Impromptu on Faith, Dogma and Belief

When I consider FAITH I definitely don’t mean DOGMA nor, come to think of it, do I mean BELIEF. Faith is an overwhelming necessity, which in the final resort overrides all our actions and beliefs. At times it even seems as if Faith is simply another name for God, it is that in which we live, move and have our being. A rudimentary faith precedes any action, without it we could never make the first step, that first tentative move.

Before we ‘knew’ we could take our first step, we had already embarked on that exercise and so, we start to walk. It’s almost as if we question the reasons for our being confined to sitting, rolling over and crawling. There must be more! Without that step of faith, our lives are restricted in terms of both action and thought. We breathe because we can, it is not an act of reason … a rational decision … it simply is! For most of us, not being able to understand how this amazing organism, the human body, functions doesn’t lead us to give up on breathing. We don’t have to ‘believe’ in breathing in order to partake of the activity but, I must admit, our lives would be much poorer without our participation in this particular activity.

Our faith may later have a set of doctrines/ beliefs as its foundation but, the faith is much more than the beliefs that we affirm. Coming from a Christian background, I tend to use a broadly Christian terminology; at its core my life (in thought and action) is shaped by various Christian myths. Dogma is an easy way of handing over responsibility for our faith, to the traditions of learned (and not so learned) others, whereas faith itself isn’t averse to questioning and doubt. [Of course, I have to acknowledge that without some of these dogmatists we wouldn’t have the canon of scripture from which I draw my inspiration.]

Christ said that He came that we may have LIFE and have it ABUNDANTLY. Dogma, on the other hand, is that which restricts this fullness … to question a dogma is frequently confused with denying the faith. To question is to have faith; to blindly follow is to renounce the muscle of faith.

Our Christmas faith tells of a helpless child, whose birth causes the political and religious establishment to tremble. This helpless child, the “word made flesh”, still holds out a challenge both to the pious and to the politically powerful. Though frequently stumbling, I try to follow His call.