Fox Faith (also spelled FoxFaith) is a brand of film studio Twentieth Century Fox targeting evangelical Christians. Established under Fox's video division, Fox Faith acquires independent Christian-themed films for theatrical and video release.^[1] Fox describes Fox Faith titles as "morally-driven, family-friendly programming," and requires them to "have overt Christian [c]ontent or be derived from the work of a Christian author."^[2]

Its theatrical releases are by arrangement with the AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas chains, and will mostly be digital releases.^[1] The New York Times said of Fox Faith's most widely distributed release, The Ultimate Gift: "While it's always fun when Hollywood aims to instruct us in the spiritual pitfalls of filthy lucre, perhaps insulting the artistic sensibilities of Christian audiences isn't the best way to get them into the multiplex."^[3]

Films[link]

• Thr3e (2006) (USA) (theatrical)
• Love's Abiding Joy (2006) ... Distributor (2006) (USA) (theatrical)
• One Night with the King (2006) ... Distributor (2006) (USA) (theatrical)
• The Last Sin Eater (February 9, 2007) ... Distributor (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• The Ultimate Gift (March 9, 2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• The Final Inquiry (2006) (a.k.a. The Inquiry / L'Inchiesta) ... Distributor (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Moondance Alexander (2007) ... Distributor (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Saving Sarah Cain (2007) ... Distributor (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find (2008) (V) ... Distributor (2008) (USA) (all media)
• Ace of Hearts (2008) ... Distributor (2008) (USA) (Theatrical)
• Mama, I Want to Sing! (2009) ... Distributor (2008) (USA) (all media)

References[link]

External links[link]

• FoxFaith.com (video releases)
• FoxFaithMovies.com (theatrical releases)
• FoxFaith at the Internet Movie Database

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)

Foxes
Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Tribe:	Vulpini
Genera
Vulpes Cerdocyon Chrysocyon †Dusicyon Otocyon Urocyon

Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids (slightly smaller than the medium-sized domestic dog), characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail (or brush).

Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to the Vulpes genus of "true foxes". By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), although various species are found on almost every continent. The presence of fox-like carnivores all over the globe, together with their widespread reputation for cunning, has contributed to their appearance in popular culture and folklore in many societies around the world (see also Foxes in culture).

Etymology[link]

The Modern English word "fox" is Old English, and comes from the Proto-Germanic word fukh – compare German Fuchs, Gothic fauho, Old Norse foa and Dutch vos. It corresponds to the Proto-Indo-European word puk- meaning "tail of it" (compare Sanskrit puccha, also "tail"). The bushy tail is also the source of the word for fox in Welsh: llwynog, from llwyn, "bush, grove".^[1] Lithuanian: uodegis, from uodega, "tail", Portuguese: raposa, from rabo, "tail"^[2] and Ojibwa: waagosh, from waa, which refers to the up and down "bounce" or flickering of an animal or its tail.^[3] Male foxes are known as dogs or reynards, females as vixens, and young as kits, pups or cubs. A group of foxes is a "skulk", "leash", "troop" or "earth".

General characteristics[link]

The fennec fox is the smallest species of fox.

Arctic fox curled up in snow.

In the wild, foxes can live for up to 10 years, but most foxes only live for 2 to 3 years due to hunting, road accidents and diseases. Foxes are generally smaller than other members of the family Canidae such as wolves, jackals, and domestic dogs. Reynards (male foxes) weigh, on average, around 5.9 kilograms (13 lb) and vixens (female foxes) weigh less, at around 5.2 kilograms (11.5 lb).^[4] Fox-like features typically include a distinctive muzzle (a "fox face") and bushy tail. Other physical characteristics vary according to habitat. For example, the fennec fox (and other species of fox adapted to life in the desert, such as the kit fox) has large ears and short fur, whereas the Arctic fox has tiny ears and thick, insulating fur. Another example is the red fox which has a typical auburn pelt, the tail normally ending with white marking. Litter sizes can vary greatly according to species and environment – the Arctic fox, for example, has an average litter of four to five, with eleven as maximum.^[5]

Unlike many canids, foxes are not always pack animals. Typically, they live in small family groups, and are opportunistic feeders that hunt live prey (especially rodents). Using a pouncing technique practiced from an early age, they are usually able to kill their prey quickly. Foxes also gather a wide variety of other foods ranging from grasshoppers to fruit and berries. The gray fox is one of only two canine species known to climb trees; the other is the raccoon dog.

Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans and are not usually kept as indoor pets; however, the silver fox was successfully domesticated in Russia after a 45-year selective breeding program. This selective breeding also resulted in physical and behavioral traits appearing that are frequently seen in domestic cats, dogs, and other animals, such as pigmentation changes, floppy ears, and curly tails.^[6]

Classification[link]

Skeleton

Canids commonly known as foxes include members of the following genera:

• Alopex: Arctic fox, although the definitive mammal taxonomy list as well as genetic evidence places it in Vulpes, and not as a genus unto itself.
• Canis: The Ethiopian Wolf, also called, variously, Semien fox or Semien jackal (though recently renamed to reflect its biological affinity with the gray wolf).
• Cerdocyon: Crab-eating fox.
• Chrysocyon: Maned wolf (in English), aguara guazú ("big fox" in Guarani) and zorro rojizo ("reddish fox," one of several names used by Spanish speakers).
• Dusicyon: Falkland Islands fox.
• Lycalopex: Six South American species.
• Otocyon: Bat-eared fox.
• Urocyon: Gray fox, island fox and Cozumel fox.
• Vulpes: Including 12 species of true foxes, including the red fox, V. vulpes, Tibetan Sand Fox, Vulpes ferrilata and their closest kin.

Diet[link]

A Chilla fox in Pan de Azúcar National Park in the coast of Atacama Desert.

Foxes are omnivores.^[7][8] The diet of foxes is largely made up of invertebrates and other small mammals, reptiles, (such as snakes), amphibians, scorpions, grasses, berries, fruit, fish, birds, eggs, dung beetles, insects and all other kinds of small animals. Many species are generalist predators, but some (such as the crab-eating fox) are more specialist. Most species of fox generally consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, snow, or soil.

Conservation[link]

The island fox is a critically endangered species.

Foxes are readily found in cities and cultivated areas and (depending upon species) seem to adapt reasonably well to human presence.

Red foxes have been introduced into Australia which lacks similar carnivores other than the dingo, and the introduced foxes prey on native wildlife, some to the point of extinction.

Other fox species do not reproduce as readily as the red fox, and are endangered in their native environments. Key among these are the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) and the African bat-eared fox. Other foxes such as fennec foxes, are not endangered.

Foxes have been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms while leaving the fruit intact.^[9]

Relationships with humans[link]

A red fox on the porch of an Evergreen, Colorado home.

Fox attacks on humans are not common but have been reported. In November 2008, an incident in the United States was reported in which a jogger was attacked and bitten on the foot and arm by a rabid fox in Arizona.^[10] In July 2002, a 14-week-old baby was attacked in a house in Dartford, Kent, United Kingdom.^[11] In June 2010, 9-month-old twin girls were bitten on the arms and face when a fox entered their upstairs room in east London.^[12]

Fox hunting[link]

Fox hunting is an activity that originated in the United Kingdom in the 16th century. Hunting with dogs is now banned in the United Kingdom,^{[13][14][15][16]} though hunting without dogs is still permitted. It is practiced as recreation in several other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Russia and the United States.

Domestication[link]

The Russian silver fox, or domesticated silver fox, is the result of nearly fifty years of experiments in the Soviet Union and Russia to domesticate the silver morph of the red fox. Notably, the new foxes became more tame, allowing themselves to be petted, whimpering to get attention and sniffing and licking their caretakers.^[17] They also became more dog-like as well: they lost their distinctive musky "fox smell", became more friendly with humans, put their ears down (like dogs), wagged their tails when happy and began to vocalize and bark like domesticated dogs. They also began to exhibit other traits seen in some dog breeds, such as color pattern, curled tails, floppy ears, and shorter legs and tails.^[17] They are also more likely to have piebald coats. The breeding project was set up by the Soviet scientist Dmitri K. Belyaev.

In culture[link]

In many cultures, the fox appears in folklore as a symbol of cunning and trickery, or as a familiar animal possessed of magic powers.

In some countries, foxes are major predators of rabbits and hens. Population oscillations of these two species were the first nonlinear oscillation studied, and led to the now-famous Lotka-Volterra equation.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fox

Look up fox in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Fox

• BBC Wales Nature: Fox videos
• BBC Wild About Nature: Fox facts and videos
• The fox website
• More fox sound files
• Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage fact sheet, 2004
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Fox". The American Cyclopædia. 1879. 
  • "Fox". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 9 (9th ed.). 1879. 
  • "Fox". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 
  • "Fox". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. 
  • Beach, Chandler B., ed. (1914). "Fox". The New Student's Reference Work. Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co.. Wikisource 
  • "Fox". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 
  • "Fox". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. 

Mino da Fiesole, Faith (Armani).

