Sir: Neither Cardinal Hume, in his foreword, nor Mr Waugh,
in his review, distinguished between objective faith and subjective faith. Doubtless the Cardinal was writing about the latter. I regret that he did not say so. Objective faith, Mr Waugh's theme, is the total content of divine revelation — The Faith. It cannot vary any more than physical nature can vary because of our changing hypotheses about it. The earth moved merrily round the sun all the time we thought it did not. Subjective faith — alas — can vary, but only in a few ways. Faith is a person's acceptance of God's assurance that certain things are so. The possibilities are that (a) one accepts and perseveres in acceptance; (b) one rejects, in which case one has no faith; (c) one has not decided whether to accept or reject. Further, a person who has accepted may be hindered from perseverance by (a) having accepted without what is to him or her an adequate rational basis for acceptance; (b) by suspecting some inconsistency among the doctrines; (c) by suspecting some inconsistency between a doctrine and a truth learned from human knowledge. These apparent conflicts can be resolved by progress in understanding. Surely that is what the Cardinal meant when he wrote of faith growing by conquering doubts.
If Mr Waugh had not been so infuriated by the foreword he would probably have analysed the situation himself. Of course he is right in drawing attention to our present habit of concentrating on subjective states to the exclusion of objective facts.
Mary Lynch
St. Joseph's Nursing Home, 15 Church Street, Lower Edmonton, London N9
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