Faith vs. Good Works?
In what follows, I want to highlight that I’m focusing on the sense of great risk and consequentiality that enters into the desire to do good and live well. I’m not overlooking the positive component of spiritual passion, which I think is primary.
You don’t have to be a hero to experience this sense of risk and consequentiality. For example, people who have insomnia over whether they’re on track with their lives – or whether they may have gotten off track – experience it. It feels like what we do with our lives really matters.
It’s this sense of momentousness, of risk, of something being genuinely at stake, which one would think that faith would put to rest. How can the things that we do and the way that we live matter that much if we have faith that, regardless, everything’s OK?
____________
Let me restrict the terms and sharpen the focus of the previous post:
When people have faith that life is ultimately meaningful, why is their desire to do good often so impassioned? Why does it often have such an edge, urgency – as if a lot were at stake?
Those whom most of us admire most lead their lives that way. And ordinary people will often risk their lives for complete strangers – like that man in NYC who, earlier this year, threw himself onto train tracks to save the life of someone who’d fallen from a seizure.
And lots of ordinary people become angry or depressed when they feel that they can’t do more to make a positive difference in the world.
In Christianity, this tension, real or apparent, between faith and the desire to do good, can look pretty stark. If Jesus Christ already did all the legwork, dying to save us from our sins, then why, for example, did Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King feel so powerfully called to do their work?
Do we have a contradiction? A paradox? Can you account for it?
You don’t have to be a hero to experience this sense of risk and consequentiality. For example, people who have insomnia over whether they’re on track with their lives – or whether they may have gotten off track – experience it. It feels like what we do with our lives really matters.
It’s this sense of momentousness, of risk, of something being genuinely at stake, which one would think that faith would put to rest. How can the things that we do and the way that we live matter that much if we have faith that, regardless, everything’s OK?
____________
Let me restrict the terms and sharpen the focus of the previous post:
When people have faith that life is ultimately meaningful, why is their desire to do good often so impassioned? Why does it often have such an edge, urgency – as if a lot were at stake?
Those whom most of us admire most lead their lives that way. And ordinary people will often risk their lives for complete strangers – like that man in NYC who, earlier this year, threw himself onto train tracks to save the life of someone who’d fallen from a seizure.
And lots of ordinary people become angry or depressed when they feel that they can’t do more to make a positive difference in the world.
In Christianity, this tension, real or apparent, between faith and the desire to do good, can look pretty stark. If Jesus Christ already did all the legwork, dying to save us from our sins, then why, for example, did Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King feel so powerfully called to do their work?
Do we have a contradiction? A paradox? Can you account for it?
Posted by Paul at 10:50 PM Permalink
43 Comments:
In that profound comes a natural desire to "do good" which has absolutely nothing to do with intellectual belief. It is the individual's sense of being part of the greater creation that gives him or her the sense of responsibility for the welfare of the whole.
"One Love" as the Rastas say. Which I take to mean that we are all organs in one body of creation. The feeling of universal love is the recognition of that.
This is the faith, nothing more. There is no tension in principle.
The tension is there in practice because the individual has taken on Christian belief (or some other religion) which is a kind of parasite upon the inner faith, trying to claim that Love belongs to it. Trying to claim that goodness only comes about because Jesus died (or indeed lived).
I don't speak of religion with bitterness. It is the social dimension of that faith, the unifying principle because man is a social and cultural animal needing such principles, just as he needs water, which can get terribly polluted.
The desire to help orphans or save a stranger from the train tracks is not from a religious conviction. Rather, I think these actions illustrate a fundamental connection/regard we have for other living (human) beings. When we see a stranger about to be run over by a train, we see ourself.
When you go with God's flow, things are wonderful on the inside, even if they're not so great, on the outside.
And in the end, feeling great on the inside can be the most meaningful and deepest thing you could possibly experience.
It's not even a "high" you get addicted to, so much as a sense of doing exactly what you're meant to do, living exactly the full life you're meant to live, and being right with God~~ walking side by side with Christ, if you're a Christian.
