A Letter about Doubt: A response

Last updated on: January 26, 2010 at 12:01 am by Scot McKnight

A Letter about Doubt: A response 2010-01-26T00:01:28-06:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Yesterday I posted a letter from a young adult who is struggling to regain some lost ground in faith. Your responses were wonderful, and today I’d like to sketch the answers that I outlined last week when I got the letter.

Dear Friend,

You asked me, brother, for advice, so I will give you some suggestions. Please don’t understand them as imperatives but as suggestions from someone who has walked some paths of doubt.

First, brother, thanks for breaching your silence, and I hope you can find someone with whom you can walk with you through this struggle. Faith can sometimes be lonely, but doubting all alone is utter loneliness. You need not be alone. Talking to God, even when you wonder if God is there or listening, is vital as much for the faithful as it is for the doubter.

Doubters tend to be thinkers; and thinkers want someone to interact with, and so I want to recommend two books that have been helpful for me with doubts. I begin with Daniel Taylor, The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment

and Robert Wennberg Faith at the Edge: A Book for Doubters
. These books will sometimes speak to you as if they authors were in your own head and heart.

But I have to begin with this observation: you will never go back to where you were and you will never be the same again and you will never get back to where things were. Instead, this season of doubt, which for some lasts months and for others years and even in some ways lingers for a lifetime, is with you and it changes you and your faith. There is a temptation to seek to go back and find your first feelings or your former way of doing things. That approach to encountering doubt teaches most us one one thing: that’s not the approach that “works.”

Instead, it is my advice for you to see that faith and doubt are not opposites but instead companions, with doubt a direct challenge or at times an assault on what you believe. Your faith will mature and develop because of encountering doubt, but it will be a new and more flexible form of faith itself.

You have now experienced what many today call “deconstruction.” Deconstruction bewilders, but provides an opportunity for reconstruction. That is, once the building has been dismantled, the new reconstruction will not be the same — but dismantling will give you the opportunity to begin all over again with an existential yearning for it all to make sense. This opportunity may be the most significant season in your life. I know when I was in seminary I struggled mightily with the nature of the faith but I came out chastened but stronger in that everything considered important had to be important in order to be included in the new construction.

How we conceive of what the Bible is strikes a chord with me. Some of us are nurtured into the faith through folks who are well-meaning but woefully mistaken about ancient history and the ancient world and about what the Bible really is saying and what it meant. If you keep your ear to the ground you will find many with a robust faith (accompanied by doubt at times) who find discovering what Genesis 1-2 or chps 1-11, or the exodus and entry into the Land, or Judges, or the prophet’s role in writing or even in the redactional slant of the Evangelists to be welcome relief to their doubts instead of an assault on the faith. Sure, these issues can disturb faith, but it can never wrong to pursue truth — regardless of where it might be found. If you can prove something that shifts our view of a text — as John Walton has done with Genesis 1 for instance — well, all to the good for all of us. You might be on that journey at times. You will find plenty of companions.

There will be a temptation for you to surround yourself with doubters, and I can surely understanding “like being with like,” but the only way we can really grow is to be around folks who disagree with us. So, find friends and companions who are themselves strong (right now) in their faith and “breathe in their faith.” A friend of mine, a former professor who went through some serious doubts at your age, told me he went to church and trusted in the faith of his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ when his faith seemed non-existent.

One more point, and I hope this is not too much: I urge you to focus on Jesus. Sometimes our faith gets so spread out that we begin to think the date of the exodus is as important as Jesus’ teachings and his life and his death and his resurrection. Begin with Jesus and spread out from him. Listen to his teachings and watch him interact with others; observe his behaviors and drink in his death and his resurrection. Watch him send the Spirit to his followers on Pentecost. Those were not “fateful” days but “fate-filled” days: days, once experienced and given permission to shape us, can shape our fates as well.

Blessings and prayers from me and all of us at the Jesus Creed blog,

Scot

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 25, 2010

Stimulus Plan and the Populace

Next Post

January 26, 2010 Science and the Evangelical Mission (RJS)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the correct order of 'these three' that remain, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Faith, hope, love Love, faith, hope Hope, faith, love Faith, love, hope