Faith is the activity of the will in proportion to the passivity of the intellect. What comprises knowledge in the latter is certitude in the former.
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Faith is a priori a natural disposition of the soul to admit the supernatural; it is therefore essentially an intuition of the supernatural brought about by Grace, which is actualised by trust, a natural disposition because, as Aquinas said, ‘there is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses’ (De veritate, Q2 a3 arg19 – derived from Aristotle).
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When, through Grace, Faith is fufiled, it becomes Love, which is God; that is why, from the theological standpoint, the Blessed in Heaven no longer have Faith, since they behold its object, namely, God. It should be added that from an esoteric and initiatic perspective, as expressed, for example, in the Hesychast tradition, this vision can and even should be obtained in this life, and that is deification or theosis.
(The above gleaned from The Fullness of God: Frithjof Schuon on Christianity, pp18-23)
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The two ways – knowledge and faith, gnosis and pistis, jnani and bhakti – when cut off from their esoteric and sapiential source, devolve into fundamentalism and sentimentality, respectively.
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The two ways are addressed in Scripture, when Jesus said: “Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9). In this instance, ‘ask’ speaks to the whole person, ‘seek’ to the intellect and ‘knock’ to the will. Sight can be likened to an 'outward' sense, whereas listening an 'inward'.
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Faith is a priori a natural disposition of the soul to admit the supernatural; it is therefore essentially an intuition of the supernatural brought about by Grace, which is actualised by trust, a natural disposition because, as Aquinas said, ‘there is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses’ (De veritate, Q2 a3 arg19 – derived from Aristotle).
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When, through Grace, Faith is fufiled, it becomes Love, which is God; that is why, from the theological standpoint, the Blessed in Heaven no longer have Faith, since they behold its object, namely, God. It should be added that from an esoteric and initiatic perspective, as expressed, for example, in the Hesychast tradition, this vision can and even should be obtained in this life, and that is deification or theosis.
(The above gleaned from The Fullness of God: Frithjof Schuon on Christianity, pp18-23)
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The two ways – knowledge and faith, gnosis and pistis, jnani and bhakti – when cut off from their esoteric and sapiential source, devolve into fundamentalism and sentimentality, respectively.
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The two ways are addressed in Scripture, when Jesus said: “Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9). In this instance, ‘ask’ speaks to the whole person, ‘seek’ to the intellect and ‘knock’ to the will. Sight can be likened to an 'outward' sense, whereas listening an 'inward'.