Faith is confidence or trust in a person or entity.^[1][2] Depending on the religion, faith is belief in a single god or multiple gods or in the doctrines or teachings of the religion. Informal usage of faith can be quite broad, including trust or belief without proof,^[2] and "faith" is often used as a substitute for "hope", "trust" or "belief".

Some critics of faith have argued that faith is opposed to reason. In contrast, some advocates of faith argue that the proper domain of faith concerns questions which cannot be settled by evidence. This is exemplified by attitudes about the future, which (by definition) has not yet occurred. Logical reasoning may proceed from any set of assumptions, positive or negative. In this view, faith is simply the selection of a positive assumption.

Etymology[link]

The English word is thought to date from 1200–50, from the Middle English feith, via Anglo-French fed, Old French feid, feit from Latin fidem, accusative of fidēs (trust), akin to fīdere (to trust).^[3]

Epistemological validity of faith[link]

There is a wide spectrum of opinion with respect to the epistemological validity of faith. On one extreme is logical positivism, which denies the validity of any beliefs held by faith; on the other extreme is fideism, which holds that true belief can only arise from faith, because reason and physical evidence cannot lead to truth. Some foundationalists, such as St. Augustine of Hippo and Alvin Plantinga, hold that all of our beliefs rest ultimately on beliefs accepted by faith. Others, such as C.S. Lewis, hold that faith is merely the virtue by which we hold to our reasoned ideas, despite moods to the contrary.^[4]

William James believed that the varieties of religious experiences should be sought by psychologists, because they represent the closest thing to a microscope of the mind—that is, they show us in drastically enlarged form the normal processes of things. For a useful interpretation of human reality, to share faith experience he said that we must each make certain "over-beliefs" in things which, while they cannot be proven on the basis of experience, help us to live fuller and better lives.

Fideism[link]

Fideism is not a synonym for religious belief, but describes a particular philosophical proposition in regard to the relationship between faith's appropriate jurisdiction at arriving at truths, contrasted against reason. It states that faith is needed to determine some philosophical and religious truths, and it questions the ability of reason to arrive at all truth. The word and concept had its origin in the mid- to late-19th century by way of Catholic thought, in a movement called Traditionalism. The Roman Catholic Magisterium has, however, repeatedly condemned fideism.^[5]

Faith in world religions[link]

Bahá'í Faith[link]

In the Bahá'í Faith, faith is ultimately the acceptance of the divine authority of the Manifestations of God. In the religion's view, faith and knowledge are both required for spiritual growth. Faith involves more than outward obedience to this authority, but also must be based on a deep personal understanding of religious teachings.^[6]

By faith is meant, first, conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds.^[7]

Buddhism[link]

Faith (Pali: Saddhā, Sanskrit: Śraddhā) is an important constituent element of the teachings of Gautama Buddha— in both the Theravada and the Mahayana traditions. The teachings of Buddha were originally recorded in the language Pali and the word saddhā is generally translated as "faith". In the teachings, saddhā is often described as:

• a conviction that something is
• a determination to accomplish one's goals
• a sense of joy deriving from the other two

While faith in Buddhism does not imply "blind faith", Buddhist faith nevertheless requires a degree of faith and belief, primarily in the spiritual attainment of Gautama Buddha. Faith in Buddhism centers on the understanding that the Buddha is an Awakened being, on his superior role as teacher, in the truth of his Dharma (spiritual teachings), and in his Sangha (community of spiritually developed followers). Faith in Buddhism can be summarised as faith in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. It is intended to lead to the goal of enlightenment, or bodhi, and Nirvana. Volitionally, faith implies a resolute and courageous act of will. It combines the steadfast resolution that one will do a thing with the self-confidence that one can do it.^[8]

As a counter to any form of "blind faith", the Buddha's teachings included those included in the Kalama Sutra, exhorting his disciples to investigate any teaching and to live by what is learnt and accepted, rather than believing in something simply because it is taught.

Christianity[link]

Triumph of Faith over Idolatry by Jean-Baptiste Théodon (1646–1713)

Faith in Christianity is based in and on the work and teachings of Jesus Christ.^[9] In this way Christianity declares not to be distinguished by its faith, but by the object of its faith. Faith is an act of trust or reliance. Rather than being passive, faith leads to an active life aligned with the ideals and the example of the one being trusted. It sees the mystery of God and his grace and seeks to know and become obedient to God. To a Christian; faith is not static but causes one to learn more of God and grow; it has its origin in God.^[10]

In Christianity faith causes change as it seeks a greater understanding of God. Faith is not fideism or simple obedience to a set of rules or statements.^[11] Before the Christian has faith, they must understand in whom and in what they have faith. Without understanding, there cannot be true faith and that understanding is built on the foundation of the community of believers, the scriptures and traditions and on the personal experiences of the believer.^[12] In English translations of the New Testament, the word faith generally corresponds to the Greek noun πίστις (pistis) or the Greek verb πιστεύω (pisteuo), meaning "to trust, to have confidence, faithfulness, to be reliable, to assure".^[13]

The Bible (Hebrews 11) says that faith is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Ethical Culture[link]

Ethical Culture is a humanist religion that centers on living an ethical life. With its emphasis on human worth and dignity, it asks that all actions elicit the best in others in order to bring out the best in the self. The faith is in the interrelatedness of all people and in an improvable future in this world.

