The Concept of Faith in the Books of the Martyred Motahhari and Paul Tillich

It is necessary to define the concept of faith to determine who is faithful and what is the meaning of being religious; thus it is necessary to determine the concept of faith. Islamic and Christian theologians have tried to define faith. Although the Martyred Motahhari does not independently define faith, but we can deduce from his writings on this topic that he considers faith as a kind of attachment, not a mere knowledge. Faith has a higher rank compared with knowledge and its subject, i.e. human's attachment, may be religious or non-religious. The Christian existentialist theologian, Paul Tillich, defines faith as human's final attachment and his goal. Every human's final attachment is different from another one and is exactly a personal matter. He believes the final object of human's life is only God and also believes that faith is a conscious deed which affects all aspects of human's being. Faith is not an emotional matter and is not created by affection. Faith may be lost or in technical terms, it may be mixed with doubt; this makes it dynamic. Finally faith is a conscious deed which is freely formed yet the unconscious part of human's personality affects it as well.