Personal belief profoundly influences how an individual perceives and interprets religious and moral concepts, as personal experience and inner reflection transform abstract doctrines into a living part of existence.

Personal Faith: A Transformative Journey from Doctrine to Experience

Personal belief profoundly influences how an individual perceives and interprets religious and moral concepts, as personal experience and inner reflection transform abstract doctrines into a living part of existence. As stated in source link txt, "The same faith, refracted through personal experience, perception, and emotion, becomes new and personal while remaining unified and universal. ... Only when a particular church teaching, a specific dogma—that is, the assertion of a certain truth—becomes my own faith and my experience, and consequently the central content of my life, does that faith come alive." This means that an individual's personal relationship with faith makes it truly meaningful for them, regardless of conventional dogmas.

Furthermore, as noted in source link txt, every personality possesses a unique essence that cannot be transmitted through abstract laws of reason. It states, "For abstract thought renders the essential completely inaccessible. Only the essential can touch the essential. ... For in the world there is only a rationally free personality that is essential. It alone has an original significance." This indicates that the understanding of religious and moral concepts cannot be entirely objective or dogmatic—their true meaning is revealed through the inner, free personality that lives these concepts through personal experience.

Thus, personal faith not only affects the emotional perception of religious ideas but also determines the depth of their interpretation, transforming universal teachings into a vital and individually meaningful system of values.