Theology studies religious beliefs and faith. Faith is found in many different forms throughout varying religions, but according to Wilkin and St. Augustine faith is unavoidable. Humans long for something to explain the unexplainable, the unkown. Fear of the unknown is a very real thing, and faith helps us come to term that there are things we may possibly never understand. In the text Wilken states, “Nothing would remain stable in society if we determined to believe only what can be held with absolute certainty” (171). With faith in a higher power comes religion, which organizes human’s fear into a concrete, shared set of beliefs. Religion helps to order people’s faith and doubts about the existential, and allows people to come together in large communities to affirm their beliefs. In organized religion, there is usually some form of authority. For example, in Catholicism there is the Pope, followed by cardinals, then priests, and then deacons. Wilken says that without authority “The sacred bond of the human race’ would be shattered”(172). Faith is unavoidable, because the hierarchy of our society is built around it in the form of organized religion, and there will always be religion as long as people struggle to grasp who God is and if He exists.
Wilken claims that faith is beneficial because it is not just found in the mind, but in the heart. When we have faith, we open our hearts to words of the Bible and Church authority and allow the it to guide us. He claims that having faith allows us to gain a better understanding of the way humans work . Faith is also beneficial because it allows us to come to terms with God and the mystery He is. Wilken says that “when you believe in Christ, by your believing in Christ, Christ comes into you, and you are somehow or other united to him and made into a member of his body” (Wilken 184). When we have faith, we enter into deeper communion with God.
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Lauren Gaertner's Theology Blog 