Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/480

* FAITH. 432 FAITH CURE. as the first kind of faith is chiefly an act of the intellect. These two great classes — that in which the will is chief, which is accompanied by the movement of the affections (whence it is often called love), and for which the soul is directly responsible before God, and that in which the intellect is mainly concerned — will be found to embrace all varieties of faith spoken of as a Christian virtue in the Scriptures. The great controversy in theological history in respect to faith may be concisely stated as this: Which of these two kinds of faith is saving faith? The Roman Catholic Church requires both kinds, and has declared it essential to salva- tion to believe (that is. hold as true) certain due trine-, as those which the Council of Trent promulgated. Catholic writers, however, are riot content with a mere intellectual acquiescence, and under the term fides formata have included love in faith, and approached very close to the Protestant position. This position is that saving faith is the act of the will, is surrender, holy choice, the acting in view of the offer of salva- tion as one ought to act, repenting of sin and turning to Christ for salvation, trusting Him. accepting His holy will as the law of the indi- vidual life. The Protestant doctrine is that when a man thus believes, his sins are immediate- ly forgiven for Christ's sake. See Justifica- tion. But while faith is thus an act of the will, it is not viewed in the Scripture as an act of man without reference to the operation upon him of God Holy Spirit. The Pelagian controversy (see Pelagianism ) was upon this question, and Church doctrine from that time has insisted upon the necessity, to the practical exercise of faith, of the divine activity upon the soul, and of the priority of the divine element in the whole proc- ess. God has an active agency, inclining the will by 'persuasions' (Augustine), under which the man acts freely. His act is faith. FAITH, Act of. See Auto da Fe. FAITH, Kile of. That which determines what man is to believe concerning his origin, duty, and destiny. (1) Many persons, denying cither the possibility or the fact of a supernatural revelation, maintain that human reason alone, as possessed by all persons of sound mind, is both the source and ground of all religious knowledge and conviction of duty. (2) Others, either deny- ing or depreciating the authority <>i any external revelation, affirm that every man. in connection with his reason, has an inward revelation to which pertains the supreme authority in the belief of truth and knowledge oi duty. (3) The Roman Catholic Church, insisting that truth supematurally revealed is the rule of faith, teaches that the revelation actually given is partly written fas contained in the Holy Scrip- and partly unwritten (as contained in the traditions dating from the earliest ages of the Church), and that, consequently, the rule of faitli include both Scripture and tradition d i cannol 9urely ami perfectly under- stand either of these, the only authorized inter- preter of them both is the Church, i l) Protes believe thai all extant revealed truth is contained in the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New i and therefore teach thai received i man, after due inquiry, ti I int. i preted according to his own judgment, enlightened through the use of all accessible helps, human and divine) consti- tute for him the rule. of faith. Among those hold- ing this general principle of Protestantism there are recognized diversities, according as, on the one hand, the authority of the Bible is intensi- fied, or, on the other hand, the sphere of human reason in interpretation of its spirit is enlarged. Also to the consensus of the Church are assigned differing degrees of authority in the interpreta- tion of Scripture among different sections of Protestants. See Creeds and Confessions; Ra- tionalism; Infallibility; Bible. FAITH CURE. A term applied to the prac- tice of curing disease by an appeal to the hope, belief, or expectation of the patient, and without the use of drugs or other material means. For- merly it was confined to methods requiring the exercise of religious faith, such as the 'prayer cure' and 'divine healing,' but has now come to be used in the broader sense, and includes the cures of "Mental Science,' and hypnotism; also a large part of the cures effected by patent medi- cines and nostrums, as well as many folk prac- tices and home remedies. By some it is used to include also Christian Science, but the believers in the latter regard it as entirely distinct. Faith cure, in some of its forms, is' as old as human history. The Christian Church has al- ways held that prayer should be offered for the sick, and many sacred relics and favored shrines have had marvelous powers of healing ascribed to them. The Grotto of Lourdes, in France, and the shrine of Sainte Anne de Beaupre, in Que- bec, are well-known instances. In each of these places thousands of cures have been wrought, in accordance with the faith of the sufferers in the potency of the blessed waters. These cures seem to many to be the natural consequences of the doc- trine taught by the story of the Pool of Bethesda, and various utterances of Jesus and the Apostles are quoted in support of more or less definite teachings and practices of faith healing. About a quarter of a century ago, one Dr. Cullis, of Bos- ton, created a sensation by preaching the efficacy of prayer in the cure of bodily ills. More recent ly two men have become prominent from their advocacy of the prayer cure. Rev. A. li. Simp- son, of New York, teaches that the healing of the body is included in the Atonement, and that, having accepted the Atonement, it is dishonoring God not to claim healing of the body. Simpson follows the Apostolic practice, and anoints with oil. John Alexander Dowie, of Zion City (see Christian ('ATiioi.tr Church), maintains a large establishment on the plan of a hotel, which he calls a 'Divine Healing Home.' His method is by prayer and the laying on of hands. He re- ports many cures, and has accumulated a large -inn of money from the voluntary contributions of those who have been healed. Another class of divine healers is the group who have been styled the 'tramp healers.' from their habit of traveling about the country. The most important person in this class is the unfortunate Schlatter (q.v.), the Denver healer, whose autobiography shows I lial iie was the victim of an insane delusion. Mo-t prominent among those forms of healing covered by the broader use of the term faith cure are Christian Science (an nccounl of which will lie found in the article on thai subject) and 'Mental Science,' of which Dr. I'. P. Quimby, of Portland, Me., was the formulator. .Mis. Eddy