United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

Chapter 4. Bring About the Obedience of Faith • 41

just as long as I please, and no longer; what I believe today I will reject tomorrow, if I choose. I will believe what the Apostles have as yet said, but I will not believe what they shall say in time to come.” No; either the Apostles were from God, or they were not; if they were, everything that they preached was to be believed by their hearers; if they were not, there was nothing for their hearers to believe. To believe a little, to believe more or less, was impossible; it contradicted the very notion of believing. (John Henry Newman, “Faith and Private Judgment,” in Discourses to Mixed Congregations [1849])

The ultimate goal of a life of faith is eternal union with God in heaven. Through the gift and experience of faith, we are able not only to look ahead to what awaits us, but also to experience here some of God’s divine life, “a taste in advance” of our sharing life with him forever (see CCC, no. 163). While living a life of growing in faith might seem like a waste of time and energy to skeptics and non-believers, both because the objects of faith cannot always be proven and because faith often “produces” little of measurable value, believers know the strength, the wisdom, the confidence and hope that a life of faith gives. CHALLENGES TO FAITH The culture of the United States has been strongly influenced by the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, or Age of Reason. That philosophy coincided with the scientific revolution and was based on the premise that reason and common sense should be our only guides. Its religious counterpart was Deism, which claimed that while God exists, he simply created the world and then left us to our own devices. The founding fathers of our country were influenced by the Enlightenment and the promises of science. Though some were attracted to Deism, they supported freedom of religion and noted the value of