RE: “Without risk, no faith... If I am able to apprehend God objectively, I do not have faith; but because I cannot do this, I must have faith.”
Sure, but what is the OBJECT of your faith?
Faith is only as good as the OBJECT for your faith. If you faith is on X and X does not help you, then your faith is in vain.
The 9/11 hijackers had faith that their martyrdom would bring them reward. What good did it do for them?
Hence, I choose to put my absolute faith in the WORD OF GOD.
As for Schiff vs some other translation, I am not going to put blind faith in any one of them. I have to use the faculties that God has given me to make a judgement. Not simply say — just because someone said he is trustworthy or he has sinister motives — I should then believe him.
For now, it seems to me that Schiff looks like a good resource. That is why I asked the other poster to show me with good evidence that he is not.
I'll go with St. Thomas Aquinas on this one:
"The object of every cognitive habit includes two things: first, that which is known materially, and secondly, that whereby it is known. In both of these, the object of faith is God."