Faith

We have faith, our faith may not be the religious kind of faith, where we believe in an omnipotent or all-powerful entity that does or does not control our lives. Our faith may be that we have faith that we will see our loved ones again. We may have faith that when we go to sleep at night we will wake up the next day. Some say that faith and religion are the same. I believe there is a difference and that is faith is the complete trust and confidence in someone or something, whereas religion is a specific system of belief and/or worship, often involving a code of ethics and philosophy.

In Christian theology, faith is the divinely inspired human response to God’s historical revelation through Jesus Christ and, consequently, is of crucial significance.

However, no definition I have found allows for the identification of “faith” with “religion.” Some inner attitude has its part in all religious traditions, but it is not always of central significance. For example, words in ancient Egypt or Vedic India that can be roughly rendered by the general term “religion” do not allow for “faith” as a translation but rather connote cultic duties and acts. 

In Hindu and Buddhist Yoga traditions, inner attitudes recommended are primarily attitudes of trust in the guru, or spiritual preceptor, and not, or not primarily, in God. Hindu and Buddhist concepts of devotion (Sanskrit bhakti) and love or compassion (Sanskrit karuna) are more comparable to the Christian notions of love (Greek agapē, Latin Caritas) than to faith. Devotional forms of Mahayana Buddhism and Vaishnavism show religious expressions not wholly dissimilar to faith.

Some still will equate faith with religion, so whatever you call it or equate it to, we all have it or need it. Another word for faith is belief, so if we believe in ourselves and our abilities we have faith. We have faith if we believe in the people that we love. Faith is important to all of us and during this time of year when the days are short and the dark nights are long we hold on to our belief or our faith that all will be soon well.