There is elation to that, to finding out you're not alone and you've got support where it counts the most, that you're united with the One Love that unites us all....there's a lot that goes with it, actually, and it's all unspeakably good to have in your life.
I was a personal support worker here in Ontario, canada. It's like a nurses aid. My calling was to help the disabled, elderly and dying in their homes. Meaning that I felt strongly about providing comfort and assisting them to *stay* in their own homes as long as possible before moving to an institution or hospital. (they are soul stealing places here)
The desire was so strong and I did so much, that I ended up burning out and becoming disabled myself.
So here I sit:)
Just recently I have found a doctor who is helping me regain/build a new, brighter image of self and the world we live in. He's a Godsend himself to me and I'm beginning to understand how he has survived so long in the field of assisting others. Without burning out himself.
I'm developing a new view of 'good works' and if I can gain a small grain of his understanding I'll be blessed with a little of his wisdom.
Maybe I'll be able to survive after all in this world and not feel such a loss for not being able to continue on the path that I started so many years ago :)
namaste
Nancy
Right – people who see themselves as lacking or rejecting faith can also want to do good things with their lives. Good point, but what I’m trying to look at is what appears to me as the tension between having faith while also feeling an ardent commitment to doing good, even when it involves personal hardship, risk, or suffering.
Why do people of faith feel it’s important to do good? The question is begged even more, it seems to me, if the person’s faith is, as you mention, profound. Why not love in less arduous ways than saints, heroes, and entirely uncelebrated and unknown persons often do?
VISHESH: That’s the question: why should anyone of great faith feel powerfully called to do something for the good of the world, even when it involves undertaking hardship or risk, when they deeply feel that all’s well with the world?
JACOB: I agree that the desire to do good doesn’t originate with faith – people who espouse secularism/humanism/atheism etc. do good things too. What I’m pointing to as remarkable is the coexistence of faith with an impassioned desire to do good – as if much depended on it.
CHRISTINE: While going with the flow as you’ve describe it is, I think, the greatest joy life can bring, things can happen, situations can develop, in which staying on track carries an enormous burden of risk or pain or struggle. The way of joy can turn into a way of difficulty, and even terrible hardship.
One thinks, for example, of French resistance fighters in WWII – to get caught by the SS was, to say the least, bad. Or again, of Martin Luther King, who, on the eve of his assassination, alluded to the death threats against him and his belief that he probably didn’t have long to live.
I think that the passion that animates people struggling to do good against great adversity has a certain edge to it: an edge that comes from a sense of the consequentiality of accomplishing the good work or failing to.
How then, where there is great faith – in God, in a “higher power,” in life or the universe itself – can there be this sense of great consequentiality to how we conduct ourselves?
WATERFALLS: Thanks for sharing that, Nancy. You’re reminding me that in a month or so I plan to do some posts relating to heath care in the US.
And this question I’m asking, if I can get it across right, is a tough one I think...
SALLY: Hmm… Sort of takes it to a new level!
First, let’s set aside a big debate that lurks in your brief remark: Is true faith, whether or not the person knows it, necessarily based on the love of Christ? Non Christians would say no; many Christians would say yes.
Let’s assume, for the sake of staying focused on the post’s question, that Christ’s love animates all who strive to do good.
Why can’t Christ-in-us chill out, so to speak? Having been crucified, resurrected, and saved the world already, why does Christ-in-us feel the momentousness of, for example:
“We must work the works of him who sent us while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4)
But I think you're talking about something different?
Firt, I think you're right. In reality, it's both. People of faith often engage in good work with a tremendous sense of purpose, as if a lot really did depend on it.
And yet that Protestant formulation - I seem to recall it best in Luther's original formulation of "justification by faith alone" - highlights the paradox:
We're rotten to the core - death comes to us as the "wages of sin." Nothing we can do makes us one iota better or better off in the sight of God. It is through the sheer mysterious grace of Jesus Christ's intervention alone that we are saved. We're not capable of accomplishing anything; we just need to thank the Lord and throw ourselves on his mercy.
