By David Tacey

IN HIS REVIEW 'WAITING FOR SPIRITUAL ATHEISTS' (TIKKUN, MARCH/ARIL 2008) Dave Belden wrote: "Faith is often used as a synonym for belief, but can better be seen as its opposite, if faith is the quality that allows us to go forward in love, service, and joy when we have no certainty. If we have no certainty of belief and no compensating rational hope of progress either, then what stops us from sinking into despair?"

I would like to support these words and expand on them. It is important today to separate faith from belief. Belief is a rapidly diminishing element in human society, especially among the educated and those who are exposed to scientific principles and methods. It is clear that

belief is in decline in the West, but we cannot afford to lose faith as well. Unless faith and belief are untied and separated, we will find that the loss of belief encouraged by science and education leads to a corresponding loss of faith--not only in God, religion, or transcendence, but also in humanity, society, and the future.

Many religious traditions seem to deliberately fuse faith and belief, and this is selfserving on their part. The ideological component in every tradition would compel us to "believe" in their propositions, and claim that this is the only way to "faith." It is said that if you believe in the tenets and dogmas of a particular tradition, you are a person of faith. But many in religious traditions are people of belief, and have not yet arrived at faith. It is possible to "believe" in God, but not to have faith in God, in which case the belief is merely conceptual or intellectual, and does not involve the whole person in an ongoing relationship with mystery or the universe. Faith is more spiritual and more difficult than belief. It is not the result of intellectual assent to a series of propositions but comes from a spiritual commitment to reality. Belief is no more than intellectual compliance with things presented for our consideration. As such, it is one step up from opinion.

For many of us today, the journey of true faith begins when the safety and assurance that belief provides is discarded, and we stand before the mystery of life, unarmored by dogma or creed. The moment when we enter into relationship with the spirit, when we take the plunge and step forward into life, is when faith begins in earnest. It is important for nonbelievers to have faith in the world, in politics, in the ability of society to change and the individual to transform. Faith in this sense is an existential element of personality and society, and is something that should be nurtured by education and government. It is vitally important that both secular and religious authorities work toward the establishment of conditions in which faith can prosper and develop. These are different kinds of faith, to be sure, but they are linked. Both require the individual to connect with realities beyond the self, and to develop the compelling sense that he or she is in dialogue with those realities and that this dialogue is hopeful and has value. Politics without faith is bland and dead, but politics with too many beliefs degenerates into ideology and becomes a form of manipulation.

Faith has to be recovered for the majority of people, not only for "believers." It is possible for agnostics to have faith, and for atheists as well. After all, often the atheist is the person who finds a "theistic" God to be unbelievable, and who has the courage to say so. This does not mean that such a person is without faith, and the first stage of securing a life of faith could be to assert an atheist or agnostic position, to clear the deck of beliefs, and to be open and vulnerable to experience. Then the "God above God," as Paul Tillich wrote, might rise above the horizon of our awareness, and we might be open to an encounter with something that can utterly transform us.

David Tacey is professor of critical enquiry at La Trobe University, Melbourne, and is the author of several books, including The Spirituality Revolution, Routledge, 2004.