{"id":38704,"date":"2017-07-22T05:55:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T09:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=38704"},"modified":"2017-07-21T12:13:13","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T16:13:13","slug":"christian-agnostic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/07\/christian-agnostic.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Agnosticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-41305\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/07\/Christian-agnosticism-1024x576.png\" alt=\"Christian agnosticism\" width=\"812\" height=\"457\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Christianity\/comments\/6oo49q\/how_many_agnostic_christians_are_there_out_there\/dkiyfy2\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Someone on Reddit asked about Christian agnosticism<\/a>, leading me to write the following (on which I based the quote in the image above, slightly modified to make better sense outside of its original context.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A lot of commenters here seem to reflect the mistaken view that faith means feeling certain about something despite there not being sufficient rational grounds. But faith in the Christian sense (on which I recommend reading Paul Tillich\u2019s Dynamics of Faith) means doing what the Bible tells us to, namely recognizing our own human limitations, and that we are not God, and that we must trust God precisely because of our inability to be absolutely certain, and our penchant for being wrong despite feeling certain.<\/p>\n<p>One cannot be a Christian and <em>not<\/em> be an agnostic in this sense of the word.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I also wrote the following a while back, in response to someone who had experienced multiple personal tragedies and asked me what view of the world seems cogent to me:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For me the most cogent thing is a humble religious agnosticism that acknowledges that there is an ultimate Reality of some sort, but also recognizes that my perception and comprehension is exhausted long before I get anywhere near to fathoming that Reality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peteenns.com\/how-the-bible-forces-us-to-be-unbiblical\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">cannot be a Christian without questioning the Bible<\/a>. The Bible includes positive depictions of the slaughter of Canaanites and the calling down of fire on enemies (which Jesus challenged), and demands such as that\u00a0all members of Abraham\u2019s household be circumcised (which Paul challenged).<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.peteenns.com\/bible-demands-unbiblical-paradox-wednesday\/<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"tfplLJlLYB\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2016\/11\/how-can-you-call-yourselves-christian-when-you-dont-believe-in-the-bible\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">How Can You Call Yourselves Christian When You Don\u2019t Believe in the Bible?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cHow Can You Call Yourselves Christian When You Don\u2019t Believe in the Bible?\u201d \u2014 Unfundamentalist Christians\" src=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2016\/11\/how-can-you-call-yourselves-christian-when-you-dont-believe-in-the-bible\/embed\/#?secret=K36LGvRDQL#?secret=tfplLJlLYB\" data-secret=\"tfplLJlLYB\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/ehrmanblog.org\/appreciating-the-myths-of-the-bible\/<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/brucegerencser.net\/2017\/05\/it-only-takes-one-errant-word-to-destroy-the-inerrancy-of-the-bible\/<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/friendlyatheist\/2017\/05\/16\/gallup-fewer-people-than-ever-before-think-the-bible-is-literally-true\/<\/p>\n<p>Finally, if you scrolled down this far, <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2uiuV0X\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Leslie Weatherhead\u2019s book <i>The Christian Agnostic<\/i><\/a> may be of interest.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Christian-Agnostic-Abingdon-Classics\/dp\/0687069807\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=li3&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkId=81c6775facfc6b855820655d03723780\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&amp;ASIN=0687069807&amp;Format=_SL250_&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;WS=1&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;l=li3&amp;o=1&amp;a=0687069807\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Someone on Reddit asked about Christian agnosticism, leading me to write the following (on which I based the quote in the image above, slightly modified to make better sense outside of its original context. A lot of commenters here seem to reflect the mistaken view that faith means feeling certain about something despite there not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":41305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,163],"tags":[434,1140,1697,1835,3329,13091,13092],"class_list":["post-38704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-progressive-christianity-religion","tag-agnosticism","tag-bible","tag-certainty","tag-christian","tag-faith","tag-unbiblical","tag-uncertainty"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christian Agnosticism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Someone on Reddit asked about Christian agnosticism, leading me to write the following (on which I based the quote in the image above, slightly modified\" \/>\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\/religionprof\/2017\/07\/christian-agnostic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian Agnosticism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Someone on Reddit asked about Christian agnosticism, leading me to write the following (on which I based the quote in the image above, slightly modified\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/07\/christian-agnostic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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