In my last post<\/a>, we looked at your 5 biggest challenges to staying Christian from a survey I took a few years ago.<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s move on and talk about moving forward amid those challenges.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a little nervous about using language of \u201cmoving on\u201d and \u201cmoving forward,\u201d since that could imply\u00a0<\/strong>minimizing the challenges\u2014<\/strong>\u201cOh that\u2019s not really a problem. Here\u2019s the answer, now move on.\u201d I avoid that common pattern like mold on bread.<\/p>\n To get us started, below are my present thoughts on\u00a0addressing\u00a0and living with the challenges to staying Christian. In the comments section you can interact with them or add your own.<\/p>\n To be extra clear, I am not in any way, shape, or form suggesting that what I think is mandate for the rest of you, an attempt at an iron-clad defense of Christianity, or an etched-in-stone \u201chere I stand\u201d statement. But this is where I am. You are, of course, free to accept, ignore, modify, be bored, whatever.<\/p>\n I number them as separate items (because I\u2019m German), but these thoughts overlap.<\/p>\n 1. I don\u2019t think the life of Christian faith is fundamentally \u201crational<\/strong>,\u201d by which I mean it cannot be captured fully by our rational faculties.<\/p>\n I see our sense of what is rational as often more the problem than the solution. I am not for one minute saying \u201creason doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d I am using reason as I write this. I read and write books. I mean only that the life of the mind has its place as\u00a0an aspect of the life of faith<\/a>, <\/em>not its dominant\u00a0component.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In other words, I believe that faith in a true God is necessarily trans-rational (not anti-rational) and mystical. I try to remember that as I work through intellectual challenges\u2014and I mean \u201cwork through,\u201d not avoid.<\/p>\n 2. Related to #1, I see the two pillars of the Christian faith as expressing the mystery of faith: incarnation and resurrection.\u00a0<\/strong>Though conscious of reductionism, I see these two elements as making Christianity what it is, and both dodge our powers of thought, speech, and \u201crational\u201d defense. I don\u2019t mind saying I find it strangely comforting that walking\u00a0the path of Christian faith means being confronted moment by moment with what is counterintuitive and ultimately beyond my comprehension to understand or\u00a0articulate.<\/p>\n 3. In dealing with the various challenges of reading Scripture\u2014especially as a biblical scholar\u2014I try to keep #s 1 and 2 before me. Over the years, I have expressed this myself in terms of an \u201cincarnational analogy<\/a>\u201d between the Bible and Christ: just as\u00a0Christ was a fully human participant in 1st century\u00a0culture, so too does the Bible bear the marks\u00a0<\/strong>of full and unfettered\u00a0participation\u00a0in the ancient cultures in which it was produced<\/strong>.<\/strong> I am thus reminded to expect Scripture to reflect an ancient, other-worldly, mindset rather than my own categories of thought.<\/p>\n 4. I have had my share of \u201cGod moments\u201d in my life.<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0like\u00a0to have more\u2014maybe I\u2019m just not paying attention. I know that any alleged subjective experience of God can be explained otherwise, but I\u00a0have\u00a0had some\u00a0experiences\u00a0that lead me to question those alternate explanations.<\/p>\n 5. \u201cThe things I want to do, I don\u2019t do, and the\u00a0things\u00a0I don\u2019t want to do, I end up doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>I feel there is something deeply wrong with this picture, and the Gospel story explains me. Let me stress here especially that this is no \u201cproof\u201d of Christianity. In fact, it is my Christianized self that even leads me to phrase my internal struggles by co-opting Paul\u2019s language from Romans. But for me, this is a piece of the puzzle that becomes more\u00a0evident\u00a0the older I get.<\/p>\n 6. Embedded in some of these points is my growing conviction that \u201cjourney\u201d and \u201cpilgrimage\u201d are powerful\u00a0metaphors for the Christian life.\u00a0<\/strong>Hence, I expect at times to be unsettled, uncertain,\u00a0fearful, and other sorts of\u00a0things\u00a0that help remind me that who I am, where I am, and what I think do not define the nature of reality.\u00a0Ironically, I feel exploring my own realities more deeply are a means by which I can learn to relativize them.<\/p>\n 7. I\u00a0have\u00a0come to\u00a0believe\u00a0that periods of struggling and doubt<\/strong> are such common experiences of faith<\/strong>,\u00a0including\u00a0in the Bible 8. This final thought only\u00a0occurred\u00a0to me recently, and I am not sure if I am gaining some insight in the\u00a0second\u00a0half of life or if I am missing something. As a brain-oriented\u00a0person, I\u00a0have\u00a0tended in my life to look down on those who say things like, \u201cIf I didn\u2019t have my faith, I couldn\u2019t make it through this,\u201d or \u201cIf God isn\u2019t real, I don\u2019t know if I can hold it together.\u201d These sorts of sentiments always struck me as irrational, for the weak-minded, those who \u201cneeded\u201d a crutch. If Christianity is true it has to be for reasons other than \u201cI need it to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years, however, I have begun to see this from a different angle\u2014and this ties in very much with #1. I have begun to see that those who cry out to God <\/strong>may be perched at the very point where true communion with God begins, because they are in the unique position of surrendering fully\u00a0from<\/em> self to<\/em> God.<\/p>\n Those who truly suffer have no where else to go, which means they\u00a0have\u00a0fully surrendered\u2014including giving up\u00a0anything\u00a0under their control, any \u201creasons\u201d for holding on<\/strong>. Perhaps it is only in\u00a0suffering\u00a0that we can die to ourselves and put our (overactive, western, rationalistic) life of the mind in its proper place. We just cry for help, free of what we have constructed of God.<\/p>\n I know I keep returning to the idea of mystery, but that is where I am (and where I am is what this post is about).<\/p>\n Anyway, this is how I am at present living with the genuine challenges to the Christian\u00a0faith.\u00a0 Take all this for what you feel it\u2019s worth. Now it\u2019s your turn\u2014just try not to be as longwinded as me.<\/p>\n This blog was first posted in August 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n [Comments are moderated and may take 24 hours to appear. Since the original post, I developed these ideas more in\u00a0The Sin of Certainty.<\/a> <\/em><\/span>See also Inspiration and Incarnation<\/em><\/a>.]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nI have long felt that a God who can be comfortably captured in our minds is no God at all.<\/h2>\n
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