FAITH, CONFESSION OF FAITH AND TESTIMONY

This article is a reflection on a paper by Paul Ricaeur on the Christian testimony. A testimony is more than a bare confession of faith. It includes a narrative, as we see in the gospels. But it is also more than a bare report. It comprises an existential layer of personal experience. It voices the whole commitment of the witness to the cause to which he bears witness. Thus, the testimony becomes a personal profession of faith, whereby the witness identifies himself with the cause and with the person he bears witness to. Hence Ricaeur's word : "the absolute testimony about the absolute".