Hinduism[link]

Śrāddha (ITRANS: shraddhA) is translated as faith in Sanskrit. All schools of Hindu philosophy posit that consciousness (ātman) is distinct and independent from mind and matter (prakṛti). Therefore, Hindu faith is based on the premise that logic and reason are not conclusive methods of epistemic knowing. Spiritual practice (sadhana) is performed with the faith that knowledge beyond the mind and sense perception will be revealed to the practitioner.

The schools of Hindu philosophy differ in their recommended methods to cultivate faith, including selfless action (karma-yoga), renunciation (jnana-yoga) and devotion (bhakti-yoga).

In chapter 17 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes how faith, influenced by the three modes (guṇas) lead to different approaches in worship, diet, sacrifice, austerity and charity.

Swami Tripurari states:

Faith for good reason arises out of the mystery that underlies the very structure and nature of reality, a mystery that in its entirety will never be entirely demystified despite what those who have placed reason on their altar might like us to believe. The mystery of life that gives rise to faith as a supra-rational means of unlocking life's mystery—one that reason does not hold the key to—suggests that faith is fundamentally rational in that it is a logical response to the mysterious.^[14]

Islam[link]

View of the prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Kairouan (also called the Mosque of Uqba) considered as the oldest place of worship in the Western Islamic World,^[15] it is located in the city of Kairouan in Tunisia. Prayer is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith.^[16]

In Islam, faith (iman) is complete submission to the will of God, which includes belief, profession and the body's performance of deeds, consistent with the commission as vicegerent on Earth, all according to God's will.

Iman has two aspects:

• Recognizing and affirming that there is one Creator of the universe and only to this Creator is worship due. According to Islamic thought, this comes naturally because faith is an instinct of the human soul. This instinct is then trained via parents or guardians into specific religious or spiritual paths. Likewise, the instinct may not be guided at all.

• Willingness and commitment to submitting that God exists, and to His prescriptions for living in accordance with vicegerency. The Qur'an is the dictation of God's prescriptions through Prophet Muhammad and is believed to have updated and completed the previous revelations that God sent through earlier prophets.

In the Qur'an, it is stated that (2:62): "Surely, those who believe, those who are Muslims, Jewish, the Christians, and the Sabians; anyone who (1) believes in GOD, and (2) believes in the Last Day, and (3) leads a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord. They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve."^[17]

Judaism[link]

Faith itself is not a religious concept in Judaism. Although Judaism does recognize the positive value of Emunah^[18] (generally translated as faith, trust in God) and the negative status of the Apikorus (heretic), faith is not as stressed or as central as it is in other religions, especially as it is in the faith-possessed Christendom. It could be a necessary means for being a practicing religious Jew, but the emphasis is placed on practice rather than on faith itself. Very rarely does it relate to any teaching that must be believed.^[19] Classical Judaism does not require one to explicitly identify God (a key tenet of faith in Christianity), but rather to honour the idea of God.

In the Jewish scriptures trust in God - Emunah - refers to how God acts toward his people and how they are to respond to him; it is rooted in the everlasting covenant established in the Torah, notably^[19] Deuteronomy 7:9 (The Torah - A Modern Commentary; Union of American Hebrew Congregations, NY 1981 by W. G. Plaut)

"Know, therefore, that only the LORD your God is God, the steadfast God who keeps His gracious covenant to the thousandth generation of those who love Him and keep His commandments"

The specific tenets that compose required belief and their application to the times have been disputed throughout Jewish history. Today many, but not all, Orthodox Jews have accepted Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of Belief.^[20] For a wide history of this dispute see: Shapiro, Marc: The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization (Series).)

A traditional example of Emunah as seen in the Jewish annals is found in the person of Abraham. On a number of occasions, Abraham both accepts statements from God that seem impossible and offers obedient actions in response to direction from God to do things that seem implausible (see Genesis 12-15).

