Faith

The word faith has various uses; its central meaning is similar to "belief", "trust" or "confidence", but unlike these terms, "faith" tends to imply a transpersonal rather than interpersonal relationship – with God or a higher power. The object of faith can be a person (or even an inanimate object or state of affairs) or a proposition (or body of propositions, such as a religious credo). In each case, however, faith is in an aspect of the object and cannot be logically proven or objectively known. Faith can also be defined as accepting as true something which one has been told by someone who is believed to be trustworthy. In its proper sense faith means trusting the word of another.

In religious contexts, "faith" has several different meanings. Sometimes, it means loyalty to one's religion. It is in this sense in which one can speak of, for example, "the Catholic faith". For creedal religions, faith also means that one accepts the religious tenets of the religion as true. For non-creedal religions,often means that one is loyal to a particular religious community. In general, faith means being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see with your physical (as opposed to spiritual) eyes.

Faith in Christianity centers on faith in the saving grace of Christ Jesus the Son of the living God, who died for the sin of the world. The precise meaning and content of faith in Christianity differs somewhat between the various Christian traditions. The definition of this quality for Christians is found in the scriptural text at Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".