Comments on: How do you describe faith?

By: Tess

Tess — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:40:04 +0000

HM: that’s enough, surely.

By: H.M.

H.M. — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:00:48 +0000

I have no faith in any human-made (and they all are) philosophical or religious system. I only have faith in love, I guess. Nothing else.

By: Tess

Tess — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:23:15 +0000

Kate, welcome to this space and thank you for commenting. I’m glad you had the opportunity to hear de Mello speak.
Andy, I know what you mean about the word ‘faith’ – it’s one of those loaded words isn’t it. Even though I was brought up in quite a liberal Catholic household, some of the extremism of the RC brand of Christianity got through and it’s taken a lot of years to work through that. Now, although I still consider myself to be Christian, I value so much the richness of other faith/spiritual paths, and I think God, whoever and however we regard her/him is never seen more clearly than in this wonderful world we’re so busy destroying.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:32:55 +0000

I agree that it’s about relationship. I’m not even sure that I see my path as a ‘faith’ path, but because that is because I was raised in an evangelical/charismatic family and have walked away from that kind of ‘faith’. I do tend to see my spiritual journey as one of a deepening relationship with Goddess and God, through Nature, through a deepening awareness of myself and Them. There’s no faith, as such, just a growing sense of spiritual reality.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:52:36 +0000

I love Anthony de Mello’s writings and have most of his books. I also have listened to him speak years ago in Denver at the Jesuit college, Regis, here. Everyone was spellbound.

By: Tess

Tess — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:43:33 +0000

Abdur, you’re absolutely right on the contradictory nature of those descriptions.

By: Abdur Rahman

Abdur Rahman — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:13:12 +0000

Peace Tess,

Another interesting post. Thank you for sharing it with us all. Thank you also for the link the Green Witch’s site – I intend to join in the conversation there myself.

Faith is a complex, fascinating, annoying, challenging, joyful thing. Perhaps that is because, ultimately, it is about relationship – with ourselves, others and God (however Hu is conceived)?

Abdur Rahman

By: Tess

Tess — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:16:43 +0000

GW: language is inevitably fundamentally flawed in some ways, isn’t it?
HM: yes, this must be a difficult place to be in. But have you lost Faith with a capital F or faith – in life, in spiritual experience, in love? What I’m getting at is the difference between spirituality and religious dogma.

By: H.M.

H.M. — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:11:14 +0000

These days I find myself in an odd place. It’s odd because none of my friends and acquaintances are there. So it feels quite lonely. The place I am referring to is not the place of faith; it is the place of once having had faith, and lost it…. Meanwhile, everyone I know still has faith. Well, I don’t know what else to say. Not sure if this comment has any great relevance to the post or not.

I do love the “one-minute” piece from Lao Tzu/De Mello though. Yes, these things are ultimately impossible to wrap language around. And those who are glib and thinks it’s an easy matter…well, they think they know, but they just don’t….

By: The Green Witch

The Green Witch — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:19:48 +0000

I like this, Tess.

The more I sought to define what I thought, the further it seemed to slip away from me! or so I felt.

We see the argument crystallised in miniture above; all the facets are there. What possible counter-argument is there?

However, as we saw, people find one, from somewhere!