Christian faith does not have to be a belief in the unbelievable. Yet, over the last few decades, this is the way many have begun to speak about Christianity. That the Christian faith requires one to blindly accept it, whether or not the ideas are truly believable.
For many within the faith, this wouldn’t be a fair characterization, but for those outside, it’s a critique that is often leveled. For those leaving the faith, or on the margins of the faith, it often feels as if this critique is true. That open questioning is not allowed, and one must simply tow the line.
While many within the faith would reject this notion that questioning isn’t allowed, we can’t simply ignore it. It may very well be that while questioning is allowed, those who are trying to answer simply can’t. Or it could be that the answer given are lacking. Or often, the answer given is to pray and search the word, two ideas that are already being questioned. Either way, the doubt that has entered in for these individuals can only grow as there is no real challenge.
This situation is not something new. Paul Tillich, writing more than half a century ago, wrote:
“The new in history always comes when people least believe in it. But, certainly, it comes only in the moment when the old becomes visible as old and tragic and dying, and when no way out is seen. We live in such a moment; such a moment is our situation.”
Now, the context in which Tillich wrote is different from ours today. He was writing shortly after the horrors of the Holocaust were fully revealed, at a time in which faith was experiencing one of it’s greatest challenges in modern history. A time in which theology was undergoing massive changes as it had to grapple with not only the Holocaust, but everything that led to it. For much of the western world, it marked a decline in faith that never bounced back.
But even though the context is different, the situation is not. What Tillich was seeing in the United States, even though there was somewhat of a revival of the Christian faith, was nothing more than a façade. The United States was prospering at that time, and in those times, it takes very little to believe that God is on your side. But times change, and when they do get hard, it takes a lot more courage, and greater faith, to still believe God is on your side when you’re losing or suffering.
That is the situation Tillich saw coming, and with those hard times, faith declines. Doubt creeps in, and those times of revival end.
That is also the situation we are in today. Churches are closing without new ones being established to fill those holes. People are flocking away from religion and faith. And even though belief in God has remained stable, those embers are dying in many.
To rekindle those flames, it is not a revival that is necessarily needed, but something deeper; a reformation. It’s not just about reestablishing the old, but establishing something new. While revival works for some, for many others, it is seen as just the same old thing. It doesn’t address the issues they have. It doesn’t address the complexities of the questions and problems that are being proposed.
Simply, for many, the old ways just do not work, as those ways are based on ideas that are already doubted, that are already being questioned. To start with them is to not start at all.
Instead, the path forward is much more complex. It’s a path with many forks in the road, many avenues that must be explored, and at times, there will be some doubling back. But after all of that, the ways will all merge back into one.
But to move forward at all, we must be willing to dive into the difficulties that are being posed, and we can’t rely simply on faith alone, because for many, they simply aren’t there yet. The questions they have must be answered first, and for many, it’s not faith based answers they need, but something more academic.
For many, faith can only come later, and they must come to that faith on their own.