What is Faith?

The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In New Thought, faith is a mental attitude so inwardly embodied that the mind can no longer deny it. In Haanel, faith is developed through repetition: "By recognizing our spiritual nature," we develop "the faith, courage, and enthusiasm that will result in accomplishment".

Faith, in the metaphysical tradition articulated by Wallace D. Wattles in The Science of Getting Rich, is far more than passive belief or religious piety. It is the active, unwavering conviction that one's thought, when impressed upon Formless Substance, will inevitably manifest into physical reality. Wattles positions faith as the essential bridge between the mental image of what one desires and the tangible receipt of it. Without faith, the creative process stalls, because doubt introduces a counter-vibration that neutralizes the original thought impulse. In this framework, faith is not hoping something might happen; it is knowing, with deep certainty, that it must.

The concept of faith as a creative mental force has ancient roots stretching back through Hermetic philosophy, Christian mysticism, and the Hindu concept of shraddha (trust in the unseen order). In the New Testament, Jesus declared that faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains, a teaching that New Thought authors like Wattles, Florence Scovel Shinn, and Neville Goddard took quite literally as descriptions of mental law rather than mere metaphor. The Hermetic tradition, too, taught that the mind's conviction shapes the substance of reality, echoing the principle "as above, so below." Wattles drew from all these streams to present faith as a precise, scientific requirement rather than a vague spiritual virtue.

In The Science of Getting Rich, faith operates in concert with several other principles. It must be united with Gratitude, which keeps the mind connected to the Source of all supply, and with Purpose, which gives thought its definite direction. Wattles emphasizes in Chapters 8, 11, and 17 that faith is essential for receiving what one asks for, for manifesting desires into form, and for sustaining the entire process from beginning to end. This is what Wattles calls acting in a Certain Way: thinking, believing, and behaving with such coherent certainty that the Formless Substance has no choice but to respond. Faith, in this sense, is the emotional and intellectual fuel that powers the engine of deliberate creation.

Other metaphysical authors have enriched this understanding considerably. Neville Goddard taught that faith is identical with Feeling, specifically the feeling of the Wish Fulfilled experienced in the imaginative state. Florence Scovel Shinn described faith as the force behind The Power of the Word, the spoken decree that rearranges outer conditions. James Allen, in As a Man Thinketh, showed that sustained faith in a vision shapes character and destiny alike. Across all these teachings, the pattern is consistent: faith is the subjective certainty that precedes and produces objective evidence.

For the modern seeker, understanding faith in this metaphysical sense is transformative because it relocates creative authority from external circumstances to internal states. It teaches that the universe is not indifferent but responsive, and that the quality of one's belief determines the quality of one's experience. This is not wishful thinking but disciplined mental practice. When a person cultivates genuine faith, they stop wavering between desire and doubt, and they enter what Wattles calls the creative mode of thinking. Mastery of faith is, therefore, the single most important skill in the entire science of deliberate manifestation.

The English word "faith" derives from the Old French feid (also feit, fei), which in turn comes from the Latin fides, meaning "trust, confidence, reliance, credence, belief." The Latin root fidere, "to trust," shares an Indo-European origin with the Greek pistis, which in the New Testament carries the meaning of conviction in things unseen. In classical usage, fides referred to loyalty and trustworthiness, a relational concept between persons or between a person and a deity.

Over centuries, the meaning of faith shifted in Western culture from interpersonal trust toward theological belief, especially belief in doctrines without empirical proof. The New Thought movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries reclaimed and reframed the term, stripping it of its purely doctrinal connotations and restoring it to something closer to its original Latin sense: a profound, operative trust. For Wattles and his contemporaries, faith was not belief despite evidence but conviction that precedes evidence. It became a technical term for the mental state required to activate spiritual law, a meaning that persists throughout metaphysical literature today.

To cultivate faith in the Wattles tradition, begin by forming a clear, definite mental image of what you desire. Spend time each day holding this image in your mind with as much sensory detail as possible, and deliberately generate the feeling of already possessing it. Whenever doubt arises, do not fight it. Instead, return to the mental picture and to gratitude for the Source that is already bringing it into form. Wattles specifically advises spending extended time in contemplation of your vision, allowing conviction to build naturally through repetition and emotional engagement.

A practical daily exercise is to write out your vision in the present tense each morning and read it aloud with feeling, treating the words as statements of fact rather than wishes. Pair this with a gratitude practice in which you thank the Formless Substance for the fulfillment that is on its way. Throughout the day, act as though your faith is justified. Make decisions, speak, and carry yourself as someone who knows their desire is manifesting. This alignment of thought, word, and action is what Wattles means by living in the Certain Way, and it is how abstract faith becomes a lived, creative force.