(24)-(26)

(24) Even with this account of meaning on board, we still face the threat mentioned earlier, namely, that the effort to understand faith unwittingly turns it into something else. Supposing, that is, that we understand a faith-commitment in terms of a series of precedents, that this way of understanding the commitment need not be thought to cut faith down to size, etc., it still seems as if everything depends upon our efforts, that this is something we can do under our own steam, and that in attempting to understand a faith-commitment we thus put faith in ourselves.

(25) To address this concern, we need to explain how this sort of meaning-making could itself depend upon--and be the result of--God's grace. A crucial issue that brings us to theology proper. But not yet.

(26) (Theological principle: "God's grace" refers always & everywhere to a particular, free act of the triune God. To talk rightly about grace is thus to talk about God doing something as Father, Son, and Spirit.)