Faith, Reason, Belief and Action

“The three center-points of a Christian theology are beyond doubt the doctrine of a triune God, of God the Word made manifest in the flesh of Christ, and of God the Spirit who expounds the revelation of love in the Church and in her members.”1 While the first of these three, the triune God, begs no question from the church, the latter two seem to transcend the minds of the Catholic clergy. “God the Word” signifies that both belief and faith are pillars of understanding in the Catholic tradition. In the current church, belief and faith, without reason, have a much lesser impact than when reason is involved. Society outside of the Church links itself to fact and science, so without a logical sense of reason, the faith and belief remain stagnant in the minds of the inhabitants. When Von Balthasar describes “God the Spirit[,]” as “...expound[ing] the revelation of love...,” the terminology is one more of action than contemplation.2 To expound is a word of action and movement, and the Spirit calls for the church to act in order to multiply the numbers of the saved. In John McGreevy’s Parish Boundaries, the role of the Catholic Church is examined through the de-segregation efforts of major urban areas in the early to mid-twentieth century. In the Catholic Church, a balance between faith, reason, belief and action is a connection that, while its significance has been diminished in the past two millennia, continues to be at the core of the Catholic tradition.

To become a true representation of what St. Peter’s original church called for, a balance must be achieved, holding the values of belief, action, faith and reason as equal and necessary measures of the manifestation of Jesus’ message. When the early church is considered, both the...

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...riodical. This article discusses the evils of liberalism and the rise of the conservative American Catholic.)9 Ciazza, “American Conservatism” 15. 10 McGreevy, John, Parish Boundaries (Chicago: Chicago Press, 1996), 138.11 McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, 73.12 McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, 135.13 McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, 78.14 McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, 148. 15 McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, 141.16 Diane Nash: Diane Nash, an African-American Chicago native that attended Fisk University in Nashville, participated in sit-ins and other forms of protests. She eventually was placed into jail, and left school to work for the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, where she spoke to groups and urged young liberal Catholics to become involved in the movement.17 McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, 142.18 McGreevy, Parish Boundaries, 188.19 Von Balthasar, Razing, 101.