"The Talmud describes how a thief also believes in G‑d: On the brink of his forced entry, as he is about to risk his life—and the life of his victim—he cries out with all sincerity, 'G‑d help me!' The thief has faith that there is a G‑d who hears his cries, yet it escapes him that this G‑d may be able to provide for him without requiring that he abrogate G‑d’s will by stealing from others. For emunah to affect him in this way he needs study and contemplation."^[18]

Sikh[link]

Sikhism, the fifth-largest organized religion in the world,^[21] was founded in 15th-century Punjab on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev and ten successive Sikh gurus, the last one being the sacred text Guru Granth Sahib. The core philosophy of the Sikh religion is described in the beginning hymn of the Guru Granth Sahib,

There is one supreme eternal reality; the truth; imminent in all things; creator of all things; immanent in creation. Without fear and without hatred; not subject to time; beyond birth and death; self-revealing. Known by the Guru's grace.^[22]

Guru Nanak, the founder of the faith, summed up the basis of Sikh lifestyle in three requirements: Nām Japō (meditate on the holy name (Waheguru), Kirat karō (work diligently and honestly) and Vaṇḍ chakkō (share one's fruits).^[23]

Faith in other spiritual traditions[link]

Meher Baba[link]

Meher Baba described three types of faith, emphasizing the importance of faith in a spiritual master:

"One of the most important qualifications for the aspirant is faith. There are three kinds of faith: (i) faith in oneself, (ii) faith in the Master and (iii) faith in life. Faith is so indispensable to life that unless it is present in some degree, life itself would be impossible. It is because of faith that cooperative and social life becomes possible. It is faith in each other that facilitates a free give and take of love, a free sharing of work and its results. When life is burdened with unjustified fear of one another it becomes cramped and restricted....Faith in the Master becomes all-important because it nourishes and sustains faith in oneself and faith in life in the very teeth of set-backs and failures, handicaps and difficulties, limitations and failings. Life, as man knows it in himself, or in most of his fellow-men, may be narrow, twisted and perverse, but life as he sees it in the Master is unlimited, pure and untainted. In the Master, man sees his own ideal realised; the Master is what his own deeper self would rather be. He sees in the Master the reflection of the best in himself which is yet to be, but which he will surely one day attain. Faith in the Master therefore becomes the chief motive-power for realising the divinity which is latent in man."^[24]

Support of faith[link]

Religious epistemologists have formulated and defended reasons for the rationality of accepting belief in God without the support of an argument.^[25] Some religious epistemologists hold that belief in God is more analogous to belief in a person than belief in a scientific hypothesis. Human relations demand trust and commitment. If belief in God is more like belief in other persons, then the trust that is appropriate to persons will be appropriate to God. American psychologist and philosopher William James offers a similar argument in his lecture The Will to Believe.^[25][26] Foundationalism is a view about the structure of justification or knowledge.^[27][27] Foundationalism holds that all knowledge and justified belief are ultimately based upon what are called properly basic beliefs. This position is intended to resolve the infinite regress problem in epistemology. According to foundationalism, a belief is epistemically justified only if it is justified by properly basic beliefs. One of the significant developments in foundationalism is the rise of reformed epistemology.^[27]

Reformed epistemology is a view about the epistemology of religious belief, which holds that belief in God can be properly basic. Analytic philosophers Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff develop this view.^[28] Plantinga holds that an individual may rationally believe in God even though the individual does not possess sufficient evidence to convince an agnostic. One difference between reformed epistemology and fideism is that the former requires defence against known objections, whereas the latter might dismiss such objections as irrelevant.^[29] Plantinga has developed reformed epistemology in Warranted Christian Belief as a form of externalism that holds that the justification conferring factors for a belief may include external factors.^[30] Some theistic philosophers have defended theism by granting evidentialism but supporting theism through deductive arguments whose premises are considered justifiable. Some of these arguments are probabilistic, either in the sense of having weight but being inconclusive, or in the sense of having a mathematical probability assigned to them.^[25] Notable in this regard are the cumulative arguments presented by British philosopher Basil Mitchell and analytic philosopher Richard Swinburne, whose arguments are based on Bayesian probability.^[31][32] In a notable exposition of his arguments, Swinburne appeals to an inference for the best explanation.^[33][34]

Criticism[link]

Some critics argue that religious faith is irrational and see faith as ignorance of reality: a strong belief in something with no evidence and sometimes a strong belief in something even with evidence against it. Bertrand Russell noted, "Where there is evidence, no one speaks of 'faith'. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence."^[35] In the rationalist view, belief should be restricted to direct observation in the past and present.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins criticizes all faith by generalizing from specific faith in propositions that conflict directly with scientific evidence. He describes faith as mere belief without evidence; a process of active non-thinking. He states that it is a practice that only degrades our understanding of the natural world by allowing anyone to make a claim about nature that is based solely on their personal thoughts, and possibly distorted perceptions, that does not require testing against nature, has no ability to make reliable and consistent predictions, and is not subject to peer review.^[36]

See also[link]

Shinto faith.

