In the last little i have been reading my friend Joey's blog and a reoccurring theme is talks with people stemming from a reformed theology background. The onc thing that i notice is how it seems to be an understanding of certainty is at the focus of faith. However, somehow certainty and faith seem to contradict one another. It seems that this idea that one can not believe in something without absolute certainty. I find a tendency for people not allowing for a hint of doubt in people faith system, but this week one of my profs said that the opposite of faith is not doubt but sight.
Along that line, I was reading "Faith Shaping" by Stephen Jones where he points out that ambiguity is something that adults take for granted in life since it is assumed. However, this ambiguity of life seems to be missing in certain sectors of Christianity...they attempt to avoid this question of ambiguity. Jones states "Biblical faith is an address to life's inherent ambiguities, not a diversion from them." Faith needs to be given room to explore this ambiguity and lack of neatness in life. I pray that these people who i have never meet may meet a God of mystery. And meet the God, Job encounters...that will not be put into a system but welcomes our passion for understanding life. Just want to close with another Jones quote, "If we can affirm that the ambiguity of life is universal, and if we choose to affirm that life is God's gift, then in some way we must reconcile faith in such a way that it addresses rather than avoids the ambiguity."
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3 comments:
Chris,
Well put. I think that these Christians who talk with so much certainty are reflecting a very modernist bias, and so are looking for a kind of "proof" that faith cannot/will not give them. It's ironic that these Reformed Christians talk so much about "total depravity" and yet have so much faith in human reason that they think we have access to "absolute truth"! Boggles my mind.
But on another level, it seems that this appeal to certainty is also a way of masking a very deep-seated anxiety, and so questions begin to get silenced, other perspectives are downplayed, and dialogue is severely limited.
Well, that's all for now. Hope to talk to you soon...
Joey
On another note: I have to get this "Faith Shaping" book by Stephen Jones...
Hey Joey...
The Faith Shaping book is interesting..it looks at most youth..but also gives an overal view on how a person 'owns their faith' pretty interesting. I find his view very freeing..basically lets the person deceide on which things to hold to very 'conversational'/ discovery. That having people tell you the answers to the questions you have leads merely to second hand faith. In looking at the chart Jones gives for faith..i can easily chart my own faith growth...
well i should go Joey..chat with you later...
Chris
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