{"id":15847,"date":"2013-07-14T16:22:37","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T20:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=15847"},"modified":"2013-07-14T16:22:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-14T20:22:37","slug":"religious-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/07\/religious-doubt.html","title":{"rendered":"Religious Doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Val Webb has shared a lecture she has been delivering, with the title \u201cIn Defense of Doubt.\u201d<\/a> It includes the following:<\/p>\n

Denigrating religious doubt is a matter of power and control \u2014 and a large dose of threat for religious authorities if people think for themselves.\u00a0 Yet honest creative doubt has long been central in church history.\u00a0 The psalmists raged against Divine absence and Job refused to be quiet.\u00a0 Early Christianity was a ferment of doubt and disagreement until Emperor Constantine insisted on one orthodox truth recorded in Church Creeds \u2014 and still they argued.\u00a0 Medieval theologian Peter Abelard said, \u201dThe first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning \u2026 for by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at truth\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0[ii]<\/a>\u00a0 And Martin Luther finally spoke out after years of blaming himself. \u00a0\u201dFor more than a decade,\u201d he wrote, \u201cI curbed my thoughts with the advice of Solomon, \u2018Do not rely on your own insight\u2019 (Prov. 3:5). I always believed there were theologians hidden in the schools who would not have been silent if these teachings were impious\u201d\u2019.\u00a0[iii]<\/a>\u00a0 Luther\u2019s words should trouble all teachers and preachers who stay silent, hiding their own doubts while speaking with certainty on the outside.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click through<\/a> to read the rest \u2013 and don\u2019t give up before you read the quote from Marjorie Suchocki at the end!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Val Webb has shared a lecture she has been delivering, with the title \u201cIn Defense of Doubt.\u201d It includes the following: Denigrating religious doubt is a matter of power and control \u2014 and a large dose of threat for religious authorities if people think for themselves.\u00a0 Yet honest creative doubt has long been central in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[163,101],"tags":[292,2819,5750,7060,9597,9699,9700],"class_list":["post-15847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-progressive-christianity-religion","category-theology","tag-abelard","tag-doubt","tag-job","tag-martin-luther","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-psalmist","tag-psalms"],"yoast_head":"\nReligious Doubt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Val Webb has shared a lecture she has been delivering, with the title "In Defense of Doubt." 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