> The latter, of course, is the central concept of modern Christianity. //
I'd say that "salvation by faith" is the central concept of Christianity, faith does not require knowledge per se, not in the way that belief requires knowledge.
"Even the devil believes [...]" as the author of the Epistle of James writes.
Christianity as revealed in Scripture is far less about rigid concepts.
On a side-note Catholicism demands significant orthopraxis, but that is heterodox wrt Scripture.
Your supposition requires a form of gnosticism that's really not Christian and is quite contrary to the Gospel IMO, heretical some would say/have said.