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F

FAITH. May refer either to what is
believed (religious teachings or creeds) or
the act of believing itself. The latter has a
subjective dimension, whereas the former
is often thought to be objective in the
sense that its truth or falsehood does not
rest on the believer’s subjective state. Phi-
losophers and theologians have advanced
competing models of faith. Fideists claim
that religious faith does not require exter-
nal evidential justification. Some hold
that faith is evidentially justified (Richard
Swinburne is a prime example). Norman
Malcolm distinguished between faith in
(as in “faith in God”) versus faith that (as
in “faith that God exists”), claiming that
one can have the first without the second.
Roger Trigg has countered that it makes
no sense to have faith in God unless one
believes (hopes or assumes) God exists.
Some theologians describe “faith” as a gift,
conferred through God’s mercy. See also
BELIEF-IN.

FALL, THE. Traditional Christian theol-
ogy affirms that there was an initial,
historical act of disobedience in which

human beings turned away from God. In

Genesis, the first humans (Adam and

Eve) are created in a state of harmony and

fecundity in the Garden of Eden and are

then exiled from Eden due to disobedi-

ence to God. This is a fall from a state of

blessing. Although the story of the fall is

in both the Christian Old Testament and

Hebrew Bible, Christian theology has

tended to give more attention to the fall,

in part due to the teaching that Jesus

Christ is the New Adam, reversing the

disobedience of Adam. Mary, the mother

of Jesus, is also sometimes depicted as

reversing Eve’s fall.

FALLIBILISM. The thesis that human

beliefs are capable of error, in opposition

to the idea that some beliefs or texts are

incapable of error, or are infallible. Some

philosophers historically and today have

held that some human beliefs are infalli-

ble (the self exists, there are sensations),

but many philosophers today are content

to argue that such convictions about the

self and so on are justified but not estab-

lished as infallible knowledge. If a belief