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, W. W. Norton (2004), hardcover, 336 pages, ISBN 0-393-03515-8
• Stephen Palmquist, "Faith as Kant's Key to the Justification of Transcendental Reflection", The Heythrop Journal 25:4 (October 1984), pp. 442–455. Reprinted as Chapter V in Stephen Palmquist, Kant's System of Perspectives (Lanham: University Press of America, 1993).
• D. Mark Parks, "Faith/Faithfulness" Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Eds. Chad Brand, Charles Draper, Archie England. Nashville: Holman Publishers, 2003.
• Marbaniang, Domenic, Explorations of Faith. 2009.
• Poetry & Spirituality
• On Faith and Reason by Swami Tripurari
• Baba, Meher: Discourses, San Francisco: Sufism Reoriented, 1967.

Classic reflections on the nature of faith[link]

• Martin Buber, I and Thou
• Paul Tillich, The Dynamics of Faith

The Reformation view of faith[link]

• John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion
• R.C. Sproul, Faith Alone

External links[link]

Look up faith in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Faith

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Faith

• Peter Forrest (Mar 11, 2009). "Epistemology of the religion, article from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy". http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-epistemology/. 
• Epistemics of Divine Reality, Studies in Rationalism, Empiricism, and Fideism
• Faith in Judaism chabad.org
• Pew Research Center Reports on Religion
• Faith News & Religion | Times Online Articles and comment about faith issues and religion from The Times

Megan Fox
Fox at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Born	Megan Denise Fox (1986-05-16) May 16, 1986 (age 26) Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	2001–present
Spouse	Brian Austin Green (m. 2010–present)

Megan Denise Fox (born May 16, 1986) is an American actress and model. She began her acting career in 2001 with several minor television and film roles, and played a regular role on the Hope & Faith television show. In 2004, she made her film debut with a role in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. In 2007, she was cast as Mikaela Banes, the love interest of Shia LaBeouf's character, in the blockbuster film, Transformers, which became her breakout role. Fox reprised her role in the 2009 sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Later in 2009, she starred as the eponymous lead in the film Jennifer's Body.

Fox is considered a sex symbol and frequently appears on men's magazine "Hot" lists, including Maxim and FHM.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Early life[link]

Fox is of Irish, French and Native American ancestry,^[6] and was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to Darlene and Franklin Fox. She was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school for 12 years.^[7] Fox's parents divorced when she was young. Fox's mother later remarried, and she and her sister^[8] were raised by her mother and her stepfather, Tony Tonachio.^[9][10][11] She said that the two were "very strict" and that she was not allowed to have a boyfriend^[12] or invite friends to her house.^[8] She lived with her mother until she made enough money to support herself.^[12]

Fox began her training in drama and dance at age five, in Kingston, Tennessee.^[13] She attended a dance class at the community center there and was involved in Kingston Elementary School's chorus and the Kingston Clippers swim team. At 10 years of age, after moving to St. Petersburg, Florida, Fox continued her training.^[14][15] When she was 13 years old, Fox began modeling after winning several awards at the 1999 American Modeling and Talent Convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina.^[16] At age 17, she tested out of school via correspondence in order to move to Los Angeles.^[8][12]

Fox has spoken extensively of her time in education; that in middle school she was bullied and picked on and she ate lunch in the bathroom to avoid being "pelted with ketchup packets". She said that the problem was not her looks, but that she had "always gotten along better with boys" and that "rubbed some people the wrong way".^[17] Fox also said of high school that she was never popular and that "everyone hated me, and I was a total outcast, my friends were always guys, I have a very aggressive personality, and girls didn’t like me for that. I’ve had only one great girlfriend my whole life".^[17] In the same interview, she mentions that she hated school and has never been "a big believer in formal education" and that "the education I was getting seemed irrelevant. So, I was sort of checked out on that part of it".^[17]

Career[link]

At 16, Fox made her acting debut in the 2001 film Holiday in the Sun, as spoiled heiress Brianna Wallace and rival of Alex Stewart (Ashley Olsen), which was released direct-to-DVD on November 20, 2001. In the next several years she guest-starred on What I Like About You and Two and a Half Men, as well as being an uncredited extra in Bad Boys II (2003). In 2004, she made her film debut in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen co-starring opposite Lindsay Lohan, playing the supporting role of Carla Santini, a rival of Lola (Lohan). Fox was also cast in a regular role on the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith, in which she portrayed Sydney Shanowski, replacing Nicole Paggi. Fox appeared in seasons 2 to 3, until the show was cancelled in 2006.^[18]

