Evidence record
What does Christianity mean by faith?
Every sentence on the exploration belongs to at least one claim below. Each says what kind of statement it is, what it rests on, what the evidence does not establish, and how far it was checked. Nothing here is a score, and none of it is a verdict on a belief or a theory.
Last checked 23 September 2026.
- A judgement, not a fact: 23
- Source checked: 22
- Partly checked: 3
If something here is wrong, misquoted, out of date or unfair, write to support@unknownoceans.com and give the claim number, which does not change.
What the question takes for granted
A question about a word: what the texts and the churches that use it mean by faith, asked against a definition both critics and some believers bring to it. It does not ask whether faith is warranted, and the page says so.
Christianity means one thing by faith
Contested
The texts use the word for trust acted on, for belief that God exists, and for confidence staked on an event. The Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed documents read join assent and trust, each in its own words; whether they weigh the two differently was not settled from a source. The Orthodox churches were not read.
The New Testament texts are the right place to look
Contested
The page argues from how the texts use the word. The churches also define faith in their own documents, which the page reads in its second section; a critic may reply that what matters is how believers use it now.
Both sides share a definition
Established
An encyclopedia of philosophy describes critics and fideists alike as taking faith to go against the evidence.
How the question is labelled
Claim: The word itself
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: Faith
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
The question
Claim: Not what either side of the usual argument means by it, on the evidence of the texts that use the word.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
The page’s thesis, argued from the Hebrews, James, Gospel and Corinthians passages below (claim 9 to claim 29).
What this does not establish
The texts are a handful of New Testament passages. They show how those writers use the word, not what every Christian since has meant by it.
Claim 1 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: Faith is routinely defined, by its critics and by some of its defenders, as believing things without evidence.
- Kind
- What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports
Faith: Contemporary Perspectivessection 1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The first camp thinks that faith goes against the evidence, and this is a bad thing; ... The New Atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, have a view like this
The critics.
Supports
Faith: Contemporary Perspectivessection 1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The second camp thinks that faith goes against the evidence but that is actually a good thing. This view is known as fideism . Kierkegaard argued for fideism
The defenders.
What this does not establish
The encyclopedia puts both camps as holding that faith goes against the evidence, which is stronger than without it. “Routinely” is the page’s word for how common the view is, and no survey was read.
Claim 2 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: The documents do not use it that way
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Follows from the passages in the first section, each of which uses faith for trust, acted on, or staked on an event.
Other readings
Those who take faith to be belief beyond the evidence point to texts in the same collection: “proof of things not seen” in Hebrews 11:1 and “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” in John 20:29.
Claim 3 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: and one of them stakes the whole claim on an event it says would falsify everything if it did not happen.
- Kind
- Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:14-19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain. Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ, whom he didn’t raise up if it is true that the dead are not raised. ... If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. ... If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
What this does not establish
Paul says what would follow if the resurrection did not happen. That says nothing about whether it did.
Claim 4 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: A long argument about a word, in which the two sides mostly agree on a definition that the texts do not support.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Follows from claim 2: critics and fideists both take faith to go against the evidence, and the scripture passages below use the word otherwise.
Context
Faith: Contemporary Perspectivessection 1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Some do argue that faith goes against the evidence. They fall into two main camps. ... The second camp thinks that faith goes against the evidence but that is actually a good thing.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “An argument conducted for two centuries about a word, in which the two sides mostly agree on a definition that the texts do not support.” No source dates the argument. The ones read place its landmarks at Hume (1748), Clifford (1877) and the New Atheists, which is neither two centuries nor clearly one argument. The number was removed rather than replaced with another nobody cited.
Claim 5 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: This is worth separating carefully, because the site is about evidence and this is the question of what the people being described think evidence has to do with it.
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
How the texts use the word
Claim: How the texts use the word
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
The one definition in the collection is about confidence, not about ignorance
Claim: The one definition in the collection
- Kind
- Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
Hebrews 11, World English BibleHebrews 11:1; and the whole WEB (Old Testament, deuterocanonical books and New Testament, eBible.org eng-web_vpl) searched for “faith is”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1 is the only verse in the search that says what faith is. Every other hit (Romans 1:8, 4:5, 4:14, 14:23, 1 Corinthians 15:17) says something about faith rather than defining it.
