We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
What Will You Do With Your Doubt?
Richard Beck shared some of his thoughts on Christianity as something that for many of us is our “native religion”…something we were born into and that is, to quote Wendell Berry, “an intimate belonging of our being; it informs our consciousness, our language, and our dreams.” With Christianity so foundational to our identities, doubt is a scary (and necessary) thing. What will you do with your doubt?
Richard observes that:
A lot of people who have decided to leave the faith are still, for lack of a better word, shadow Christians, still haunted by God. In the words of Flannery O’Connor, Jesus remains for many this wild, ragged figure moving from tree to tree in the back their minds.
But for others the “better possibility” has been for us to intentionally step out of the liminal space, away from the cognitive dissonance, to invest in, cultivate, and renew our native religion.
For those of you who are in the thick of your doubt, you might want to pick up a copy of Greg’s book, Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty.
Image by Davi Ozolin via Compfight
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Doubt, Faith, Richard Beck, Wendell Berry
Related Reading
The Only Starting Point
Sree V. Remella via Compfight Our friend Roger Olson wrote a great article on placing Jesus first when constructing a statement of faith. It might seem like a small thing, but it deeply matters what we place as primary in matters of faith. Let’s always begin with Jesus. From Roger’s blog post: What are we…
Lighten Up: You Gotta Believe In Something, Man!
Two things here: 1) How does this philosopher not see that “not believing in believing” is itself a belief? 2) Is that a turtleneck or is that philosopher just really hairy?
Beyond Theoretical Salvation
Profession of Christ’s lordship in our lives isn’t a magical formula. It’s more than a theory about how we can get saved if we confess the right doctrines. The confession has meaning only when it’s understood to be a genuine pledge to surrender one’s life to Christ. (See yesterday’s post.) But I want us to…
Biblical Versus Magical Faith: Reflections on the ReKnew Manifesto
The second core conviction of the “ReKnew Manifesto” is that we believe it is time for the Church to re-think common assumptions about faith. Faith is at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus and to live under the reign of God. Yet Christians rarely seriously reflect on what it means to “have…
Gungor and Doubt
Gungor is working through the issue of doubt on their new album. (Thanks Orlando for the heads-up.) We’re busily getting ready for the Faith, Doubt & the Idol of Certainty conference tomorrow. It’s not too late to join us. Hope to see you there.
Faith or Magic?
Many Christians today treat faith like magic. While the content of what Christians believe is obviously different from pagan practitioners of magic, the way they believe and the motive they have for believing, seems to be very similar. Magic is generally understood to involve people engaging in special behaviors that empower them to gain favor…