In 2007, Fox won the lead female role of Mikaela Banes in the 2007 live-action film Transformers, based on the toy and cartoon saga of the same name. Fox played the love interest of Shia LaBeouf's character Sam Witwicky. Fox was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the category of "Breakthrough Performance", and was also nominated for three Teen Choice Awards.^[19] Fox had signed on for two more Transformers sequels.^[18][20] In June 2007, Fox was cast in a minor role in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, starring alongside Jeff Bridges, Simon Pegg and Kirsten Dunst. She portrayed Sophie Maes, a love interest of Sydney Young (Simon Pegg). The film premiered on October 3, 2008, but was considered a box-office failure.^[21][22]

Fox reprised her role as Mikaela Banes in the Transformer sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. There was some controversy surrounding Fox's appearance while filming the sequel of Transformers when Michael Bay, the film's director, ordered the actress to gain 10 pounds.^[23] The film was released worldwide on June 24, 2009.^[24] Fox was to star in the third installment, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but was not included because of her statements comparing working under director Bay to working for Hitler (see below). Co-star Shia LaBeouf said, "Criticism is one thing. Then there's public name-calling, which turns into high-school bashing. Which you can't do."^[25] Bay similarly amended his previous statements of support of Fox, and told GQ in June that Fox was fired on orders of executive producer Steven Spielberg.^[26]

Fox with Friends with Kids co-stars Jennifer Westfeldt, Adam Scott, and Jon Hamm at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

In between Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, Fox had her first lead role playing the title character in Jennifer's Body, written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody.^[27] She played Jennifer Check, a mean-girl cheerleader possessed by a demon who begins to feed off the boys in a Minnesota farming town.^[28] The film was released on September 18, 2009,^[29] and co-stars Amanda Seyfried and Adam Brody.

In April 2009, Fox began filming Jonah Hex, in which she portrayed Leila, a gun-wielding beauty and Jonah Hex's (Josh Brolin) love interest. The film was released on June 18, 2010 and co-starred Will Arnett;^[30] Despite receiving top billing, Fox has described her role in the film as being a cameo.^[31] Jonah Hex was universally panned by critics and was a box office bomb in the U.S., having its international distribution cancelled after its poor performance.^[32] The film was named the "worst picture of the year by the Houston Film Critics Society.^[33] Fox next starred alongside Mickey Rourke in Passion Play. The film received such bad reviews after its screening at the Toronto Film festival that its plans for a conventional theatrical distribution were withheld for a direct-to-video release with only two screens briefly showing the film to fulfill contractual obligations.^[34] Mickey Rourke remarked that Passion Play was "terrible. Another terrible movie."^[35][36]

In early April 2009, Fox signed on to star as the lead female role in the upcoming 2011 film The Crossing, about a young couple who get caught up in a drug trafficking scheme during their vacation to Mexico.^[37] In March 2009, Variety reported that Fox was set to star as the lead role of Aspen Matthews in the film adaption of the comic books Fathom which she will also co-produce with Brian Austin Green.^[38] Fox appeared with Dominic Monaghan in the music video for Eminem and Rihanna's single "Love the Way You Lie".^[39]

Image[link]

Fox, at the Seventh Annual Hollywood Life magazine "Breakthrough of the Year" Awards, December 9, 2007

During an interview with The Times, on the topic of being a role model, Fox stated: "It depends on what your idea of a role model is," and continued with, "If your idea of a role model is somebody who’s gonna preach to your kids that sex before marriage is wrong and cursing is wrong and women should be this and be that, then I’m not a role model. But if you want your girls to feel strong and intelligent and be outspoken and fight for what they think is right, then I want to be that type of role model, yeah."^[40] Fox said in the same interview, on the topic of being typecast that: "Getting typecast as what? Attractive? How bad is that?" She feels that it isn't a bad thing to be typecast in this way and considers it to be flattering. She also believes that it gives her an advantage because people will not expect her to be more than simply attractive and when she does give a good performance, people will be surprised.^[40] Fox has shown interest in portraying a character less sexualized than that of Mikaela Banes, whom she portrays in the Transformers film series.^[41]