Supports
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 144 to 149: the obedience of faith§ 146
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Abraham thus fulfils the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1
The Catholic Catechism also calls the verse a definition.
What this does not establish
The search was of one English translation for one phrasing. A definition can be phrased other ways, and some commentators read the verse as a description rather than a formal definition.
Claim 8 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: is about confidence, not about ignorance
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
“Assurance” and “proof” are words of confidence. The verse is also about things “not seen”, which is the half the other reading leans on.
Context · WEB
Hebrews 11, World English BibleHebrews 11:1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
Claim 9 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: "Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen."
- Kind
- Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
Hebrews 11, World English BibleHebrews 11:1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
Claim 10 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: The chapter that follows is a list of people who acted on it
- Kind
- Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
Hebrews 11, World English BibleHebrews 11:7-8, 32-34
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house ... By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. ... who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
What this does not establish
Most of the list is of things people did. A few entries are things done to them: Enoch is taken away (11:5).
Claim 11 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: which is the sense it is being used in: trust that shows up in what somebody does.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Follows from claim 11, and agrees with Morgan’s reading of pistis as trust.
Context
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraph on the book’s argument
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: rather than focusing upon faith as a set of beliefs or something abstract at work in the heart and mind, pistis/fides means trust and is fundamentally about a relationship that creates community.
Claim 12 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: The same chapter says "he who comes to God must believe that he exists"
- Kind
- Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
Hebrews 11, World English BibleHebrews 11:6
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
Claim 13 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: so propositional belief is in there. It is the floor rather than the thing being described.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Hebrews 11:6 requires believing that God exists and rewards; the rest of the chapter describes what people did.
Other readings
The Heidelberg Catechism makes “sure knowledge” half of true faith rather than a floor beneath it (Q&A 21).
Claim 14 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
And a letter in the same collection attacks belief on its own
Claim: And a letter in the same collection attacks belief on its own
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
James 2:14-26 argues that faith without works is dead.
Context
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraph on chapters 6 to 10
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: the Letter of James, which many scholars think is in tension with some of Paul’s ideas, or with later interpretations of Paul’s ideas, and which harshly criticizes propositional faith that is not accompanied by works.
Claim 15 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: James: "even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself"
- Kind
- Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
James 2, World English BibleJames 2:17
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
Claim 16 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: and then the sharpest line in the argument
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
The page’s judgement of James 2:19.
Claim 17 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: "you believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder."
- Kind
- Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
James 2, World English BibleJames 2:19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe–and shudder.
Rendered on this page as: You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder.
The WEB has a dash before “and shudder”. The site prints no dashes, so the page gives a comma; nothing else differs.
Claim 18 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: On that account intellectual assent is not merely insufficient, it is the thing the opposition also has. Whatever is being commended, it is more than the state of holding a proposition true.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
James grants that believing God is one is doing well, then says the demons believe it too.
Context · WEB
James 2, World English BibleJames 2:19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe–and shudder.
Context
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraph on chapters 6 to 10
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: the Letter of James, which many scholars think is in tension with some of Paul’s ideas, or with later interpretations of Paul’s ideas, and which harshly criticizes propositional faith that is not accompanied by works.
Other readings
Readers differ on what James sets against dead faith. Lutheran and Reformed readers take him to mean that true faith shows itself in works; Catholic teaching cites James 2 for faith that must be “working through charity” (Catechism § 162).
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “Whatever is being commended, it is not the state of holding a proposition true.” James 2:19 says of believing that God is one, “You do well.” The text commends the proposition held and then says it is not enough, so “not” overstated it.
Claim 19 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
The Gospels have people believing badly and being accepted
Claim: The Gospels have people believing badly and being accepted
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Summarises the Mark 9 and John 20 claims below.
Claim 20 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: A father, told that all things are possible to him who believes, answers "I believe. Help my unbelief!" and his son is healed.
- Kind
- Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
Mark 9, World English BibleMark 9:23-27
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” ... it came out of him. ... But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up; and he arose.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “A father asked whether he can believe answers "I believe. Help my unbelief!" and the request is granted.” Jesus does not ask the father a question; he says “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (9:23). And what follows is the boy’s healing, which is what the father first asked for (9:22). The text does not say the request about his unbelief was granted.
