"Faith is a firm conviction of the truth of what is declared by another, simply on the ground of his truthfulness or faithfulness."

   That is human faith, whereas divine faith is the acceptation of truth on the authority of God, instead of man. Are you not guided in your action by faith when ill? or in a legal entanglement? Or do you study the materia medica to find out the nature of medicinal substances before taking what the doctor prescribes? Do you set faith aside and take to the study of Blackstone's Commentaries, the statutes, and court decisions, as well as legal procedure, before submitting to the judgment of your lawyer for guidance? If so, you would be either unable to write to me, or have to address your letters from some penal institution.
   Do not scientists depend upon faith, as well as reason, in their investigations and the formation of their conclusions? They speak of the "law of gravitation," which you and I accept as a scientific fact upon their authority. Yet no one ever saw that "law," for it is a mere hypothesis, a thing assumed to exist, as a basis of reasoning regarding the attraction of bodies. Yet it does not explain how it anchors this revolving earth upon which we live to a central sun ninety-five million miles away, or even how it causes an apple gently to fall to the earth. All that the scientists know is that there is something, called a force, that attracts bodies towards each other. But that does not tell us what it is in itself; or why it does not repel instead of attract bodies. What, but faith, causes us to assent to the existence of such a "law"? Would it be a sign of intelligence or ignorance to refuse to believe in the existence of the law of gravitation upon faith in the knowledge and integrity of the scientists?
   If it is wise to accept upon faith the knowledge and guidance of experts in medical, legal and scientific matters, who are fallible, why does not the same principle hold good in matters of a religious and moral nature, which deeply affect our human relationship and eternal well-being? Catholics hold such faith to be wisdom of the highest possible order, as it is submission to divine, infallible authority, to God who never deceives nor can be deceived.
   You may rightly ask, "Where does intelligence come in, when guidance in matters of faith and morals is accepted upon authority?" The answer is, in determining the knowledge, truthfulness and faithfulness of the authority to whom the mind says it is wise to submit for guidance, and assenting thereto, which is the rational mental process man follows.
   "Oh, but you do not see God," was the response once made to me when discussing this question. My reply is neither have you seen, or do you know what the soul looks like. Did you ever see a soul? Did you ever see ether? or love? or democracy? yet you believe they exist. What you have seen are manifestations that postulate their existence. You do not need to see God to know He exists. Manifestations are seen continually about us that make denial of His existence a sign of ignorance. David says, in Psalm 18:1:

"The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands."

   We accept belief in the existence of God upon faith, yet it is not against reason so to do. Our intelligence, that is our mental comprehensive ability, informs us that just as an effect must have a cause, so must the universe as a whole, man included, be an effect, due to a great first cause, which in religion we designate as God. There is design and order manifesting in the universe, which postulates the existence of a great designer whom we call God. It is a self-evident fact that there is a moral law to which we are subject. It postulates the existence of a Law-maker, called God. Hence it is reasonable to expect God to make known to man what that law is, otherwise man could not know the divinely prescribed line of conduct he must adhere to or avoid. What it is reasonable for man to expect, that God has done. When that knowledge is made known in an extraordinary, a supernatural way, it is called divine revelation. It is the basis of supernatural religions, Judaism and Christianity.
   Reason tells us that God made man, and in so doing endowed him with the power of communicating his thought to his fellowman. If God could, and did give such a communicative power to finite beings, no rational person will question the ability of God to exercise that power Himself. That God has done, therefore the Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge could say:

"Scripture teaches, and Orthodox Judaism postulates that the Jews received the words of the living God and Ruler of the universe as a revelation for all time and all generations" (p. 461).

   The greatest divine revelation that Jews cherish is the Law, given by God to Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses, upon which their knowledge of God is based. Part of that revelation is the Ten Commandments, which are binding upon all mankind for all time. Do Jews, or Christians abrogate reason for faith when they accept the Ten Commandments on the word of Moses, whose truthfulness and authority cannot be reasonably questioned? Certainly not. They accept those Ten Commandments upon faith, and use the knowledge of their origin and binding force to determine the reasonableness of them, and the degree of their obligation to obey them.
While God revealed the Ten Commandments to fortify the consciences of mankind, nine of them could be known without God giving them in a special way to Moses. They may be known through the light of reason, as God has engraven them on the hearts of men. One of them, "Thou shalt keep the Sabbath holy," could only be known by divine revelation.
   Faith does not reject reason, though it is superior to it, neither does reason contradict faith; they are co-relative. That is why the Vatican Council of the Catholic Church declared in 1870:

"Although faith is above reason, there never can be a disagreement between faith and reason, because the same God who has revealed the mysteries and communicated faith, has also given to the human mind the natural light of reason, and we know that God cannot contradict Himself, nor can truth ever be in contradiction with truth. Not only can faith and reason never be in discord, but they lend each other mutual help; right reason demonstrates the foundation of faith, and enlightened by the light of faith, it develops the science of divine things; faith, on the other hand, frees and protects reason from error and enriches it with knowledge of many kinds. The Church, therefore, far from being opposed to the study of the arts and sciences, favors these studies and propagates them in a thousand ways."

   I would not go into this matter at length were not your charge a common thing in Jewry that darkens the Jewish intellectual mind. For instance, the intense Jewish intellectualist, Dr. True Weiss Rosmarin, says--

"Judaism is a religion of reason....Christianity, on the other hand, exalts belief and makes light of reason and knowledge."

   A simple test, that will prove the falsity of the assumption of the intellectual superiority of Judaism to Christianity, is a study of the articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia in contrast to the articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia, the old one as well as the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, now in the making, six volumes of which have thus far been published. No impartial student, who studies Catholic books on theology, the science of God and things related to God of a religious and moral nature, would conclude, if capable and honest, that Christianity "makes light of reason and knowledge."
   I doubt if many Jews realize that the theology, which is the reasoning side of religion and morals, in the Jewish world is due largely to Christian contact, as is the music and art in Jewry. Rabbi Lee J. Levinger, Ph.D., of Columbus, Ohio, said,

"There is a peculiar contradiction in Judaism, that the people who laid greatest stress on religion has contributed little to the development of theology, the science of religion. --Theology as a science grew among the Jews chiefly by contact with Christian and Moslem theologians who constituted a challenge to Jewish thinkers" ("Ency. of Jewish Knowledge," p. 558).

   Whenever an intellectual Jew has the good fortune, by God's grace, to become a Catholic, the light of faith invariably causes him to marvel at the profundity of Catholic teachings as set forth by Catholic theologians, and the unity of them in principles that are of basic import to religion. One need not study the "Summa Theologica" of St. Thomas Aquinas to learn that the Catholic Church appeals to the highest faculty in man, his intellect, in matters of faith and morals. All he needs to do is to study the catechisms that Catholic youth study in kindergartens, high schools and colleges, and to compare them with Jewish catechisms, or that conglomeration of wit, fantasy, nonsense, and wisdom, called the Talmud, to realize the unsoundness of the claim of Jewish intellectual superiority to Christianity in religion.
   Faith is the chain that binds man to God, it is intelligence at its apex. The Catholic Church calls faith a theological virtue infused by God into the soul. It is an illumination that causes revealed truths to be seen and believed without doubting. It causes the intellect to assent on account of the absolute reliability of the source from which it comes, God. Catholics accept those revealed teachings as taught by their Church, and recorded in the Bible, because the Church is the "pillar and ground to truth," as St. Paul called her. They accept those truths from the Church, because she is infallible, being protected from error in matters of faith and morals by the Holy Spirit.

Sincerely in the Messiah
D.... G........

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