The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden

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Without attempting to develop them as fully as they require, I want to put down a few thoughts (before I forget them!) on the meaning of such terms as "growing in grace," "gradual (as distinct from instantaneous) salvation," and so on.

Aside from the fact that such terms may sometimes be simply inadequate ways of talking about the dialectic of indicative and imperative, there is at least one thing that it seems to me they may express quite adequately. If one distinguishes, as I try to do, between the "what" of action and its "how"—as a preferable way of making the traditional distinction between "acts" themselves and "habits," or "dispositions," of acting—then one may say that not only existence but also action, not only self-understanding but also life-praxis, is something "inner," or "inward" as well as "outer," or "outward." But changing the "how" of one's actions, in the sense of one's inner habits or dispositions, is evidently more difficult and time-taking than simply changing "what" one does, in the sense of one's outer individual actions. So it would seem to make perfectly good sense to talk about "growing in grace" if what is meant is simply the difficult and time-consuming process of changing one's sinful habits or dispositions into those proper to an existence in faith, or a faithful self-understanding. To exist in faith is not only to perform particular actions accordingly, but also to develop habits of acting, or dispositions to act, that are likewise appropriate to existing in faith. But then the ongoing process of such development is spoken of quite adequately as "growing in grace," or "growing in faith."

One other thought: I've sometimes distinguished a broad as well as a strict sense of "faith"(as well as of "sin"). While faith in the strict sense is, formally, speaking, authentic self-understanding, faith in the broad sense is, in the same formal terms, authentic self-understanding together with the whole life-praxis that accords with it. Insofar, then, as life-praxis generally and in all its aspects is quite properly spoken of as subject to growth, gradual development, and so on, there's no reason why Christian life-praxis in particular should be any exception. But, then, assuming only that Christian faith in the broad sense includes Christian life-praxis as well as Christian self-understanding, one has sufficient reason to talk not only about the "instantaneous" nature of faith sensu stricto but also about the "gradual" nature of faith sensu lato, as including life-praxis as well as self-understanding.

29 May 2004

 

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