So why knock yourself out to do good? Isn't taking on hardship or risk to get something done absurd under this formulation? Life is short; why waste it undertaking high-demand labor that doesn't accomplish anything of the least real significance? Why not just do what work we must in order to get money and spend the rest of our time in spiritual comfort, ease, and rest?
And yet in fact, faith, even great faith, doesn't diminish our experience of the sense of importance that can surround the accomplishment of good work.
VISHESH: I've just done so and look forward to your upcoming post. You might give me a heads up to be sure I don't miss it. My disability doesn't let me "push the envelope," so sometimes I get behind on blogging when other things come up that I have to make room for.
Yes, that's the extreme Protestant view, I think. But this doesn't explain all the "imitation of Christ" good works done by christians that sometimes even puts their lives in jeopardy - there is that love your neighbor commandment.
I don't think that man who jumped on the train tracks thought much before, it must have been a split second decision. it must have been his basic goodness which is there in all of us which propelled him to risk his life and limb for another. had he deliberated on his choice, fear would have kicked in, he would have weighed the pro and cons etc and the moment would have gone. now we are taught to live our lives 'thoughtfully' and we usually end up quelling such natural inclinations in the name of pragmatism.
i suppose i haven't answered your question very well. i guess in the end, faith is the strength we have to do good works.
...the prophets showed us the way and if we can follow their examples in our daily lives in little things that is faith, faith in the belief of their goodness, of our creed.
does accumulating necessarily equal creating spiritual comfort for oneself?
do those who "do good works" do them for themselves? or do them out of a genuine, burning desire to improve their world?
do we each see ourselves as one entity, among many separate entities? or as one thread, in a matrix of threads that make up a fabric?
i suppose it all depends how one sees the world ... y'know?
are faith a "good works" necessarily related? i don't know about that one ... some have faith and think that's good enough. some maybe struggle, but love of humanity drives them to consider others.
do i make any sense?
i like the one love Rasta concept.
GULNAZ, RED M, NABEEL: Please see material in red added to top of the post.
I don't mean to say people don't do the same thing without religion - they do - but don't discount religion as a reason to do it, either.
Do you know the story of Father Damien? He tended to the lepers of a leper colony which now is some island in Hawaii. When none of the other clergy would go ... not even his msgr would set foot on the island, for fear of catching the disease. In fact, Damien asked to go to the leper colony. Surely he knew he would die?
So ... ? Why'd he stay? Well, why does a mother willingly give her life for her child?
Love. And faith in that love.
As for MLK ~ don't really know that much about him ... but perhaps he saw himself in those he wanted to liberate? I suppose that's a diluted version of the Father Damien story ... which, when distilled, spells l-o-v-e.
Both faith and good works are conditions precedent to the initiation and continuation of the spiritual path . . .
Makes me think of this passage from the Tao Te Ching:
Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.
Therefore wise men embrace the one
And set an example to all.
Not putting on a display,
They shine forth.
Not justifying themselves,
They are distinguished.
Not boasting,
They receive recognition.
Not bragging,
They never falter.
They do not quarrel,
So no one quarrels with them.
Therefore, the ancients say, "Yield and overcome."
Is that an empty saying?
Be really whole,
And all things will come to you.
i have written about it-as a story.Since that way i was able to it from an external point of view first and then see it from my eyes.
I liked Christine’s use of the word “concern.” You could say that love feels concern, sometimes great concern. And to me it’s noteworthy that love should so often feel highly concerned, even when it’s accompanied by great faith.
RED M: As interesting as your remarks are in too many ways to follow up on in a comments box – I think they allude to a number of important things – it seems to me that defining faith as something that structures our visions, helps us see that it’s not all about us, lets us see what love means, and is something that we experience in relation to love, isn’t hitting the nail on the head as to what faith is.
If we’re going to have any agreement on the meaning of faith, I think it’s going to be in this area: hope, optimism, confidence, positive expectation, reliance upon, trust in...
And when it comes to faith in a religious or spiritual sense – there are other usages, e.g., “I have faith in my friends” – then faith is directed to something beyond our own capacities, which we recognize are finite.