Claim 21 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: That sentence is a contradiction on the ignorance definition, and Mark keeps it as an acceptable answer.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Mark reports the answer and the healing that follows it, with no rebuke of the father.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “That sentence is a contradiction on the ignorance definition and it is in the text, unedited, as an acceptable answer.” “Unedited” implied no Gospel changed it. Matthew 17:14-18 and Luke 9:37-43 tell the same healing and both leave the father’s answer out. The corrected wording says Mark keeps it and adds that the other two do not.
Claim 22 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: Matthew and Luke tell the same healing without it.
- Kind
- Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Added with the correction to claim 21.
Supports · WEB
Matthew 17, World English BibleMatthew 17:14-21, WEB, read in full and searched for the father’s answer and for “unbelief”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Jesus rebuked the demon, and it went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.
The only “unbelief” in Matthew 17 is the disciples’ (17:20). The father’s answer is absent.
Supports · WEB
Luke 9, World English BibleLuke 9:37-43, WEB, read in full and searched for the father’s answer
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.
Claim 23 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: Thomas refuses to accept the resurrection without putting his hand in the wound, is offered exactly the demonstration he asked for
- Kind
- Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
John 20, World English BibleJohn 20:25, 27
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” ... Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side.
What this does not establish
John does not say Thomas took the offer. Jesus says only that he has seen (20:29).
Claim 24 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: and is not expelled.
- Kind
- Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
John 20, World English BibleJohn 20:26-31, searched for any exclusion of Thomas
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
The scene ends with Thomas’s confession and Jesus’s reply; nothing removes him from the group.
Claim 25 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: He is told "Don’t be unbelieving, but believing", and that those who believe without seeing are blessed
- Kind
- Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
John 20, World English BibleJohn 20:27, 29
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “He is told that those who believe without it are blessed, which is a comparison and not a condemnation.” The paragraph left out John 20:27, where Jesus tells Thomas not to be unbelieving. That is a rebuke, however mild, and a reader checking the chapter would find it. It now stands beside the blessing.
Claim 26 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: which is a correction and a comparison, not a condemnation.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Follows from claim 25: a command and a blessing on others, with no penalty.
Other readings
Some readers take 20:29 as a rebuke of Thomas and a commendation of belief without sight, which is the reading the critics’ definition leans on.
Claim 27 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
And Paul puts the whole thing at risk on purpose
Claim: And Paul puts the whole thing at risk on purpose
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Summarises 1 Corinthians 15:14-19, quoted below.
Claim 28 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: Writing about the resurrection: "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain", and a few lines later, "if we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable."
- Kind
- Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:14, 19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain. ... If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
Claim 29 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: That is a claim staked on something happening, stated by the person making it, with the consequence of its being false written out. Whatever else that is, it is not immunity from evidence.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Context · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:17
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.
What this does not establish
Paul writes out what would follow if the resurrection were false. He does not say what would show it false, and the letter is not evidence that it happened.
Claim 30 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
What is argued about it
Claim: What is argued about it
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: "You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder."
- Kind
- Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports · WEB
James 2, World English BibleJames 2:19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe–and shudder.
Rendered on this page as: You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder.
The WEB has a dash before “and shudder”; the page prints a comma, the only change.
Claim 32 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
How much the word has shifted
Claim: How much the word has shifted
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: The Greek pistis and the Latin fides were ordinary words for trust, between family, friends, citizens and gods, before Christians put them at the centre of their religion.
- Kind
- What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
- Review
- Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.
Supports
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraphs on chapters 2 to 4
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Chapters 2 through 4 explore faith in the world of the early principate with regard to domestic and personal relations, state structures, and religious contexts respectively.
Supports
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraphs on chapters 2 to 4
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Faith, again understood primarily as trust, is a virtue for the Greeks and Romans, and while this sort of faith was perceived to be basic to family, friendships and more broadly to society as a whole
Supports
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraph on chapters 2 to 4
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: despite the fact that it is not the central core of Greek and Roman religiosity, at least not to the extent that it came to be in the early Church.
Supports
Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesabstract (OpenAlex)
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 23 September 2026
The source reads: This study begins with the question why 'faith' (pistis/fides) was so important to very early Christians that the concept and praxis already dominate the writings of the New Testament.
