Chester Street Uniting Earth Ministry Lacuna Group


Clutching at Straws? The Beauty of an Uncertain Faith

Posted: 15/12/2008


 

I was recently having a conversation with a good friend about the mystery and uncertainty of faith. We discussed how the process of moving from utter theological certainty to a faith that offers fewer definite answers can often be a traumatic one. There are feelings of hopelesness, despair and anger. All the while, the luxury of fundamentalism whispers it's seductive refrain in ones ear- 'all is well! Repent and trust God's word only!' For many, this seduction is embraced and fiercly clung to. There are others, however, who find themselves dealing with life lived in shades of gray, for which theological certainty rings hollow, both philosophically and in praxis.

This process is all too familiar to me. Having been raised in an environment that valued theological certainty above all else, I can understand the magnetic pull of such a position, especially in uncertain times such as these. The last 4 years, however, have seen a dramatic shift in the way I understand faith and theology. If the purpose of theology is to provide concrete answers as to the nature and chracter of God, and how a relationship with this God is formed, why then does the Biblical witness offer so many conflicting accounts of who God is and what God desires?

The point here is not to give an exhaustive list of theological challenges to orthodoxy but rather to highlight the fact that the irritatingly persistent questions in theology are the most basic ones. These are questions that theologians cannot answer without recourse to convoluted jargon and rehetoric. We see here the ultimate hypocrisy in the treatment of such problems. When the 'inerrant' word of God proves difficult (such as God commanding genocide), it is explained away (one author has dubbed this 'exegetical acrobatics') so that a definite answer can be maintained. The mystery and ambiguity of the text is subverted so that it fits our nice, Western view of God. Who is really being orthodox here? The Bible is a toy, a plaything by which we can construct our vision of a perfectly loveable God.   

Over and above this criticism, however, lies a liberating truth waiting to be discovered. What if uncertainty is part of the deal and cannot be avoided? This seems to be the testimony of scripture. There is depicted a God who saves and a God that condemnes. There is a God who is lovingly gentle and a God who is ferociously violent. These contradicting realities cannot be explained away. They must be lived with.

How then are we to positively exist in the here and now, given that our understanding of God has been fundamentaly altered? This is the question that I face now. Just because I do not have a comprehensive answer does not mean that we should revert to the dogmatic answers of the past. A casual review of Christian histroy and its relationship with the wider world does not exaclty paint orthodoxy in a glowing light. Perhaps we need to concede that we may never definitively know the nature of God, and whether there is some ultimate meta-narrative in which God is acting out a divine purpose. What should we then do?

 

 

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  • Could you imagine a church that posesses both conviction and an appreciation for uncertainty? What if “what if” is all part of the journey, simply because of the inherent complexity of what it means to be human? Surely God could have been much more explicit in his self-revelation (which most seem to suggest is already the case, by the way), but a cursory study of church history seems to demonstrate that the many “truths” of the faith seem to be in somewhat of a state of flux, humanly speaking in terms of what it means to understand. We aren’t really the kinds of beings that have the ability to discern absolute truth in and of itself, so why pretend? Or, are we supposed to pretend, and then learn to put up with one another? I won’t pretend to have the solution, but what I do know is that most of the people that I know “have” the solution, and yet I am not so easily convinced for myself. And then, after a time, I can no longer be in their midst (either because of my choice or theirs, but usually theirs) because I haven’t found the where-with-all to capitulate to their grounds of certitude. Niether a good liberal nor conservative can I be, but an honest agnostic-like Christian is all I can muster for the moment.


        — Chris · Feb 24, 01:12 am

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