Dear Dr. Meyer:

One wonders if the more abstract and richly humanistic a word is, the more private meanings it has. 'Faith' would certainly have more private meanings than, say, 'piston ring'.

It seems to me that looking at usages, rather than dictionary entries, gives us a chance of isolating specific shared meanings. Thus was my purpose in focusing on the examples of 'faithful servant' vs. 'I have faith in you.' Another quite distinct insight into the word is provided by its collocations. We speak of 'gaining trust' but not 'gaining faith'; but we can say 'growing faith', from the other side, so to speak. You cannot gain someone's faith, in other words, in the way you gain trust; but the other person's faith in you can grow. The intention must be on the other side.

It seems to me that this observation is theologically relevant. God can do nothing to gain our trust (the more so as he cannot be seen, nor heard, at least by the sane); our faith in him, rather, must grow.

Another collocate describes, in some sense, the shape of faith. We say 'breach of faith', and also 'breach of trust'. So there is an asymmetry here: the building up of faith and trust are distinct, but the case of breaking down is symmetric.

We do not say "breaching a rope", for instance. Breaching speaks of the walls of a castle compromised, or more exotically, a whale breaching the surface of the ocean. In both cases something is penetrated and, in the case of the castle, broken into. When I think back on my own experiences of breaches of faith, the topology is apt.

A castle wall (or an ocean barrier) is something protective; and, in the case of a castle wall or city fortification, enclosing. Can we not see, then, the shape of faith? It is like the long walls between Athens and Piraeus, forming a continuous interior between two selves, and permitting them to be safely united in mutual protection from the outside world. 

I wonder if you might undertake a similar analysis for German, Greek, and Latin.....

*

I find myself not at all depressed today. Sleep deprivation did the trick (it is an acknowledged treatment for depression, even bipolar depression; you may find the material on the internet quite interesting). What I shall be like tomorrow I have no idea. It depends on my dreams; but perhaps I can at least remember tomorrow what this day was like.

I have begun reading King Lear, and tonight my parents and I watched a film version of Much Ado about Nothing. Thank you for encouraging me to read Shakespeare. For the first time in my life I may say I am delighted with Shakespeare.

Fare thee well,

Nikola.

On Sun, Oct 17, 2021 at 7:15 PM Ernst Meyer <ernstmeyer@earthlink.net> wrote:

    Dear Nikola,

    This will be my second attempt to e-mail this letter. The first attempt
    seems to have failed. If it's a duplicate, I apologize.

    Thank you for the telephone conversation. I have second thoughts about
    our discussion.  Even a glance into any serious dictionary will show
    that no word has a single, fixed meaning. "πίστης", "fides", "faith",
    "Glaube", "trust" ultimately have meanings which are unique to each
    listener and reader and reflect his own experience, even changing from
    month to month and from year to year.  For example the dictionary
    translates fides as trust, faith, confidence, reliance, credence,
    belief. The essentially undefinable word which each one of us is to
    pronounce and spell in exactly the same way, is in its spurious
    constancy the virtual bond between human beings, a bond whose
    imperfection not only gives rise to all sorts of conflicts, but serves
    for lawyers as does illness for physicians, as the source of their
    livelihood.

    I wish you a comfortable, constructive and edifying weekend. Please give
    my regards to your parents.

    EJM

    Here is the entry for πίστης πείθομαι in the Lidell Scott  Greek-English
    Dictionary:

    πίστης,  πείθομαι

    I.  trust in others, faith, Lat. fides, fiducia, Hes., Theogn., attic;
    c. gen. pers. faith or belief in one, Eur.:— generally, persuasion of a
    thing, confidence, assurance, Pind., attic
    2.  good faith, trustworthiness, faithfulness, honesty, Lat. fides,
    Theogn., Hdt., attic
    3.  in a commercial sense, credit, trust, πίστις τοσούτων χρημάτων ἐστί
    μοι παρά τινι I have credit for so much money with him, Dem.; εἰς πίστιν
    διδόναι τί τινι id=Dem.
    4.  in Theol. faith, belief, as opp. to sight and knowledge, NTest.
    II.  that which gives confidence: hence,
    1.  an assurance, pledge of good faith, warrant, guarantee, Soph., Eur.;
    πίστιν καὶ ὅρκια ποιεῖσθαι to make a treaty by exchange of assurances
    and oaths, Hdt.; οὔτε π. οὔθ᾽ ὅρκος μένει Ar.; πίστιν διδόναι to give
    assurances, Hdt.; διδόναι καὶ λαμβάνειν to interchange them, Xen.:—of an
    oath, θεῶν πίστεις ὀμνύναι Thuc.; πίστιν ἐπιτιθέναι or προστιθέναι τινί
    Dem.: —φόβων π. an assurance against fears, Eur.
    2.  a means of persuasion, an argument, proof, such as used by orators,
    Plat., etc.