Faith Reduced to Three Questions

Judith A. Frediani
Director of Lifespan Faith Development
UUA, Boston

Theologian Paul Tillich wrote, "There is hardly a word in the religious language – both theological and popular – which is subject to more misunderstandings, distortions, and questionable definitions than the word, faith."

Faith is one of those religious terms that not all UUs can use comfortably in daily discourse. This is unfortunate, because Unitarian Universalism has always used faith language.

One problem is that "faith" is confused with the word, "creed" – a set of specific, often unchanging, even mandatory, beliefs. Faith and creed are not synonyms. Creed comes from the Latin "credo," which does not mean "belief" but means "I set my heart to." It signifies loyalty, allegiance, honor, and value.

Another linguistic problem for UUs is the association of faith with belief that defies logic, proof, or evidence, such as a belief in a supernatural power that must be accepted without question. "Blind faith" is a term most of us have heard.

These ideas of faith violate our religious Principles that respect "the guidance of reason and the results of science," that value freedom in "the search for truth and meaning," and that honor the theological diversity that naturally results from that freedom. While still widespread in our culture, these old ideas of faith are increasingly anachronistic. We can ignore them.

Sharon Parks defines faith as the "activity of making meaning."

To theologian Paul Tillich, "Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned."

No tests of creed there.

And religious historian William Cantwell Smith wrote, "Faith at its best has taken the form of a quiet confidence and joy which enable one to feel at home in the universe."

A New Yorker cartoon shows a vaguely middle-aged couple sitting in identical overstuffed armchairs facing each other. One says to the other, "Don't worry, Howard, all the big questions are multiple choice."

UUs love questions, but we don't think the answers to anything important are multiple choice, but I would suggest that there are three simple questions we can ask ourselves individually and collectively to identify, articulate, and live out our faith.

Those questions are: What? So what? and Now what?

The "what" is any new knowledge, input, or stimuli we encounter. The "what" can be a film, a book, a class, a concert, a death, a sunrise.

"So what?" is where we make meaning, judge value, discern what is right and wrong, seek to understand and find purpose. "So what? " is an act of faith development. "So what?" asks, "What do I set my heart to?"

"Now What?" Given what I know; and what I understand, and what I value, what am I called to do? Our own Hosea Ballou wrote: "There is one inevitable criterion of judgment touching religious faith in doctrinal matters, Can you reduce it to practice? If not, have none of it." In other words, it is not faith until we act upon it in the world.

We all are surrounded, if not bombarded with "whats" in our lives; with welcome or unwelcome information, events, and experiences. The challenge is to decide which "whats" to attend to.

We are pretty good, too, at "so what?" We are inquisitive and resourceful. We explore and question and even ponder, and we come together in our religious communities for supportive and challenging companions in our search for truth and meaning.

"Now what?" is where we take our faith, our principles, and our values out onto what Jane Addams called "the thronged and common road." "Now what?" can require time, commitment, and even courage. "Now what?" challenges us to respond to these words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

Sometimes "to question truly is an answer." But sometimes, only an answer will do. "You see," wrote Clinton Lee Scott, "faith is a very simple thing until it gets in the hand of theologians. It is not a mystical, mysterious something belonging only to religion. It is one of the conditions by which we live."