The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Anne Lamott<\/p>\nWe are currently living in a time of uncertainty. I am 64 years old, grew up as the Vietnam War raged and the Civil Rights movement changed our nation, a time in which domestic unrest, violence, and assassination were normal events. More recently, I remember 9\/11, the towers falling, and the changed country and world that followed. But I have never experienced or observed the sort of uncertainty that we are currently grappling with, a disturbance of routine, expectations, and normal life that none of us can escape. What can we depend on? Where are the fixed points? This Sunday\u2019s gospel reading helps to put these burning questions into a framework of faith.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/766\/2020\/04\/Doubting-Thomas1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
In the lectionary, the Second Sunday of Easter is \u201cDoubting Thomas Sunday.\u201d John\u2019s gospel reminds us that Thomas was the disciple who was absent when the risen Jesus appeared to his fellow disciples for the first time. Thomas refused to believe their story, famously saying that \u201cUnless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.\u201d I was taught as a young Baptist kid to consider Thomas as a loser because he would not believe reports of Jesus\u2019 resurrection until he had seen and handled the man himself. But over the years, Thomas has become one of my spiritual heroes, and doubt (along with irreverence) has become my favorite virtue. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
Consider first another of history\u2019s great skeptics and doubters. I am currently teaching an Honors colloquium on the work of Michel de Montaigne, a \u201cdream\u201d course that I\u2019ve wanted to teach for many years. Despite the coronavirus pushing this colloquium, as well as my other classes, onto Zoom for the second half of the semester, I have thoroughly enjoyed a deep dive into Montaigne\u2019s essays with seven gifted and motivated honors students.<\/p>\n
Montaigne\u2019s world was filled with religious fervor and piety. It was also filled with hatred and violence. Sixteenth-century France was not a pretty place\u2014in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, Christians were killing each other with regularity and abandon, all in the name of Christ. Catholics and Protestants each were certain that they were right; energized by such certainty, each was willing to kill the other in the name of truth and right belief.<\/p>\n
Michel was an upper-class landowner and occasional politician\u2014he was mayor of Bordeaux for two terms as well as a trusted diplomat and liaison. Sensitive and melancholy by nature, Montaigne was appalled by the violence that was tearing his country, his town, his neighborhood, even his own family apart. Accordingly, in his middle years he did what any introverted, sensitive, melancholy guy would have done. He withdrew to his turret library\u00a0in the small castle on his family estate and wrote\u2014for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n
His finely-honed powers of perception fueled his creative energies, with thousands of words spilling out onto the page often more quickly than he could think.\u00a0The result, Montaigne\u2019s\u00a0Essais<\/em>, consists of fascinating and brilliant bite-sized essays on every topic imaginable, from cannibals and sexual preferences to Michel\u2019s favorite food, his kidney stones, and his cat. And in the midst of this loosely organized jumble of creativity and insight, Michel frequently sounds like Rodney King in the midst of the Los Angeles riots so many years ago\u2014\u201cCan\u2019t we all get along?\u201d<\/p>\nMontaigne writes that \u201cthere is no hostility so extreme as that of the Christian. Our zeal works marvels when it seconds our inclination toward hatred, cruelty, ambition, greed, slander, and rebellion.\u201d This was the world in which he lived. Michel\u2019s antidote?\u00a0 Let\u2019s stop claiming to be certain about what we believe and try some healthy doubt and skepticism on for size. Certainty is vastly overrated and is frequently dangerous, especially when claimed in matters that are far beyond the reach of human capacities. Montaigne is convinced that for the most part, human beings are not designed for the rarified air of certainty. He directly challenges those who \u201cclaim to know the frontiers and bounds of the will of God,\u201d observing that \u201cthere is nothing in the whole world madder than bringing matters down to the measure of our own capacities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is there anything more ludicrous, he asks, than our propensity to believe most firmly that which we know least about and to be most sure of ourselves when we are farthest from what we can verify? Human beings claiming certainty about the will and nature of God would be humorous, and Michel often presents it that way, were it not that such claims are often the basis for the worse of what human beings are capable of, including prejudice, violence, and killing.