Faith and Certainty
23 12 2006I was reading something today and was really put into a new thought about faith and answers. Here is a quote from Richard Rohr:
“any religious folks insist on answers that are always true. We love closure, resolution and clarity, while thinking that we are people of “faith”! How strange that the very word “faith” has come to mean its exact opposite.
People who have really met the Holy are always humble. It’s the people who don’t know who usually pretend that they do. People who’ve had any genuine spiritual experience always know they don’t know. They are utterly humbled before mystery. They are in awe before the abyss of it all, in wonder at eternity and depth, and a Love, which is incomprehensible to the mind. It is a litmus test for authentic God experience, and is — quite sadly — absent from much of our religious conversation today.”
Wow! What does that say about all the arguments about absolute truth? I don’t really think that everyone who insists on knowing things absolutely is arrogant, but I have met a lot of people who seem to put their faith in their absolute knowledge more than our creator.
ht: God’s Politics
[…] So I posted here and here about some these ideas. To bring you up to speed, I have been thinking about a situation in ministry that is a common one that a friend has asked me about. That situation is where there are kids from different walks of life that are brought together by the church. In this specific case, it is the extreme rich and the extreme poor. I think this situation is so common though that it applies to many different specific situations in ministry. I have asked around and talked to people about this problem and have only come up with one solution. […]
I would argue that faith is knowing with absolute certainty. Absolute certainty is the removal of all doubt. Take a look at the Centurion’s faith in Luke. Being a man in authority made him absolutely sure that his orders would be carried out by his soldiers and servants. He was so sure of that and Jesus marveled at him and said “Never have I seen such faith, no not in Israel.”
I guess it depends on what faith yo are talking about, Justin. There are things I am so certain about that I would die for, like the deity of Christ. Then there are things that I am not certain about that are a part of my faith, like cessation, or infant baptism.
I think what the quote was more talking about was how people feel like they need absolute answers to everything and how that becomes their god. Thanks for commenting.
[…] I posted here and here about some these ideas. To bring you up to speed, I have been thinking about a situation […]