My religious tenets operate at two distinct levels: that of literal truth and that of metaphorical truth.  I believe that God, Christ, and the Church are literally "true," yet I do not have direct access to these things in the ordinary sense of the term.  Rather, I experience them intuitively, spiritually, "through a glass darkly."  I know, however, that they are true metaphorically, for they function sucessfully in my everyday life.  This combination of believing ad knowing (both of which are relative terms) amounts to a trust that I call my faith.  I readily acknowledge that my faith is a faith; it is not a perfect knowledge.  Indeed, I am content that it is so.  The informed trust that comes with faith can, if it is genuine and well placed, produce a strength and a goodness that could not grow from literal, absolute knowledge.  An earthly example is the power and peace that is a byproduct of a friendship or marriage based on love and trust (faith) rather than on a constant, empiricle, and absolute knowledge that theoretically would verify that the friend or spouse is being "true."  Although there are in fact such things as unworthy friends or disloyal spouces, it is nevertheless impossible to build a healthy friendship or marriage without a deep and lively faith.
-Philip L. Barlow, "The Uniquely True Church" (pg 257) A Thoughtful Faith