Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/384

 of faith about God, creation, man, soul (for it is necessary to believe in all that) were expounded; nothing was said about faith, but here, where it behoves the Theology to expound about sanctification and reestablishment, which do not exist, it suddenly becomes necessary to define faith, and unexpectedly faith is defined, not as the knowledge of God, but as confidence in what the hierarchs say. Indeed, under the word “faith” the Theology understands something quite different from what it is generally understood to mean. This is seen in the clearest and quickest way from the following passage of Filarét’s Catechism. There is there a question about which is more necessary, faith or good works. And the answer is: “Faith, because Scripture says, Without faith it is impossible to please God.” And immediately after that comes the question: “Why must good works be inseparable from this faith?” And the answer: “Because it says, Faith without works is dead.” The second answer to the question as to why good works must be inseparable from faith, because faith without works is dead, destroys the separation of faith from good works. If faith cannot exist without good works, why then separate them, and say: (1) faith, and (2) good works. This logical blunder is not an accidental one.

The same intentional blunder is repeated in the Theology. It is clear that by the word “faith” the Theology does not want to understand what the word actually means, not what Paul and the Eastern Patriarchs understand by it, and what we understand by it. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, that is, a trust in the unseen as though it were seen, in what is wished and waited for, as if it were present,” says Paul. Paul says nothing about this evidence and hope being communicated by any one. “By faith we mean the correct knowledge of God and of divine subjects,” say the Eastern Patriarchs. “Nobody can be saved without faith,” they say further on. “Faith is the