What is fideism in simple terms?

Asked by: Brown Schroeder MD  |  Last update: March 5, 2025
Score: 4.2/5 (73 votes)

Fideism is a view of religious belief that holds that faith must be held without the use of reason or even against reason. Faith does not need reason. Faith creates its own justification. There are two possible variations of fideism. faith as against reason.

What is an example of a fideism?

Examples of Fideism

For example: Pascal's Wager — Blaise Pascal proposed a famous argument known as Pascal's Wager. He argued that it is rational to believe in God because the potential rewards of faith outweigh the potential costs of disbelief.

What is the problem with fideism?

Fideism has received criticism from theologians who argue that fideism is not a proper way to worship God. According to this position, if one does not attempt to understand what one believes, one is not really believing. "Blind faith" is not true faith.

Does fideism believe in God?

Moderate fideists, on the other hand, generally assert that some truths at least (e.g., God's existence, moral principles) can be known by reason subsequently reinformed and clarified by faith—reason can or must play a role in the search for religious truths.

What does fideism claim?

Fideism claims that truths of a certain kind can be grasped only by foregoing rational inquiry and relying solely on faith. Insofar as fideism insists that knowledge of these truths is possible, it must be distinguished from various forms of skepticism with which it otherwise shares certain common features.

What is Fideism? (Philosophical Definition)

43 related questions found

What does Kierkegaard think about God?

On Kierkegaard's view, only when one is defined by a commitment to what is absolute and infinite (God) can one be freed from the constricting labels and conformist roles that society attempts to impose on all of us.

What is the difference between faith and fideism?

Fideism. Fideism is a view of religious belief that holds that faith must be held without the use of reason or even against reason. Faith does not need reason.

What is it called when you believe in God but don t believe in God?

What is it called when you believe in God but not religion? A belief in God but not religion falls under the category of agnostic theism. The belief in God exists, but there may be a rejection of the institutional orthodoxy and orthopraxy of the religion.

What religion believes God is everywhere?

If you believe in pantheism, you see God in the whole world around you. Pantheism is a religious belief that includes the entire universe in its idea of God. A person who follows the religious doctrine of pantheism believes that God is all around us, throughout the whole universe.

Which of the following is a problem with Fideism?

Which of the following is a problem with fideism? Fideism gives us no way of knowing which religious beliefs we should hold as a matter of faith. Which of the following is believed by critical rationalists? Religious beliefs can be based on faith while remaining consistent with the evidence.

What belief system denies the existence of God?

Generally atheism is a denial of God or of the gods, and if religion is defined in terms of belief in spiritual beings, then atheism is the rejection of all religious belief.

What is the paradox that disproves God?

Epicurean paradox. The Epicurean paradox is a logical dilemma about the problem of evil attributed to the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who argued against the existence of a god who is simultaneously omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent.

Is fideism a heresy?

Human reason cannot be avoided in the act of faith. It cannot. Fideists can be atheists who believe anything written at Skeptic.com as well as Catholics who've memorized the Catechism. But the Church says that such an attitude is heresy, starting at least as far back as 1348 AD.

What is the ultimate reality in Christianity?

In Christianity, as in Judaism, God is the ultimate reality-the absolute foundation of everything that is, and the end toward which all points.

What did Kierkegaard believe about Christianity?

Kierkegaard's theology focuses on the single individual in relation to a known God based on a subjective truth. Many of his writings were a directed assault against all of Christendom, Christianity as a political and social entity. His target was the Danish State Church, which represented Christendom in Denmark.

What is panentheism in simple terms?

Panentheism (/pæˈnɛnθiɪzəm/; "all in God", from the Greek πᾶν, pân, 'all', ἐν, en, 'in' and Θεός, Theós, 'God') is the belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time.

What religion believes in God but not Jesus?

Judaism. Judaism rejects the idea of Jesus being God, or a person of a Trinity, or a mediator to God. Judaism also holds that Jesus is not the Messiah, arguing that he had not fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah.

What is the only religion God accepts?

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

What religion was Jesus?

He was born of a Jewish mother, in Galilee, a Jewish part of the world. All of his friends, associates, colleagues, disciples, all of them were Jews. He regularly worshipped in Jewish communal worship, what we call synagogues.

Can you believe in angels but not God?

“They're very malleable,” Garrett said of angels. “You can have any one of a number of quite different worldviews in terms of your understanding of how the cosmos is arranged, whether there's spirit beings, whether there's life after death, whether there's a God … and still find a place for angels in that worldview.”

Is Jesus considered God?

The Bible ascribes the characteristics of deity to Jesus Christ. He is described as eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and immutable. Jesus Christ is equal with God the Father. He is worshiped as God.

What do you call a person who is spiritual but not religious?

"Seekers" are those people who are looking for a spiritual home but contemplate recovering earlier religious identities. These SBNRs embrace the "spiritual but not religious" label and are eager to find a completely new religious identity or alternative spiritual group that they can ultimately commit to.

Who created fideism?

The term fideism (from the Latin fides, faith) was used for the first time by Euge`ne Ménégoz, Reflexions sur l'evangile du salut (Paris 1789 [sic]), and then it was applied to traditionalism and other theories of similar strain.

What is the meaning of fideism in the Bible?

Fideism is a theological perspective that emphasizes faith as the sole or primary means of attaining knowledge of God and religious truth, often to the exclusion of reason and empirical evidence.

What is presupposition in Christianity?

a belief that takes precedence over another and therefore serves as a criterion for another. An ultimate presupposition is a belief over which no other takes precedence. For a Christian, the content of scripture must serve as his ultimate presupposition…