Feelings are not Faith

Ron Rolheiser

“…: strong imaginative images of God are not faith, 

though they are often confused with it.”

“We tend to confuse faith with our capacity on any given day to conjure up a concept of God and imagine God's existence. Moreover, we think our faith is strongest at those times when we have affective and emotive feelings attached to our imaginings about God. Our faith feels strongest when bolstered by and inflamed by feelings of fervor. Great spiritual writers will tell us that this stage of fervor is a good stage in our faith, but an initiatory one, more commonly experienced when we are neophytes. 

“Experience tends to support this. In the earlier stages of a religious journey it is common to possess strong affective images of and feelings about God. Our relationship with God parallels the relationship between a couple on their honeymoon. … A honeymoon is the initiatory stage in love, a valuable gift, but something that disappears after it has done its work. It is the same with faith: strong imaginative images of God are not faith, though they are often confused with it.”

Wrestling with God