This writing will seek to establish a philosophical understanding of the virtue of faith through defining the self through Christ. What does this mean? Firstly Christ must be established. We know Christ through God's Word. God's Word is the collection of Holy Writ established by the Catholic Church. Where, the Catholic Church is what we profess faith in through the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church is the bride of Christ. It is the collection of all who profess their faith in fervent love towards one another. This is not to be confused with the roman catholic church, of course, who is merely a denomination within the Catholic faith. Therefore, the texts of Holy Writ, known as the Bible, are the collection of catholic knowledge.
Because this writing establishes itself in the Bible the Bible must be known beyond a reasonable doubt. Thus, what is knowledge? Philosophically, knowledge is all that is justifiably true. What does this mean? To know that which is just and true; justice and truth must be defined. Both will be defined classically by the beginning of western thought, the forms and the senses.
What are the forms and senses? Stately, the forms are the collection of all knowable things. In other words, the forms may be understood as an alternate reality in which the perfection of all ideas exists. For example, this place would hold the idea of a hammer. A hammer was not discovered. A hammer was made by raw materials with a purpose in mind for its being. A purpose, or function, if you will.
The senses are that which convince us of the forms. The senses are what shows us reality. It is through the senses we perceive time, space, and all things. The senses are that which dictates our perception of reality. Reality is the collection of all true things. Thus, what is truth? To answer, we will define a true idea, namely, the idea of God. The idea of God is that which is professed in the Nicene Creed. Therefore, we will now profess our faith.
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. What does this mean? We believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, and eyes and ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. To achieve a philosophical understanding of the creed, we must define all parts of its meaning.
Firstly we profess that we and all things were created. This establishes that our existence began and that it was made with purpose. Therefore, we profess an objective purpose to existence. Secondly, we profess that our self is dualistic. We are made of body and soul. This means we exist and realistic and spiritual beings. Or in other words, our bodies are temporary and will die from sin temporarily. But, our souls are spiritual and therefore eternal (through Christ of course, but we're not to Him, yet).
The soul is not observable. Meaning, the soul cannot be perceived through the senses. The soul is the invisible that we we believe God, the Father Almighty, has made. We have eyes and ears and all our members so that we may observe and perceive God's wonderful creation. Lastly, we profess our gift of reason and senses. The senses are well defined; what is reason? Reason is that which gives us faith. Reason is the ability to perceive the spiritual in a rational way. By being reasonable, the spiritual is real in that it is true; therefore establishing correspondence to reality, if God is real.
To be real, is to exist in reality. Reality is all that is knowable. Where, knowledge is all that is justifiably true. Thus, is the idea of God justifiably true? It is, through faith. Therefore, faith is that which justifies. We believe ourselves to have faith through Christ. Therefore, who do we profess Christ to be?