It is important to remember that faith and doubt are not polar opposites. In fact, doubt and faith are really part of the same movement of heart. For faith, you see, is not certitude; faith involves risk. "I have faith, but I could be wrong,"or, "Can I still have faith when thus and such has happened?"
Said another way, the opposite of faith is not doubt, rather it is unbelief. Unbelief says, "I no longer have faith; I no longer believe."
So, if you sometimes struggle with doubt, do not despair. What you are experiencing is the struggle of faith, and this is a good thing because to struggle with your convictions actually displays their importance and value.
So encouraging to hear you saying this, Mark. I've been listening and reading a lot by Peter Rollins recently and he has similar, if not more intense, view of doubt. He even goes so far as to say doubt is essential to being truly a follower of Jesus. He also deals in very controversial ways with how "belief" and "actions" are the same... and thus, the flip side, if our actions don't match what we say, then we really don't believe it.
ReplyDeleteI think for most Christians, it's been drummed into our heads that we "HAVE TO BE FAITHFUL" and if we doubt we are bad christians... the truth is, all the "heroes" of the Bible, were doubters -- that gives me hope!
to poli-theo:
ReplyDeletethanks for taking the time to read, and for the comment. the idea of action as faith sounds very hebraic (jerusalem vs.athens). it also sounds very closely to Jesus' calling that the kingdom is something to be done --"follow me."
to which rollins book are you referring?