What this does not establish
Morgan’s book was read only in its abstract and through a full review by Alicia Batten, not in full. The claim is Morgan’s finding as the review reports it.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “The Greek pistis and the Latin fides were ordinary words before they were religious ones, and the study cited here is about both, across the early Roman empire and the early churches. English "faith" has drifted toward the religious and toward the cognitive, which is why the argument keeps returning to the word.” The cited study finds pistis and fides already at work between people and gods in Graeco-Roman religion, so “before they were religious ones” got the sequence wrong; what changed was how central they became. The sentence on English “faith” drifting toward the cognitive had no source at all, the only one cited being a book record, and was removed. In its place the passage now reports what the study argues, from its abstract and a full published review.
Claim 34 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: The study cited here follows both across the early Roman empire and the early churches.
- Kind
- What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
- Review
- Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.
Supports
Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesabstract (OpenAlex)
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 23 September 2026
The source reads: the study seeks to understand the varying shapes pistis/fides takes in the Graeco-Roman world of the early principate, Hellenistic Judaism, and the New Testament.
What this does not establish
Read in its abstract, not in full.
Claim 35 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: It argues that in the New Testament the word still means trust, and that faith as propositional belief appears in some of its writings, out of arguments among Christians and with outsiders.
- Kind
- What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
- Review
- Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.
Supports
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraph on chapters 6 to 10
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Morgan argues that in the New Testament, pistis remains a relational term denoting trust
Supports
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraph on chapters 6 to 10
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Morgan grants that a propositional notion of pistis emerges in some writings, but as she states near the end of the book, this notion of faith as propositional belief develops out of debates between Christians, or between Christians and non-Christians.
What this does not establish
Morgan’s argument as her reviewer reports it; the book was not read. It is one scholar’s argument, and the review notes that others may not agree.
Claim 36 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: How much of the modern argument is a translation artefact is genuinely disputed, and it would be too convenient to say the whole of it is.
- Kind
- Disputed. A contested point, where the page reports a side or the disagreement.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
The page declines to claim that the modern quarrel is only a mistranslation. Morgan’s reading is influential and argued with.
Context
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, closing paragraph
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The volume will undoubtedly become required reading for anyone interested in the pistis Christou debate, regardless of whether they agree with Morgan.
What this does not establish
Morgan’s reading is influential and argued with, as the review says. The page does not claim to know how much of the modern argument is translation.
Claim 37 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
What the traditions ask for
Claim: What the traditions ask for
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: The Catholic Catechism, the Lutheran Augsburg Confession and the Reformed Heidelberg Catechism all call faith a gift of God rather than an achievement
- Kind
- A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
- Held by
- Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed
Supports
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 153 to 165: the characteristics of faith§§ 153, 162
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. ... Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man.
Supports
The Augsburg Confession (1530), articles V and XXArticle V; Article XX, 11
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear 3 the Gospel ... it is the gift of God, not of works
Supports
Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions and Answers 21, 61 and 65Q&A 21
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture;1 it is also a wholehearted trust,2 which the Holy Spirit creates in me3 by the gospel
Supports
Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions and Answers 21, 61 and 65Q&A 61
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Not because I please God by the worthiness of my faith.
Supports
Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions and Answers 21, 61 and 65Q&A 65
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: where then does that faith come from? A. The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts1 by the preaching of the holy gospel
What this does not establish
Three documents of three churches. The Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and most Protestant bodies outside the Lutheran and Reformed confessions were not read. The Catechism also insists that believing is an authentically human act (§ 154), so “rather than an achievement” means not earned, not that nothing is done.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “Some hold that faith is itself a gift rather than an achievement, which changes what it means to lack it. Some treat assent to defined doctrine as necessary; others put trust first and treat the doctrine as its articulation.” The passage named no tradition and cited nothing. “Some hold” that faith is a gift understated it: the Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed documents read all say so. And the split between assent and trust did not match any of them: the Catholic Catechism puts personal adherence first and joins assent to it, and Heidelberg joins knowledge to trust. The passage now says who teaches what, from their own documents.
Claim 39 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: which changes what it means to lack it.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
If faith is given, lacking it is not simply a failure of effort.
Claim 40 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: All three join trust to assent.
- Kind
- A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
- Held by
- Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed
Supports
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 150 to 152: “I know whom I have believed”§ 150
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.
