Thinker has this to say about faith:

Religion and its teachings are sometimes intellectual and emotional, but the imagery of stories forms our spirits. We water down religion by keeping it a strictly intellectual pursuit. James Fowler teaches about the stages of the human psychology of faith. Each stage build on the other and the first stage comes about because there is a loving gaze. Stage II – requires stories. It is not mere fairy tale status – it is a means of making sense of all that happens. We have human intellect and human spirits – both require stories of God to nourish our religious selves. that part of our human existence nourished by stories is also the part that can be compassionate and empathetic, forgiving and loving. Intellect – objective and orderly – that’s how Thomas Aquinas wrote of God. Then, near the end of his life, he experienced the presence of God and ordered his secretary to burn everything. It is all straw he said. That single story about him and his work tells us more about God than the Summa Theologica. We experience something akin to that in music sometimes. A glimpse of the wonder, the beauty, the Love of God. It is no fairy tale – it is the ultimate reality.

Amen Thinker and thank you as always.