5. What are Fides qua and Fides quae?
Already answered here.
Fides qua is the personal adherence; the belief that you have; the fact that you cling to Him. Fides quae is the assent to the whole Truth which God has revealed — it is the “stuff” of faith; the content of your faith; “what” you believe. The Creed symbolizes the fides quae.
4. What is faith?
Faith is the submission of your intellect and your will to God. Faith is our response to God’s revelation of Himself to us. The two parts to faith are the fides qua and the fides quae. Fides qua is the personal adherence; the belief that you have; the fact that you cling to Him. Fides quae is the assent to the whole Truth which God has revealed — it is the “stuff” of faith; the content of your faith; “what” you believe. The Creed symbolizes the fides quae.
We cannot have fides qua without fides quae (or the other way around) and have a true faith. You cannot believe without content, nor have content without belief, and truly have faith as it is understood.
Faith is when you are willing to submit for it. You take everything that you are and give it to God. Faith is the laying down of your life.
God initiates with revelation; we respond with faith. (Of course, we always have choice to not respond with faith, to instead be indecisive or apathetic. We can say no. We have freedom of will.)
We need God’s grace in order to have faith. Faith is a free act of our will. Faith is necessary for salvation.
3. [What are] the limits of our knowledge of God?
We can really only make analogies to describe God. Eventually, all analogies will fall short because God is infinite and no single formula can encompass all that He is. He is far beyond our imaginings. Whatever method we use to describe God will ultimately tell us more of what we do not know about God than of what we do know about God.
2. What are the limits of such “proofs”?
The limit to these proofs is that the certainty which we can get is incomplete. We can know that God exists, but we cannot know God. Intimacy with God comes from faith and theophany (God’s self-revelation).
Okay, don’t freak, but there is no way I am going to have the title of these be that long after this post! 🙂 If you get a “TFI #2,” you’ll be lucky…. 🙂
For the purposes of anyone who may wish to visit my blog, I will post the question for review, then attempt to answer it. Please, please, chime in and start a discussion, by which we can all grow in our understanding. 🙂
Disclaimer: The questions are from a study sheet provided by our professor, and is NOT a take-home test, so do not worry about any possible moral/ethical questions of collusion. It is perfectly legit to help a seminary student study. 🙂
1. What are the proofs for the existence of God we spoke of in class?
There are two proofs for the existence of God: creation and the human person. By examining these two in the light of human reason, we can come to know with certainty that God exists.
Paroxysm of Giggles / Critical Mass 