\u00a0Even as we seek preposterously to elevate ourselves to the level of the divine, Montaigne reminds us that we remain rooted in our humanity. \u201cThere is no use our mounting on stilts, for on stilts we\u00a0must still walk on our own legs. And on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own ass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of his willingness to embrace messiness and uncertainty as part of the human experience, because of his willingness to call chaos what it is and not something else, Montaigne is one of my heroes. And so is the star of Sunday\u2019s gospel\u2014Thomas.\u00a0\u201cDoubting Thomas,\u201d as he almost always is described, occupies a unique place in the line-up of disciples. Thomas was always brought to our attention in Sunday School as someone\u00a0not\u00a0to be like; indeed, Jesus\u2019 put down of Thomas after Thomas finally believes\u2014\u201cBlessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe\u201d\u2014provides us two thousand years later with something to be proud of.\u00a0We, not having seen,\u00a0are the blessed ones while\u00a0Thomas\u00a0(the loser) gets in by the skin of his teeth.<\/p>\n
But there is another way to read this account, a way in which Thomas turns out not to be a spiritual weakling, but rather to be a model of how to approach the spiritual life. We don\u2019t know much about Thomas apart from this story; he is included in the list of disciples in the first three gospels, but John is the only gospel in which Thomas makes an actual appearance. He\u2019s not one of the inner circle, but he occasionally makes appropriate comments\u00a0and asks good questions. In John 20, John\u2019s account of the resurrection and its aftermath, we find the disciples, minus Thomas, hiding in a room with the doors locked \u201cfor fear of the Jews.\u201d Peter and John have already seen the empty tomb, but there is an atmosphere of confusion, uncertainty and fear in the room. Jesus appears to them, and all uncertainty vanishes. But Thomas was not there.<\/p>\n
Where was he? Perhaps he wasn\u2019t as afraid as the other disciples and was out and about on that first day of the week, as were the women who first saw the empty tomb. Perhaps he was on a food run for the rest of the disciples who were too frightened to emerge from their safe house. But he misses the big event. When the other disciples report that \u201cwe have seen the Lord,\u201d Thomas\u2019 response places him forever in the disciples\u2019 hall of shame: \u201cUnless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fair enough, I say. Remember that the other disciples apparently did not believe until Jesus appeared to them. The disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize that Jesus was with them until he emerged from the pages of the Old Testament prophecies that he was pontificating about and broke bread with them. Why should Thomas not be cut the same slack? Embedded in the middle of this misunderstood story is a fundamental truth: A true encounter with the divine is never second-hand. Hearing about someone else\u2019s experiences, trying to find God through the haze of various religious and doctrinal filters, is not a replacement for the real thing.<\/p>\n
Doubt and uncertainty are central threads in the human fabric and play a fundamental role in belief. Unfounded claims of certainty undermine this. Don\u2019t believe on the cheap.\u00a0Better to remain uncertain and in doubt one\u2019s whole life, doggedly tracking what glimmers of light one sees, than to settle for a cheap knock-off or a counterfeit. As Annie Dillard writes, \u201cDoubt and dedication often go hand in hand.\u201d Thomas\u2019s\u2014and Michel\u2019s\u2014insight is captured well by the remainder of the passage from Anne Lamott with which I began this post:<\/p>\n
The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.<\/p>\n
Thomas was right. We should save \u201cMy Lord and my God\u201d for the real thing.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty\u00a0 \u00a0Anne Lamott We are currently living in a time of uncertainty. I am 64 years old, grew up as the Vietnam War raged and the Civil Rights movement changed our nation, a time in which domestic unrest, violence, and assassination were normal events. More recently, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2938,"featured_media":20512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,11,14,19,21,27,35,40,47,48,54,57,585,61,73,80,94,101],"tags":[169,221,242,289,350,403,463],"class_list":["post-20501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baptists","category-belief","category-bible","category-books","category-certainty","category-christianity","category-doubt","category-faith","category-god","category-hope","category-human-nature","category-irreverence","category-jesus","category-knowledge","category-literature","category-philosophy","category-religion-2","category-teaching","category-truth","tag-christianity","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-montaigne","tag-religion","tag-teaching"],"yoast_head":"\n