In this religious sense, I don’t see that we can have faith in love. One can say “I have faith in love” meaning “I believe in love” in the sense of valuing it highly and strongly feeling that taking this path is the best and most constructive one a person can take. But faith in a religious or spiritual sense, in contrast to other usages of the word, involves a hope, optimism, sense of reliance etc, that our love is ultimately validated by something greater than ourselves.
And a strong hope, optimism etc. in something greater than humanity would appear incompatible with the momentous call that people often feel, in love, to do the best they can with their lives – as if our works were of great consequence.
While it's true that faith may wax and wane, I think that over time it tends overall to diminish or increase. And often those with a great sense of calling and purpose are also people of great faith, making for a stark contrast.
LUCY: I agree that says a lot - one of my favorite sayings - but I'm afraid I don’t follow how it reduces or resolves the tension between faith and love that I’ve pointed to…
OCEANSHAMAN: While those are indeed a pair of concepts – faith and love – I don’t think they represent dualism in any formal sense such as Platonic dualism. As soon as one says, thinks, or feels anything outside of intense meditation, one distinguishes one thing from another. It’s how we navigate the world. Moreover, language can be used, as your beautiful quotation suggests, to help us along a path of living wisely and well.
Both great faith, on the one hand, and on the other a great sense of momentousness that's involved with living well and doing good, do coexist. It could well be, as you say, that it’s a genuine paradox.
VISHESH: As I responded to your post:
Seems to me that your overall perspective is a lot like mine - also Oceanshaman's, as per his comment above.
In brief, the universe is one whole interconnected process. And both faith and the desire to do good do coexist, regardless of whether we can account for it. Oceanshaman sees it as a paradox.
Perhaps “risk” enters the picture when we identify with a separate self. Even the words “everything’s OK” belies the concern. So “everything’s OK”, but what about this particular something, me? My needs. My desires. Either for myself or others.
The tension may come from living the life versus being lived by the life.
Doing good does not need any driving force. Its a basic human nature. Believe me every one wants to be a good person and do good for others faith or no faith. Love kindness and compassion is at the highest level now than ever before.
Today a man on the street is more kind and compassionate than Jesus Christ was. This is the evolution of human mind. But unfortunately some people are very sure that they are right and out of faith as their driving force 'take pity' on others and do good to them, impose their values on them.
Absolutely - how we live life is more important than agreement over abstractions. This whole post is an abstraction! Just something I find curious and was led to think about as a byproduct of other things I’d been focusing on.
N2: For sure that’s part of it. And that aspect of the sense of momentousness which you’re referring to has nothing to do with love. The more distance we get from it the better off we are, as well as those around us.
RAUF: Glad to see you back here… or there! At your computer, anyway… Where is “here” nowadays?
When you say “doing good does not need any driving force” but follow this with “it’s basic human nature,’ that pretty much posits… a driving force! I’d say everything we do has some kind of motive behind it, whether it's natured or nurtured into us.
I hope the human mind is progressing. Human history is so short; to me, the evidence is ambiguous. While technological development is clear, you could probably argue for moral/spiritual development, stagnation, or maybe even retrogression depending on what evidence you select.
(Incidentally, the same goes for one’s impression of the figure of Jesus. He’s portrayed very differently in some sections of the New Testament as compared to others. We know very little about the historical Jesus - the NT is the faith document of the early church and not historiography.)
Faith involves trust in God as truth. And unwavering resolve in doing His will. Loving ... is not this God's will? Indeed, IMHO. So, when we say we have faith, we say we trust God's will. But ... how do we express that faith? By doing good works ~ i.e. by loving. Even when we may not want to.
To love, not out of any benefit which one will derive from that love, nor out of any hope or expectation of reciprocation, and possibily with the certain knowledge that expressing said love will occur at one's own expense ~ to me that spells faith of some kind.
One doesn't consider optimism when one physically risks life for another, or in the case I mentioned, gives his life. Such an individual clearly has unwavering trust in his expression of love as honouring the will of God.