Supports
Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions and Answers 21, 61 and 65Q&A 21
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture;1 it is also a wholehearted trust,2 which the Holy Spirit creates in me3 by the gospel
Supports
The Augsburg Confession (1530), articles V and XXArticle XX, 23
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Men are also admonished that here the term “faith” does not signify merely the knowledge of the history, such as is in the ungodly and in the devil, but signifies a faith which believes, not merely the history, but also the effect of the history
Supports
The Augsburg Confession (1530), articles V and XXArticle XX, 26
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: the term “faith” is accepted in the Scriptures not for knowledge such as is in the ungodly but for confidence which consoles and encourages the terrified mind.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “All three join trust to assent, and they weigh the two differently.” Whether the three accounts differ in weight rather than in wording is a question of comparative doctrine that the documents themselves cannot settle. The judgement was removed under the owner’s rule that only what a credible source verifies is shown; the three sentences that follow report what each document says. See retired claim 42.
Claim 41 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: The Catechism calls faith first a personal adherence to God and, inseparably, assent to the whole truth he has revealed.
- Kind
- A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
- Held by
- Catholic
Supports
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 150 to 152: “I know whom I have believed”§ 150
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.
Claim 43 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: Heidelberg calls it a sure knowledge and also a wholehearted trust.
- Kind
- A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
- Held by
- Reformed
Supports
Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions and Answers 21, 61 and 65Q&A 21
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture;1 it is also a wholehearted trust,2 which the Holy Spirit creates in me3 by the gospel
What this does not establish
The CRCNA’s 2011 English translation. Heidelberg is one of several Reformed confessions.
Claim 44 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: Augsburg says the word does not mean merely a knowledge of the history, such as the devil has, but confidence
- Kind
- A church’s teaching. What the named tradition teaches, from its own documents. Evidence of what is taught, not proof that it is true, and not what every Christian holds.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
- Held by
- Lutheran
Supports
The Augsburg Confession (1530), articles V and XXArticle XX, 23
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Men are also admonished that here the term “faith” does not signify merely the knowledge of the history, such as is in the ungodly and in the devil, but signifies a faith which believes, not merely the history, but also the effect of the history
Supports
The Augsburg Confession (1530), articles V and XXArticle XX, 26
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: the term “faith” is accepted in the Scriptures not for knowledge such as is in the ungodly but for confidence which consoles and encourages the terrified mind.
What this does not establish
The English translation on bookofconcord.org; the page read does not name the translator.
Claim 45 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: which is James’s point about the demons.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
Augsburg does not cite James here. The parallel is the page’s: both set a belief the demons share against the faith being commended.
Context · WEB
James 2, World English BibleJames 2:19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe–and shudder.
Claim 46 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: How each puts it bears on a practical question: what somebody who wants to believe and cannot is supposed to do.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
The page names the question and leaves the answers to the traditions. It does not say that their answers differ, which the documents read here do not settle.
Context
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 153 to 165: the characteristics of faith§ 162
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; 45
The Catechism’s own answer, to ask for more faith, footnotes Mark 9:24.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “Those differences produce different answers to a practical question: what somebody who wants to believe and cannot is supposed to do.” “Those differences” pointed back to the removed judgement that the three weigh trust and assent differently, and “different answers” repeated it. Now it says only that the wording bears on the question.
Claim 47 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
What is not decided here
Claim: What is not decided here
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Whether any of it is warranted
Claim: Whether any of it is warranted
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: Nothing here settles that, and this exploration is not trying to.
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: What it establishes is narrower and is often skipped: what the thing under discussion is claimed to be by the people who have it.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
What this does not establish
“The people who have it” are here a handful of New Testament writers and three church documents, not every believer.
Claim 51 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: An argument against a definition the texts do not use is a waste of everyone’s time, and both sides of this one have spent decades on it.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
“Decades” fits the recent phase of the argument the encyclopedia names, the New Atheists and their answerers.
Corrected
23 September 2026. Previously: “An argument against a definition nobody holds is a waste of everyone’s time, and both sides of this one have spent decades on it.” The page says two passages later, with a source, that some believers do hold the definition. “Nobody holds” contradicted that.
Claim 52 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Why the argument stays stuck
Claim: Why the argument stays stuck
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Why the caricature persists
Claim: Why the caricature persists
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: Because some believers do use faith to mean exactly what the critics say, and say so proudly.
