I’d like to start by paying a visit to the American philosopher William James.
In his renowned work, The Varieties of Religious Experience. James begins his lecture on religious conversion by defining it as, among other things, “gaining an assurance” of salvation,[1] or, of being confident that one truly possesses religious belief. Following this definition, he recounts the conversion story of a man named Stephen H. Bradley, a New Englander who believed himself to be have been fully converted at the age of fourteen, when, he says, “I thought I saw the Savior, by faith, in human shape, for about one second in the room, with arms extended, appearing to say to me, Come. The next day I rejoiced with trembling; soon after by happiness was so great that I said that I wanted to die…previous to this time I was very selfish and self-righteous; but now I desired the welfare of all mankind, and could with a feeling heart forgive my worst enemies.” This account of “believing in Christ” contains both a movement of religious affection and a change in outward conduct such that one could hardly doubt that it was genuine and true belief. But nine years later, on November 2nd 1829, Bradly’s assurance was shaken while attending a local revival meeting in his New England neighborhood.
“Many of the young converts…would come to me when in meeting and ask me if I had religion, and my reply generally was, I hope I have. This did not appear to satisfy them; they said they knew they had it. I requested them to pray for me, thinking with myself, that if I had not got religion now, after so long a time professing to be a Christian, that it was time I had, and hoped their prayers would be answered in my behalf.”[2]
Here we are confronted by the particularly odd and acute Protestant problem of reflective belief.
It is not enough for Bradley to experience feelings of religious affection, to make intellectual assent to certain beliefs, or to notice changes in his outward conduct, since these things alone do not prove genuine belief in Christ. What is needed is a sure knowledge of his own heart. For Bradley, this knowledge came by the power of the Holy Spirit. One night, as he was lying in bed, he says,
“I began to feel my heart beat very quick all on a sudden…and my heart increased its beating, which soon convinced me that it was the Holy Spirit from the effect it had one me. It took complete possession of my soul, and I am certain that I desired the Lord, while in the midst of it, not to give me any more happiness, for it seemed as if I could not contain what I had got. My heart seemed as if it would burst and it did not stop until I felt as if I was unutterably full of the love and grace of God…and I now defy all the Deists and Atheists in the world to shake my faith in Christ.”[3] For Bradley belief in Christ is necessarily accompanied by changes in behavior and religious affection, but is proved only through the inner attestation of the heart.
Similar language can be discovered in Bradley’s New England forbearers, the Puritans. The distinction observed above between belief and knowledge of belief is clearly articulated by one Puritan author who writes, “it is one thing for me to believe, and another thing for me to believe that I do believe.”[1]
The lifelong quest for assurance which ensued from this distinction proved to be one of the most enduring facets of Puritan life. The famous Puritan author William Guthrie writes, "What is the greatest business a man hath to do in this world? Answer: to make sure a saving interest in Christ Jesus and to walk suitable thereto.”[2] Similarly one Puritan minister proclaimed, “The assurance of faith, is undoubtedly, one of the greatest and highest attainments a Christian can arrive at, in this life.”[3]
Of course, the doctrine of total depravity rendered the quest for assuredness extremely tenuous, and one was never able to be fully confident that what appeared as belief was really and truly present. The convergence of this doctrine with the simultaneous need for confidence of faith resulted in an array of various methods for attaining such assurance. One representative example comes from a Puritan sermon which admonished that “It is the acting of Grace which makes and shows men’s walks to be holy. It is not the orderliness of men’s walks which show it to be holy; nor the affections of men’s hearts in religion, that shows their walk to be holy; nor the long continuance of good carriages, nor a good behavior in a day of temptation…these things may all well be, yet the walk not be holy: But if there be the acting of love, faith and repentance then the walk is holy.”[4]
Thus, religious affection and outward obedience are signs of genuine belief in Christ only in so far as they are motivated by love, faith and contrition. Since not even visible actions are enough to prove true belief, what is needed is for the individual to undertake scrupulous inner examination of their heart. As Cotton Mather writes, “There must be first, the testimony of our own spirit, in a way of self-examination discovering the marks of the regenerate, the signs of a real and through regeneration upon us.” Continuing, he writes, “‘I commune with my own heart, and my spirit makes diligent search’- And in this way, we must come to know, as far as we can know ourselves, that we are indeed born again and have the evident tokens of salvation upon us.”[5] For the Puritan then, confidence of true belief in Christ is not only ascertainable, but an inextricable companion of genuine faith. To discover whether one truly believes is both possible and necessary, and can be done through careful observation of one’s actions, and more importantly, careful observation of one’s heart.
