Week 2: The "Trust Dimension" of Faith

by Stephen Bevans, SVD | February 22, 2013

Last week we said that Pope Benedict spoke of the intellectual dimension of faith when he says that “knowledge of the content of the faith is essential for giving one’s own assent, that is to say for adhering fully with intellect and will to what the Church proposes” (Paragraph 10). The fact, however, that Benedict speaks not only of the intellect but also of the will points to the second dimension of faith, which is the TRUST or AFFECTIVE dimension. This is the dimension of the act of faith that includes a more relational aspect, one that not only accepts the truth of a datum of revelation but also trusts in its saving power. So, for example, I believe that God is creator, but that includes my trust that even though I am just a speck of dust in this vast universe, God cares for me personally, and so I respond with love and praise of such a creator. Or, because the Lord is my shepherd, I trust that God will be at side as I walk through the valley of death.

This more affective, trusting, personal dimension of faith is beautifully expressed in one of my favorite poems by the American poet Denise Levertov. She writes as follows:

As swimmers dare
To lie face to the sky
And water bears them,
As hawks rest upon the air
And air sustains them,
So I would learn to attain
Freefall, and float
Into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
Knowing no effort earns that all-surrounding grace

Less poetically, and yet quite elegantly, Pope Benedict reflects on the scene in the Acts of the Apostles, when Paul preaches to a number of women gathered outside the city of Philippi, God opened Lydia’s heart in particular, and she came to faith (Acts 16:11-15). The pope comments that here “St. Luke teaches that knowing the content to be believed is not sufficient unless the heart, the authentic sacred space within a person, is opened by grace to allow the eyes to see below the surface and to understand that what has been proclaimed is the Word of God.”

Faith then is not just something objective or intellectual. It is about trust, or entrusting oneself to God. In faith we enter into a real relationship of trust and love.

Questions for Reflection:

Why do you think you can trust God?
Have you ever had an experience like Denise Levertov expresses in her poem—of “letting go and letting God”?

Stephen Bevans, SVD

Stephen Bevans is currently Louis J. Luzbetak, S.V.D., Professor of Mission and Culture at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, USA and the Faculty Moderator for Catholics on Call. He is a Roman Catholic priest in the Society of the Divine Word, an international missionary congregation, and served for nine years (1972-1981) as a missionary in the Philippines.

His publications include: Models of Contextual Theology (2002), Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today (2004, with Roger Schroeder), Evangelization and Freedom (2009, with Jeffrey Gros), and Introduction to Theology in Global Perspective (2009).

He is past president of the American Society of Missiology (2006) and past member of the board of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America (2007-2009). In 2009 he was visiting lecturer at Yarra Theological Union in Melbourne, Australia, and in the fall of 2009 he served as Scholar in Residence at the Crowther Center of mission studies at the headquarters of the Church Missionary Society in Oxford.