- Kind
- What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports
Faith: Contemporary Perspectivessection 1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The second camp thinks that faith goes against the evidence but that is actually a good thing. This view is known as fideism . Kierkegaard argued for fideism ... “The Absurd, or to act by virtue of the absurd, is to act upon faith” ( Journals, 1849).
Other readings
The Stanford Encyclopedia doubts that any significant theist philosopher held counter-rational fideism, and reads the passages in Tertullian and Kierkegaard usually cited for it as about faith overturning natural expectations rather than embracing contradiction.
Claim 55 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: The caricature is not invented; it is a real position, held by real people
- Kind
- What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
- Review
- Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.
Supports
Faith: Contemporary Perspectivessection 1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The second camp thinks that faith goes against the evidence but that is actually a good thing. This view is known as fideism . Kierkegaard argued for fideism
Claim 56 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: and it is not the historic mainstream one.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
The philosophers of faith find no significant theist who held it, and Catholic teaching rejects it in terms.
Context
Faithsection on fideism
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Despite its popular attribution both to the church father Tertullian and to ‘the father of existentialism’, Kierkegaard, counter-rational fideism does not seem to have been espoused by any significant theist philosophers
Context
Faithsection on the rationality of faith
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Theist philosophers do, however, typically defend the claim that faith is not ‘contrary to reason’.
Context
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 153 to 165: the characteristics of faith§ 156
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".
What this does not establish
“Mainstream” is a judgement across twenty centuries and many churches; the sources read are an encyclopedia and one church’s catechism.
Claim 57 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
Claim: And because the textual sense is harder to argue with. Trust is a relationship, and you cannot refute a relationship, which is either a fair observation about the category or a very convenient move, depending on where you stand.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
The page states the objection to its own position alongside the position.
Context
Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churchesreview, paragraph on the book’s argument
Cited · Link did not answer, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: rather than focusing upon faith as a set of beliefs or something abstract at work in the heart and mind, pistis/fides means trust and is fundamentally about a relationship that creates community.
Claim 58 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
What this site can do with it
Claim: What this site can do with it
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: Mark the claims. Where something rests on a manuscript, say so; where it rests on an argument among historians, say so; where it rests on trust, say that, and do not dress it up as either of the others.
- Kind
- Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.
Claim: A reader who can tell those three apart can read anything written about this subject, including the parts written to persuade them.
- Kind
- This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
- Review
- A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.
A claim about the value of the method, not about the world.
Claim 61 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit
What was read
- Hebrews 11, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domainAlso searched, for “faith is”, in the whole WEB text (eng-web_vpl.zip from eBible.org, 2026-09-23).
- James 2, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
- Mark 9, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
- John 20, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
- 1 Corinthians 15, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
- Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early ChurchesTeresa Morgan, Oxford University Press · Abstract from OpenAlex; Crossref record (OUP, 2015)Abstract only, 23 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted brieflyThe OUP page for the book returned 403. The book was not read.
- Review of Teresa Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early ChurchesAlicia J. Batten, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.06.34 · Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.06.34, HTMLRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted briefly
- Matthew 17, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
- Luke 9, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
- Faith: Contemporary PerspectivesElizabeth Jackson, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, HTMLRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted briefly
- FaithJohn Bishop and Daniel J. McKaughan, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (revision of 2023) · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, substantive revision of 9 December 2023Read in full, 23 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted briefly
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 144 to 149: the obedience of faithThe Holy See · English text, vatican.vaThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana; quoted briefly
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 150 to 152: “I know whom I have believed”The Holy See · English text, vatican.vaThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana; quoted briefly
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 153 to 165: the characteristics of faithThe Holy See · English text, vatican.vaThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana; quoted brieflyFootnote numbers print inline in the vatican.va text and are kept in excerpts where they fall.
- The Augsburg Confession (1530), articles V and XXBook of Concord (bookofconcord.org) · English text on bookofconcord.org; paragraph numbers print inlineRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Translation not identified on the page; quoted briefly
- Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions and Answers 21, 61 and 65Christian Reformed Church in North America, translation approved by Synod 2011 · CRCNA English translation approved by Synod 2011Read in full, 23 September 2026 · Copyright CRCNA; quoted brieflyFootnote numbers print inline and are kept in excerpts.