Faith in a Time of Doubt and Uncertainty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Doubt and uncertainty play a fundamental role in belief. Unfounded claims of certainty undermine this. Don\u2019t believe on the cheap.\u00a0Better to remain uncertain and in doubt one\u2019s whole life, doggedly tracking what glimmers of light one sees, than to settle for a cheap knock-off or a counterfeit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith in a Time of Doubt and Uncertainty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Doubt and uncertainty play a fundamental role in belief. Unfounded claims of certainty undermine this. Don\u2019t believe on the cheap.\u00a0Better to remain uncertain and in doubt one\u2019s whole life, doggedly tracking what glimmers of light one sees, than to settle for a cheap knock-off or a counterfeit.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Freelance Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vance.morgan.98\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-16T10:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-13T23:22:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/766\/2020\/04\/saint-thomas-the-apostle-001.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Vance Morgan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thorsenchair\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Vance Morgan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/\",\"name\":\"Faith in a Time of Doubt and Uncertainty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-16T10:00:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-13T23:22:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#\/schema\/person\/9ffe9888ede843e484dbcb38655d36d8\"},\"description\":\"Doubt and uncertainty play a fundamental role in belief. Unfounded claims of certainty undermine this. Don\u2019t believe on the cheap.\u00a0Better to remain uncertain and in doubt one\u2019s whole life, doggedly tracking what glimmers of light one sees, than to settle for a cheap knock-off or a counterfeit.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Faith in a Time of Doubt and Uncertainty\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/\",\"name\":\"Freelance Christianity\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#\/schema\/person\/9ffe9888ede843e484dbcb38655d36d8\",\"name\":\"Vance Morgan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4eb28c453d426f418c37a0d5c661cb1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4eb28c453d426f418c37a0d5c661cb1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Vance Morgan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vance.morgan.98\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thorsenchair\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/author\/vancemorgan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Faith in a Time of Doubt and Uncertainty","description":"Doubt and uncertainty play a fundamental role in belief. Unfounded claims of certainty undermine this. Don\u2019t believe on the cheap.\u00a0Better to remain uncertain and in doubt one\u2019s whole life, doggedly tracking what glimmers of light one sees, than to settle for a cheap knock-off or a counterfeit.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Faith in a Time of Doubt and Uncertainty","og_description":"Doubt and uncertainty play a fundamental role in belief. Unfounded claims of certainty undermine this. Don\u2019t believe on the cheap.\u00a0Better to remain uncertain and in doubt one\u2019s whole life, doggedly tracking what glimmers of light one sees, than to settle for a cheap knock-off or a counterfeit.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/","og_site_name":"Freelance Christianity","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vance.morgan.98","article_published_time":"2020-04-16T10:00:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-13T23:22:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":368,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/766\/2020\/04\/saint-thomas-the-apostle-001.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Vance Morgan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@thorsenchair","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Vance Morgan","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/","name":"Faith in a Time of Doubt and Uncertainty","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-04-16T10:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-13T23:22:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#\/schema\/person\/9ffe9888ede843e484dbcb38655d36d8"},"description":"Doubt and uncertainty play a fundamental role in belief. Unfounded claims of certainty undermine this. Don\u2019t believe on the cheap.\u00a0Better to remain uncertain and in doubt one\u2019s whole life, doggedly tracking what glimmers of light one sees, than to settle for a cheap knock-off or a counterfeit.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/faith-in-a-time-of-doubt-and-uncertainty\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Faith in a Time of Doubt and Uncertainty"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/","name":"Freelance Christianity","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#\/schema\/person\/9ffe9888ede843e484dbcb38655d36d8","name":"Vance Morgan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4eb28c453d426f418c37a0d5c661cb1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4eb28c453d426f418c37a0d5c661cb1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Vance Morgan"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vance.morgan.98","https:\/\/twitter.com\/thorsenchair"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/author\/vancemorgan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2938"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/freelancechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}