Faith, he writes, expresses deeply held trust or confidence, while belief is reserved for the realm of opinion. People or things that one has “faith in” represent vital principles that one holds dear; however, one can believe something is true without that “belief” really affecting one’s life (3). Cox even goes so far as to assert that faith – much like love – is intuitive or primal, while belief is more superficial. According to Cox, the history of Christianity is primarily a history of people of faith (3-4). To confuse the history of Christianity with the history of beliefs and creeds is to fundamentally misunderstand and misrepresent the reality. Ultimately, with a clearer understanding of the history of faith, one can also gain a lens into its future.
Cox divides all two thousand years of Christian history into three separate periods: the
Age of Faith, the Age of Belief, and the Age of the Spirit. The Age of Faith began with Jesus and his followers and was sustained and upheld – through a period of rapid growth and persecution – by faith in the living Spirit of Christ. Hope for a new era and a dedication to follow Jesus in his work marked this period. Early Christian communities were compelled by a faith that indicated a lifestyle, not strict adherence to set creeds or traditions (5). Shadows of the forthcoming Age of Belief could be seen even a few decades after the beginning of Christianity, but the period