purpose of facilitating procedural, perspectival, and participatory knowing.
The severe fundamentalist tries to substitute heart-transformation with subscribing to doctrines, or even political positions. To them, what matters most is what they say they believe, not what they do or who they are (doing and personal character may matter, but are considered less important and less “salvific” than subscribing to beliefs). They invert the 4 kinds of knowing, working against how the human psyche actually operates. This is a corruption of “faith” and perversion of “religion.”
Reflection & Conclusion
Perhaps take some time to reflect on these things. Maybe consider:
What kind of knowing do I prioritize? Which would I like to focus on more?
How do I receive God’s love through my beliefs/intellect? Through my actions/practices? Through my perspectives/experiences? Through my core self/becoming? Are all of these worked-into my spiritual life?
In what ways could my beliefs, actions, desires/perspectives, and identity/being be better aligned with one another?
Truly we are loved by God, whether we “know” it or not. It is my prayer that no matter how we may feel — how wrong, unworthy, or unlovable — that we may stand upon the firm foundation that God is love and we are loved! May we act out of faith in the fundamental goodness of reality (and the victory of love!), cultivating perspectives that counter despair and birth hope, becoming ourselves people who, more and more, know love by how it lives through us!
Photo Credits:
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