The Role of Faith in Spiritual Advancement

A dispute exists between the teaching of Paul (the so-called apostle) and James The Just, the brother of Jesus, on the roll of faith. We know who won this argument within later generations of orthodox Christianity but let's examine the merits.

Paul on Faith

"In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to the last, just as it is written; the righteous will live by faith."
Romans 1:17

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access (by faith) to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God."
Romans 5:1-2

"We, who are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles, (yet) who know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified."
Galatians 2:5-16

James on Faith

But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.
James 1:5-6

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works."
James 2:14-18

The two positions are diametrically opposed. Paul says, man is "justified" through faith alone. James retorts, faith without works is dead. James recognizes that faith plays some roll in spiritual advancement but designates works (right action) with prime importance. Notice the correlation between statement of James (demonstrate faith through works) and Jesus "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Matthew 7:16.

Is there any way to reconcile these two positions? Consider this quote from Abd al-Kader, Algerian Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic (1808 - 1883):

His faith is no longer of any use to him. In fact his faith is only useful so long as he is veiled and has not obtained direct vision and evidence. . . . When that which was hidden becomes evident, when that of which he was merely informed is directly seen, the soul no longer derives any profit from that which it believes but only from that which it contemplates and sees.

The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader (1995), Kitab al-Mawaqif. Link.

For Abd al-Kader, the beginning spiritual aspirant needs faith to take the initial steps on the path. But the mystic who has had direct knowledge (gnosis) of the divine no longer requires the crutch of faith. "Faith is no longer of any use to him." Is there any parallel teaching in the Christian traditions? I think so. See the following from the Gospel of Philip (Nag Hammadi library):

Farming in the world requires the cooperation of four essential elements. A harvest is gathered into the barn only as a result of the natural action of water, earth, wind and light. God's farming likewise has four elements - faith, hope, love, and knowledge. Faith is our earth, that in which we take root. And hope is the water through which we are nourished. Love is the wind through which we grow. Knowledge, then, is the light through which we ripen. Grace exists in four ways: it is earthborn; it is heavenly; [...] the highest heaven; [...] in [...].

Per the Gospel of Philip, "faith" is the first step in spiritual growth. Knowledge is the last step on the path. I would go one step further and say that faith is a necessary element on the path but, once it outlives it's usefulness, the doctrines of faith must be shed least they become a burden to further advancement. An infirmed person relies on crutches while in physical therapy to regain full use of one's limbs. But once the ability to walk is regained, the crutches no longer have utility for him and, in fact, become a burden were he to continue dragging them around. Once the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, the cocoon must be shed.

Garment of Light

"Jesus said, 'Wretched is the body that depends upon a body. And wretched is the soul that depends upon these two.'"
Gospel of Thomas, Logion 87

What is the second body?

"You cover yourself with light as though it were a robe. You stretch out the heavens as though they were curtains."
Psalms 104:2.

"Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him."
Matthew 17:1-2.

"Not only shall they be unable to seize the perfected person, but they shall be unable (even) to see him. For if they see him, they will seize him. In no other manner will one be able to be begotten of Him in this grace, unless he is clothed in the Perfect Light and Perfect Light is upon him. [Thus clad], he shall go [forth from the world]."
Gospel of Philip.

Hymn of the Pearl from Nag Hammadi also contains a reference to the "Glorious Robe all-bespangled With sparkling splendor of colors". The hero of the story of the Hymn of the Pearl strips off the "filthy and unclean garments" he had worn in a foreign land and put back on his "glorious robe" upon returning to his father's house.

See also 2 Enoch 22:8--"And the Lord said to Michael, 'Go, and extract Enoch from his earthly clothing and anoint him with my delightful oil, and put him into the clothes of my glory."

garment of light = body of perfect light

Wretched is the garment of light that depends upon a physical body. And wretched is the soul that depends upon either the physical or ethereal body.

"The Dogma of the Trinity. The Trinity is the term employed to signify the central doctrine of the Christian religion -- the truth that in the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these Three Persons being truly distinct one from another."
New Advent, the Catholic Encyclopedia.

"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ... .'"
Genesis 1:26.

"As it is above, so it is below."
Hermes Trismegistus.

Man, made in the image and likeness of God, is three in one: physical body, garment of light, and a divine element that never leaves it's heavenly home. The term "garment of light" refers to the spiritual being residing within every human being. It is one's true self and survives death of the temporal body.

Love = God

"[T]he mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
1 Colossians 1:26-27.

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
1 Corinthians 4:16.

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?"
1 Corinthians 6:19.

"For in him [God] we live, and move, and have our being ... for we are also his offspring."
Acts 17:28.

"[T]he kingdom is inside of you."
Gospel of Thomas, Logion 3.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
Luke 10:27.

"We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him."
1 John 4:16.

"[W]ho alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen."
1 Timothy 6:16.

Christ in you

Christ = God
Christ is in you
∴ God is in you

Love God by loving your neighbor

The godhead is unknowable
God is in our neighbor
Love of neighbor = love of God
Love of neighbor is the only means to love God
Love = God

But how can Love = God, who is everything (and nothing)? When driving north in the City of St. Louis on Hampton road toward Forest Park, one crosses Clayton. It is the road leading west to the City of Clayton (county seat of St. Louis County). The road is given the same name as it's destination. In the same manner, we refer to people by their origin. "Hey, did Jamaica the leave the party?" The question seeks the whereabouts of a friend from Jamaica (not the whereabout of the entire island). In this sense Love is God. Love is the road to God and a short-hand reference to the source of all.

p.s. "God" is our feeble human attempt at understanding the unknowable, the source of all, the godhead.

Be thou children

"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heave. Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:3-4

"Jesus said, 'From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women, no one is so much greater than John the Baptist that his eyes should not be averted. But I have said that whoever among you becomes a child will recognize the (Father's) imperial rule and will become greater than John.'"
Gospel of Thomas, Logion 46

"The child is Father of the Man. ... The things which I have seen [as a child] I now can see no more. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting. ... Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy."
William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.

Humble as a child. Children come into this world with no ego, no sense of an earthly self. As one grows, that sense of self attached to this world grows stronger and stronger or, as Wordsworth so eloquently stated: "Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy." "Prison-house" = our earthly existence. How does one escape the prison? To humble oneself as a child, slay the beast that is our earthly ego.

Life = Death, Death = Life

"We know that we have passed from death to life; because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death."
First Letter of John 3:14

"Be thou faithful to death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
Revelation 2:10

"It is in dying that we are born to eternal life."
Prayer of St. Francis

"And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be death."
Romans 7:10

"Verily, verily, I say to you, he that hearth my word, and believe in him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but hath passed from death to life."
John 5:24.