What Is Required With Faith?

[prose]

There has been some interesting comments about "faith" recently.

I want to know, in your opinion, what is required of faith, and is it absolutely necessary for salvation.

For instance, on the other board someone follows the Church's teaching but does not believe them. Is this lack of faith? Is this enough for salvation?

Is faith something that leads to action? Is that why protestants believe faith alone is enough? Because actions come from faith? Or do actions lead to faith?

[kenrockthefirst]

[quote name='prose' post='1262678' date='May 2 2007, 03:46 PM']There has been some interesting comments about "faith" recently.

I want to know, in your opinion, what is required of faith, and is it absolutely necessary for salvation.

For instance, on the other board someone follows the Church's teaching but does not believe them. Is this lack of faith? Is this enough for salvation?

Is faith something that leads to action? Is that why protestants believe faith alone is enough? Because actions come from faith? Or do actions lead to faith?[/quote]

For me, the following is the stand-out text (and, I presume, why Luther called the Letter of St. James an "epistle of straw"):

[i]Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.[/i] (Js. 1:27)