1. THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM REGARDING FAITH

Faith is an Internal Acknowledgment of Truth

Faith today is taken to mean no more than the thought that a thing is so because it is something the church teaches, and because it is not evident to the intellect. For we are told, "Believe and do not doubt." If we reply, "I do not understand," we are told that that is why it should be believed.

Faith today is therefore a faith in the unknown and may be termed a blind faith. Moreover, because it is one person’s assertion received by another, it is an inherited faith. We will see in what follows that that is not a spiritual faith.

“Faith” technically means “belief,” but it has taken on a thick layer of emotional import in the modern world, at least in terms of religion. Many people could happily entertain intellectual questions about what we believe to be true, but if those questions touch on our “faith” then they suddenly become an “attack.” We also use “faith” to describe the connection we can feel with God during emotionally charged worship services. This idea also filters through to secular uses: when we express “faith” that our favorite football team can win a game, that’s more of an emotional statement than an intellectual one.

One reason for that emotional content may be that Christian churches adopted the word “faith” to mean “accepting something as true even though it can’t be seen or understood.” For instance, the idea that God is one, divided into three persons without being divided. This defies reason, but Christians have long been called on to accept it as a “mystery of faith.” The idea that God the Father is completely loving, but that He requires the blood sacrifice and pleading of Jesus to let anyone into heaven is equally confounding, but is also an article of faith. Since it’s basically impossible to see the truth in these ideas from our minds, we have to simply believe them in our hearts, which makes them into emotional issues.

Swedenborg, however, uses “faith” in a more traditional sense, defining it as “an internal acknowledgement of truth.” That has some connection to the Christian concept of faith - it is truth seen and acknowledged, not necessarily truth that has been reasoned out and proven logically. But it’s not truth that defies logic; instead it is truth that is plain on its face.

Swedenborg is also clear that faith must include charity, or the desire and actual act of doing good to others, and that both act together to be complete. For us too, it is helpful to link faith with faithfulness, to God and to what we do. Swedenborg is consistently opposed to faith-alone: faith that lacks charity and good works.

For reference, and further reading, here are some key sections from Swedenborg's capstone theological work: True Christian Religion 337, 339, 344, 348, 355, 373, 393.

(Referencias: Teachings about Faith 27, The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding Faith 1, 4, 11, 13, 18, 24, 25)

373. VIII. Charity and faith are present together in good deeds.

In every deed which proceeds from a person his whole nature is fully present, as regards his mind, or essential character. By mind is meant the affection of his love and his thought from this; these form his nature and, in general terms, his life. If we consider deeds in this way, they are so to speak mirrors reflecting the person. This can be illustrated by similar facts about animals and wild beasts: an animal is an animal, and a wild beast is a wild beast, in every one of its acts. A wolf is a wolf in every one of its acts, a tiger is a tiger in every one of its, a fox is a fox in every one of its, and a lion is a lion in every one of its. Likewise a sheep and a kid in all of their acts. The same is true of man, but his nature is such as it is in the internal man. If in this he is like a wolf or a fox, every internal deed of his is wolf-like or fox-like; and on the other hand the same is true if he is like a sheep or a lamb. But the fact that he is like this in every one of his deeds is not plain in his external man, for this can be twisted round the internal, although this character lies concealed within. The Lord says:

The good man brings forth good from the good treasury of his heart, and the wicked man brings forth wickedness from the wicked treasury of his heart, Luke 6:45.

And again:

Every tree is known by its own fruit; they do not gather figs from thorns, nor harvest grapes from the bramble, Luke 6:44.

[2] After death it is vividly shown that such as a person is in his internal man, such he is also in all the details proceeding from him. For then he lives as an internal man, and the external is no more. There is good in a person, and every deed proceeding from him is good, when the Lord, charity and faith dwell in his internal man, as will be shown in the following order.

(i) Charity is having good will, and good deeds are doing good from a good will.

(ii) Charity and faith are merely unstable mental concepts unless, when possible, they are realised in deeds and come into existence together in them.

(iii) Charity alone does not produce good deeds, much less does faith alone, but charity and faith together do.

These propositions will be examined one by one.