The origins of this way of describing belief and assurance can be traced back to the theology of John Calvin. Calvin’s unique formulation, over against Luther’s, is the theological backdrop for the phrase's usage as outlined above. Following Phillip Cary, Calvin’s formula for saving faith can be helpfully summarized in the following syllogism.
Major Premise: Whoever believes in Christ is saved.
Minor Premise: I believe in Christ.
Conclusion: I am saved.[1]
On Calvin’s account faith both precedes and is the necessary condition for salvation. This view dictates a mandatory internal condition which each individual must meet before they can reach the conclusion “I am saved.” This condition, encapsulated in the minor premise “I believe in Christ” or, the moment of individual conversion, is the foundation of Evangelical religious life. It is the all-important step that must be taken to reach the conclusion “I am saved.”
The problem is that this understanding of faith requires that the believer not only believe, but believe that they believe. As Cary puts it, for this person, “faith has to be reflective in that it is not enough just to believe; you have to believe you believe, maybe even know you believe” in order to be confident in your salvation.[2] In this way “belief in Christ” or “faith” become themselves objects of reflection, which the individual must somehow find a way to locate within themselves if they are to be confident of that they have met the requirements for salvation.
I’d now like to make two observations. First, the particular conception of “belief” outlined above is quite unlike how the term is commonly used in ordinary language. If someone said, “I believe so-and-so is telling the truth about what happened” it would make no sense to respond, “How do you know you believe them?” Or if someone said, “I have faith so-and-so will come back when he said he would” it likewise makes no sense to ask, “How do you know you have faith?” Conversely, in the case of William James, the Puritans, and Calvin knowledge of one’s belief is of the absolute utmost importance. Rather than being nonsense, asking “How do you know you have faith in Christ?” is a crucial question that every Christian must face. What accounts for this difference? What does “believing in Christ” mean if it is open to to the kinds of self-reflexive questions that other belief statements are not?
Second, and lastly, I’d like to observe that this kind of self-reflexive personal belief that is so crucial to Calvin, the Puritans, William James, and many contemporary Evangelicals is totally foreign to the world of the Bible.1 So the question that I have been asking myself and which I will be exploring in subsequent posts is how did we get here? What did “faith in Christ” mean in the first century, and what are the intervening cultural, religious, and philosophical steps that allowed for the transformation into its usage by Calvin, or the Puritans, or Billy Graham? My hunch is that this story will be complex, as the history of ideas always is. My hunch is also that it will take us through Augustine, the reflexive turn in early modern period, Descartes, Locke, and finally to modernity. Stay tuned!
[1] Phillip Cary. “Sola Fide: Luther and Calvin.” Concordia Theological Quarterly 71, no. 3–4 (July 2007): 265–81. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=lsdar&AN=ATLA0001669762&site=ehost-live., 266
[2] Ibid, 267
[1] R.M. Hawkes. “The Logic of Assurance in English Puritan Theology” Westminster Theological Journal, 52. 1990., 249
[2] Ibid.
[3] John Thomson, An Essay Upon the Faith of Assurance: Being the Substance of Several Sermons Preached by the Author to His Own Congregation. (Printed by B. Franklin for the author, Philadelphia: PA, 1740), 1
[4] Solomon Stoddard, The Tryal of Assurance, Set Forth in a Sermon; Preached at Boston Upon a Lecture Day. July 7th. 1698. (Printed by B. Green, and J. Allen: Boston, MA. 1689), 7
[5] Cotton Mather, The Sealed Servants of Our God, Appearing With Two Witnesses, To Produce a Well-Established Assurance of Their Being the Children of the Lord Almighty. (Printed for Daniel Henchman, over-against the Brick Meeting-House, in Cornhill: Boston, MA. 1727), 9
[1] William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience. (Triumph Books Edition, 1991), 157 (Italics mine)
[2] Ibid. 158
[3] Ibid.
For sake of space I will not be justifying this claim here. I will justify it in a later post. Interested persons may consult, among others, Matthew Bates Salvation by Allegiance Alone.
Interesting read, David.