The word “faith” is a popular one these days, in part because it’s become a catch-all replacement for the words “religion” or “spirituality.” We talk about “people of faith” and “faith communities,” and sometimes “faith-based initiatives.” It’s become distilled into such a technical term that it’s occasionally absurd: I receive a “City of Boston Faith-Based Newsletter” from someone with the title “Senior Faith-Based Advisor.” But in the Christian context, “faith” isn’t a synonym for “religion” or even “belief.” Faith means a very particular thing. For the Apostle Paul and in the Letter to the Hebrews, Abraham is the paragon of faith. And the faith of Abraham is very specifically “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1)

Abraham isn’t an example of faith because he believes in a God or gods. It’s not because he’s committed himself deeply to a particular set of doctrines. It’s not because he has regular experiences of the Divine. The faith for which Abraham is famous is the unreasonable but undeniable sense that God’s promise is true, even though its contents are unbelievable, and its timing is unreliable, and there’s no evidence at all that it’s ever going to happen.

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