{"id":49180,"date":"2018-08-08T05:41:38","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T09:41:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=49180"},"modified":"2018-08-02T10:44:11","modified_gmt":"2018-08-02T14:44:11","slug":"faith-doubt-and-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/08\/faith-doubt-and-uncertainty.html","title":{"rendered":"Faith, Doubt, and Uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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A colleague shared\u00a0a piece by Owen Strachan on another Patheos blog<\/a>, one that argues against the positive view of doubt that is articulated by progressive Christians. I commented on Facebook and shared a few thoughts about it, and think that perhaps it is worth saying the same things and slightly more here on the blog. Here are my main points in response to the piece:<\/div>\n
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1) For a piece that is supposedly defending the \u201cbiblical view\u201d of faith, the entire piece is noticeably sparse on biblical quotations; <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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2) Where they are present, they are not done justice to: <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2013 in one case Strachan has rewritten the text to say what he thinks it should have said (\u201cEvery Christian must pray, \u201cHelp my unbelief, Lord, and forgive me for it!\u201d (see Mark 9:14-29)\u201d); <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2013 but he also calls Jesus inviting Thomas to confirm the resurrection a \u201crebuke\u201d which is certainly not something the text says explicitly, if it even implies it (in a ridiculous caricature of anything that might be said about this story in the Gospel of John from a progressive Christian perspective, Strachan writes, \u201c<\/span><\/span>If Jesus wanted to make room for doubt\u2013for disbelief\u2013in the confession of the Christian, he would have said the opposite of this\u2013\u201cDo not believe only, but also disbelieve, for that is authentically human.\u201d But Jesus nowhere says that, and nowhere comes close to saying that.\u201d);<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2013 and he fails to do justice to the fact that the faith referred to in the James passage is confidence in God, and the context is precisely a recognition that human beings lack wisdom!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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3) The Biblical teaching about the shortcomings of human knowledge and human wisdom is likewise neglected, for instance 1 Corinthians 8:2 \u201cThose who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know\u201d; or Deuteronomy 29:29 \u201cThe secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law\u201d; not to mention more obvious ones such as \u201cnow we know in part\u201d and \u201ctrust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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And so I find the treatment of doubt \u2013 and of faith \u2013 to be seriously inadequate and highly disappointing.<\/div>\n
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For what I consider a more helpful and honest treatment of doubt, faith, and church attendance, see Emma Higgs\u2019 post about staying in church after a \u201cfaith deconstruction\u201d experience<\/a>. See too Zack Hoag\u2019s post<\/a> about the need for doubt, as well as doubting of our doubts, and also confidence.\u00a0One can overemphasize doubt, but without any willingness to allow it to sift out those things that do not deserve our confidence, we are left with a blind faith that is essentially worthless, because blind faith can be placed in anything<\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Background by SwanSong<\/a>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A colleague shared\u00a0a piece by Owen Strachan on another Patheos blog, one that argues against the positive view of doubt that is articulated by progressive Christians. I commented on Facebook and shared a few thoughts about it, and think that perhaps it is worth saying the same things and slightly more here on the blog. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":49679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[2819,14798,13092],"class_list":["post-49180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-progressive-christianity-religion","tag-doubt","tag-emma-higgs","tag-uncertainty"],"yoast_head":"\nFaith, Doubt, and Uncertainty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A colleague shared\u00a0a piece by Owen Strachan on another Patheos blog, one that argues against the positive view of doubt that is articulated by progressive\" \/>\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\/2018\/08\/faith-doubt-and-uncertainty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith, Doubt, and Uncertainty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A colleague shared\u00a0a piece by Owen Strachan on another Patheos blog, one that argues against the positive view of doubt that is articulated by progressive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/08\/faith-doubt-and-uncertainty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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