I frankly fail to see the tension to which you point between faith and love. To me, these two work in tandem. To think of one without the other seems ... awkward. The tension exists between faith ~ as trust in God and in loving the way God loves us ~ and ego - that selfish portion of our Self which would rather be served, than serve.
We don't have faith or do good works to earn salvation, that's certainly true. We receive salvation because we have faith. A living, breathing faith.
Wrt waxing and waning ~ I had in mind the metaphor of the dark night of the soul. Those who have not always had faith appear to express their faith with the greatest urgency.
I don’t do semantic games; I don’t think you’re playing semantic games. But words have meanings. To be clear about what’s being discussed and what’s not, people need to be clear on the meanings they assign to words. Seeking clarity in this regard is precisely to avoid semantic confusion.
It seems to me that here and in your last comment, you blend the ideas of faith and love. However much they relate to each other, blurring the distinction between them doesn’t help. Here’s the definition of faith in its religious usage from Merriam-Webster online.
(1): belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2): belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1): firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2): complete trust 3: something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs.
(Regarding the definition’s mention of “loyalty”: although faith as fidelity or loyalty is an important aspect of faith, I’m not picking up on this because I don’t see its relevance to what we’re talking about.)
If the terms I offered in my previous comment to denote faith seemed broad, that’s because there are many people – Buddhists and pantheists, for example – who have faith in something infinitely greater than themselves but don’t believe in God as an entity existing apart from life, being, or the universe itself. And, of course, religious belief systems vary widely. So I wanted to convey the feeling-sense of what faith is without referring to a belief system or even assuming the idea of God. I think that “hope, optimism, confidence, positive expectation, reliance upon, trust in” gets at the tenor of this feeling. To pick one word: trust. Religious faith is profound trust in God or being itself.
You write: “I frankly fail to see the tension to which you point between faith and love. To me, these two work in tandem. To think of one without the other seems ... awkward. The tension exists between faith ~ as trust in God and in loving the way God loves us ~ and ego - that selfish portion of our Self which would rather be served, than serve.”
Exactly – love and faith do work together. The reason you don’t also see the tension is that you’re only looking at ego’s tension with faith – and that part of it is well to get rid of, and, to a large degree, it can be. To the extent a person does this, it greatly reduces an unwanted source of tension and suffering.
But the other source of tension is love. In love, we greatly desire to see positive outcomes to the projects to which we dedicate ourselves. In love, we greatly desire to find our way, not lose it. And this desire, at least in my experience of it and in what I’ve seen of people whom I most admire, has a certain edge to it that has nothing to do with ego but everything to do with a sense that the things we do and how we live really do matter – that a lot is at stake. My impression is that Gandhi, Mandela, and King experienced this sort of momentous risk and tension in their vocations and not one that resulted from ego involvement with their work.
God’s will and what that may mean is another far-reaching concept that doesn’t seem to me to shed light on the paradox or tension that I’m pointing to. When you state that we’re doing God’s will by loving and doing good works even when we don’t want to, this doesn’t eliminate the tension between, on the one hand, our sense that much is at stake in whether or not we do our part in carrying out God's will; and, on the other, our faith in God regardless of whether we manage to do our part.
And yes, to act on love even when there’s risk involved – faith does help with that. Again, a great point, but one that doesn’t account for why faith doesn’t eliminate or largely eliminate the sense of risk.
It sounds like maybe the idea that love and faith could exist in tension as well as in tandem is something that you’d find objectionable? That never occurred to me. My personal starting point with this matter was when I found myself unable to deny either great faith or the sense of momentous consequentiality involved in finding my direction and doing my best. For several years I just accepted it as a paradox because even though I couldn’t begin to account for it, that’s the way it was.
In the end, I concluded that the tension is creative.
right,but becomes of our individual identity in the sea of humans??what happens when we become a part of a society??
