What is the importance of faith for unbelievers?

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “Nor is it only among us, who bear the name of Christ, that the dignity of faith is great: but likewise all things that are accomplished in the world, even by those who are aliens from the Church,³⁰ are accomplished by faith.³¹

By faith the laws of marriage yoke together those who have lived as strangers: and because of the faith in marriage contracts a stranger is made partner of a stranger’s person and possessions. By faith husbandry also is sustained, for he who believes not that he shall receive a harvest endures not the toils. By faith sea-faring men, trusting to the thinnest plank, exchange that most solid element, the land, for the restless motion of the waves, committing themselves to uncertain hopes, and carrying with them a faith more sure than any anchor. By faith therefore most of men’s affairs are held together: and not among us only has there been this belief, but also, as I have said, among those who are without. For if they receive not the

27 Cf. Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, God (COERL, 1994).

28 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 5.4 (NPNF II/7:29–30), amended. 29

Translator’s Note: see Augustine, Sermon 43.4, 7–9, in Augustine of Hippo, The Works of St. Augustine: A translation for the 21st Century: Part III—Sermons; Volume II: Sermons 20–50 , trans. Edmund Hill, ed. John E. Rotelle (New City Press, 1990): pp. 239–243.

30 By “aliens from the Church” he means the those among the nations, the pagans or the heretics (Tertullian, On Baptism 14–15, ANF 3:676)

31 One of the general objections the pagans raised against Christianity was that it is not founded upon logic and reason, but upon faith only. Here, St. Cyril points out the need for faith, even in the matters of daily life. This echoes the words of the Scholar Origen in Against Celsus 1.11 (ANF 4:400–401) and Arnobius in Against the Heathen 2.8 (ANF 6:436).

Scriptures, but bring forward certain doctrines of their own, even these they accept by faith.”³²