Fox said of being a popular media topic that, though she is not on the same level as Jennifer Aniston, Britney Spears, or Lindsay Lohan, she does find it difficult and that there have been times when people have avoided being around her because they do not want to end up in the media's spotlight. "I need to behave in a way and handle myself in a way that will cause people to take me seriously," she said, "[and] you can be sexy and be intelligent and be taken seriously, or you can be sexy and you can be out at clubs every night and not be [taken seriously]" but that she has not gone "completely insane".^[41] Fox also said of going from being "relatively unknown" to her current celebrity status that: "I definitely feel ill-prepared; I mean, I don't know if anyone ever sits back and goes, 'Now is the moment that I think I should be a famous celebrity,' – but I definitely feel it's premature. I mean, I was in one movie that people have seen."^[41]

Fox has appeared on the covers of many magazines. In 2007, she appeared in Maxim;^[42] in 2008, the list had grown to include Cosmo Girl,^[43][44] Paw Print,^[45] Jack (ITALY),^[46] FHM (UK),^[47] and GQ.^[48][49] In 2009, the list includes, USA Weekend,^[50] Esquire,^[51] Empire,^[52] Maxim,^[53] GQ (UK),^[54] Entertainment Weekly^[55] and ELLE.^[12] Fox was ranked No.17 on interview magazines Hollywood faces to watch "Future Stars of Tomorrow", ranked No.16 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list, named No.68 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006" supplement, ranked No.18 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list, she was ranked No.1 on Moviefone's 'The 25 Hottest Actors Under 25' in 2008, and was ranked No.2 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2009 list in 2009. FHM readers voted her the "Sexiest Woman in the World" in 2008.^[5][56] In 2011, Men's Health named her one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time", ranking her at No. 14.^[57] People named her one of 2012 Most Beautiful at Every Age.^[58] In 2012, Fox revealed that making "most beautiful woman" lists is just a part of the job in Hollywood, and stated "You know, lists like this - and there are plenty - generally, we elect the girl who plays in the biggest blockbuster of the year."^[59]

In late July 2009, Fox's overexposure in parts of the media caused several men's websites to boycott her.^[60] AOL's man-blog Asylum dubbed August 4, 2009 "A Day Without Megan Fox" with the promise that the site would not mention or feature her on this day; they asked other men's sites to copy this stance, and several (such as AskMen.com, Just a Guy Thing, and Banned in Hollywood) complied. "Listen, we love Megan," Eric Rogell of TheBachelorGuy.com told New York Daily News. "She's responsible for driving more eyeballs to our sites – just by getting photographed walking down the street in a white T-shirt – than any other celeb alive. [But] it's time to give another young actress a shot at the attention."^[60] Other sites, however, refused to boycott Fox, with Asylum's sister site Popeater declaring "we're posting things about Megan Fox that aren't even news, just because we know you want it, whether you'll admit it or not"^[61] and Coedmagazine calling the boycott a "publicity stunt" and "hypocritical", saying that they were the home of "The Megan Fox Boycott Boycott".^[62] The British newspaper The Sun declared August 4 to be "Megan Fox Day", saying that "She deserves a day dedicated to her".^[63] In response to the boycott, Fox told magazine Nylon, in a September 2009 interview, that "the media blitz" for Transformers resulted in an over-extension of her welcome in the media. "I was part of a movie that [the studio] wanted to make sure would make $700 million, so they oversaturated the media with their stars," she said.^[64] "I don’t want to have people get completely sick of me before I’ve ever even done something legitimate."^[64]

Fox in October, 2007 with two of her tattoos visible

On September 11, 2009, an unsigned letter from crew members of Transformers defended Michael Bay against accusations reportedly made by Fox about his on-set behavior, including a comparison with Adolf Hitler. The letter alleges that Fox is unpleasant to work with on set and makes several accusations of ungracious behavior that are at variance with her public persona. Bay defended Fox and has said that he does not "condone" the letter. Anthony Steinhart, a production assistant who worked on Transformers, also came out in her defense, stating that he had never "...witnessed Ms. Fox being rude or inconsiderate of people’s feelings or the work to be done".^[65]

Fox has often been compared to actress Angelina Jolie, with the media dubbing her as the "next Angelina Jolie".^[66][67] The actresses have been compared partly because they each have a "tattoo collection", and status as a "built in sex-symbol".^[2][3] Fox commented that the comparisons indicate a lack of creativity on the part of the media, and are simply due to the dark hair and tattoos that she and Jolie have, and that both have been in action movies. There were several unconfirmed rumors that Fox was to replace Jolie in the next Lara Croft film.^[68][69] Fox also said of the comparisons that: "I am a brunette with tattoos, I curse and I have made mention of sex before. I joked about it which people find outrageous so they want to constantly compare that to her."^[70] Fox remarked, "I'm sure she has no idea who I am. But if I were her, I'd be like, 'Who the fuck is this little bullshit brat who was in Transformers that's going to be the next me?' I don't want to meet her. I'd be embarrassed."^[2][71]