What Is Faith?
Overview
J. Gresham Machen is considered the last in the lineage of the Great Princeton Theologians, following in the steps of Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, A. A. Hodge, and B. B. Warfield. Machen taught at Princeton Seminary for almost 15 years and established himself as a well respected New Testament scholar. After a dispute that divided faculty members over an emerging modernist theology, Machen left Princeton and became one of the principal founders of Westminster Theological Seminary, where he taught until his death.
In this classic treatise first published in 1925, J. Gresham Machen explores biblical answers to this pivotal question. Lamenting the “false and disastrous opposition which has been set up between knowledge and faith” and continuing what was his long-running polemic against liberalism, Machen speaks out against halfhearted, watered-down attempts at faith that seek to engage the heart and the soul yet disregard the mind. He illuminates the Bible’s teaching on the foundational tenets of Christian faith, clearly demonstrating that it is knowledge—the intellectual pursuit and embrace of God the Father and Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture—that forms the foundation of all true belief.
In the Logos edition, this valuable volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
- Illuminates the Bible’s teaching on the foundational tenets of Christian faith
- Argues that it is knowledge that forms the foundation for belief
- Examines the crucial differences between Christianity and “liberalism”
- Introduction
- Faith in God
- Faith in Christ
- Faith Born of Need
- Faith and the Gospel
- Faith and Salvation
- Faith and Works
- Faith and Hope
Top Highlights
“The depreciation of the intellect, with the exaltation in the place of it of the feelings or of the will, is, we think, a basic fact in modern life, which is rapidly leading to a condition in which men neither know anything nor care anything about the doctrinal content of the Christian religion, and in which there is in general a lamentable intellectual decline.” (Page 23)
“In the first place, religion is here made to depend absolutely upon doctrine; the one who comes to God must not only believe in a person, but he must also believe that something is true; faith is here declared to involve acceptance of a proposition.” (Page 47)
“ may seem to some persons impertinent and unnecessary. Faith, it may be said, cannot be known except by experience, and” (Page 13)
“Far from bringing God nearer to man, the pantheism of our day really pushes Him very far off; it brings Him physically near, but at the same time makes Him spiritually remote; it conceives of Him as a sort of blind vital force, but ceases to regard Him as a Person whom a man can love and whom a man can trust. Destroy the free personality of God, and the possibility of fellowship with Him is gone; we cannot love or trust a God of whom we are parts.” (Page 53)
“These students, many of them, are sons of ministers; and by their deficiencies they reveal the fact that the ministers of the present day are not only substituting exhortation for instruction, ethics for theology, in their preaching; but are even neglecting the education of their own children. The lamentable fact is that the Christian home, as an educational institution, has largely ceased to function.” (Page 22)
- Title: What Is Faith?
- Author: John Gresham Machen
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 1925
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Pages: 264
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Faith
- ISBNs: 9780802811226, 0802811221
- Resource ID: LLS:WHATISFAITH
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:43:58Z
John Gresham Machen (July 28, 1881–January 1, 1937) was an American Presbyterian theologian in the early twentieth century. He was the professor of New Testament at Princeton Seminary between 1915 and 1929, and led a conservative revolt against modernist theology at Princeton and formed Westminster Theological Seminary as a more orthodox alternative.