According to Wilken (and Augustine from whom Wilken draws his thought), why is faith unavoidable? Why is it beneficial? Cite some passages.
Wilken believes that faith is both unavoidable and beneficial for mankind. Wilken states that “a desire to know the truth of things has been implanted in our souls and is natural to human beings..”(165) This statement by Wilken defends his argument about why faith is unavoidable. Since humans have this natural desire to know the truth of things, that means that they will need to have faith in things such as historical events. Humans in our world today were not alive during Colonial America in the 1600s, but we still have faith and believe that all the events that we read about in our history books are the complete truth. He goes on to say “what we know of past events depends on the testimony of those who have witnessed them.”(169) People cannot conduct an experiment to see if these historical events took place, they will just need to have faith in order to believe that the information is accurate. As for why faith is beneficial, Augustine understood faith as not only an affair of beliefs, but also of things that rouse the affections and move the will to act. Augustine often referred to a quote from Isaiah in which he said, “if you do not believe, you shall not understand.” (183) This means that in order to understand the truths of things, you will first need to have the faith and believe that what you are attempting to understand is truthful. After having faith, then one will be able to understand this truth. Another argument for faith being beneficial that Wilken provides is that faith is the “way of reason.” (184) “Faith enables reason to exercise its power in realms to which it would otherwise have no access.” In conclusion, Wilken, along with Augustine, provides many just arguments about why and how faith is both unavoidable, as well as beneficial.
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