Faith Is Divine Self-Confidence

Paracelsus, Franz Hartmann (Tr.) · Mystic Verse and Insights Series · 3 pages

Three pages of passages from Paracelsus, taken from Franz Hartmann's The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of Hohenheim, Known by the Name of Paracelsus, with the source given in full and page references keyed to the site's own edition of Hartmann in the Buddhas and Initiates Series.

The definition being argued for is that faith is a power and a kind of knowledge, not an opinion held without evidence. Its reach is stated at the outset as extending as far as the power of God in the universe: man accomplishes nothing by his own power, but everything can be accomplished through man by the power of faith — with the homely example that if we did not have faith in our ability to walk, we would not be able to walk. Faith is said not to come from man, and no man can make himself faithful without it; its germ is laid within him and may be cultivated or neglected, used for good or evil, but it acts effectively only when strong and pure, not weakened by doubt or dispersed by secondary considerations, so that whoever would employ it must have only one object in view. The medical application follows directly: diseases are caused and cured by faith, and if men knew its power they would have more faith and less superstition — with the striking rule that we have no right to call any disease incurable, only the right to say that we cannot cure it. A physician trusting only his own science will accomplish little; one who has faith in the power of God acting through him, and employs it intelligently, will accomplish much. The passage closes by separating true faith from superstition on exactly this ground — thinking one can do a thing without any power to do it is superstition, while knowing oneself to have obtained the power is faith, and such faith is knowledge and power.

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