In India the term society has more implications,for here it becomes the absolute...societal pressure and the terms put by it(the unsaid laws) cause a lot of damage at the same time reflect the thoughts and help keep in touch with the past(notice that this has now more of a negative impact)...
so what should we do becomes,yes the changes are happening slowly,but i don't see that it would be enough...here unfortunately because of various religious sentis a lot of problems exists and also a lot of internal extremism...so as a future of the nation i do see that our role would become bigger...but the maturity comes into question...and the problem is here people are prone to hero worship....so what is good has to be defined now...
You ask:
'How then, where there is great faith – in God, in a “higher power,” in life or the universe itself – can there be this sense of great consequentiality to how we conduct ourselves?'
Because we count in the grand scheme of good vs. evil.
We conduct ourselves in everyday situations with the hope that someone will see a glimpse of God through our good actions, those good impulses of Love that we borrow from God.
In situations of greater risk to us, there is a grace that comes to cover us, and a sense of doing THE most important thing, our true purpose....
Not sure I answered your question, but that's what I've got...~
You’re right – an understanding of what “the good” means is helpful. I think that all of us, or at least the majority, understand what it means even without necessarily having a great deal of conscious insight into it. But insight into all of these essential terms, including love and faith, is helpful. Greater awareness helps keep us on track – at least that’s how it’s worked for me.
CHRISTINE, what you say about joy, as well as peace, I believe to be generally true. But let me tack on one more “really”: when things get really, really, really rough, joy ends or virtually ends. Certainly one’s life can no longer be said to be largely joyous or largely characterized by joy. By "this rough", I refer to situations where physical suffering, usually ending in death, is extreme.
However, when this happens, if it doesn’t manage to spiritually destroy or diminish you, if you struggle through it and come out the other side, then even with your body still deteriorating, it’s like a giant razor or knife has come down to teach you the distinction between peace and joy. While joy is a wonderful, beautiful, priceless thing, in a way it turns out to be something like frosting on the peace-cake. And faith - and even identity - under a weight of constant physical oppression eventually deepens. We learn that, however great it is, we are not our oppression. We find out how not to become and represent that, even when it appears that it should be overbearing or unbearable.
As far as answering the post’s question, I really liked your use of the word “concern” in an earlier comment to start getting toward the nature of what I’d call love’s sense of consequentiality or risk. I think you also approach it where you say:
“In situations of greater risk to us, there is a grace that comes to cover us, and a sense of doing THE most important thing, our true purpose....”
But as you’ve recognized, this doesn’t exactly answer the question. It's a hard one! My own answer is more like a best guess than anything definitive, and for years the furthest I got with it was that it’s just a paradox. And it may be that it is.
I believe it as simple as having purpose. When we have faith that we are here for a reason, for a purpose, then we ignite the passion within us to fulfill our purpose. Even if that purpose comes at moments notice, such as the man in the subway.
I suppose I'm a cynic, but it seems to me that the number of people who do good works without some sort of expectation of reward is pretty small. In a way, I wonder if it's a chicken vs. egg situation. Are some people good and helpful or even lifesaving to others because they have it in their psychological make-up to do so? Or does their faith direct them to do so? The ones who do so "just because" are rarely recognized...since the recognition is sort of a reward in and of itself.
Perhaps it is a bit judgmental of me, but when I find a person who is quietly and unassumingly going about helping people...and they often are unaware that they are doing so...I tend to put a higher value on their accomplishments than I do all the noisy do-gooders in the world.
The person who does good quietly, with whom you contrast The Do-Gooder, might be something like the person who, in Buddhism, works without attachment to the fruits of their labor. Or works with "purity of heart" - I forget just where that phrase comes from, somewhere in the New Testament...
I'd say people probably always operate with mixed motives, but that mix can vary a lot over the course of a lifetime and from person to person.
Thanks for stopping by. So much to blog, so little time. "Mixed Motives" or "How Pure Does it Really Get, Anyway?" - that could be an interesting topic itself.
I guess I'd just say if they're so inclined, and others want to listen!
If the fate of the universe is totally in our hands it might be trouble. I think the sun has 5 billion more years. Sounds like a lot of time, I know, lol, but still, the sun and the earth look like their headed for a pretty abrupt end one way or another...
Post a Comment