…in the outer…

Is it possible to have a mature faith that admits of doubt? In my first post on this topic, I started fleshing out some of the ideas relating to faith, intellectual belief, doubt and certainty. Both the first and second post in the series dealt mostly with the Scripture passage in Romans 14: 23 where it appears to disallow any doubt in the life of a Christian. I proposed a different reading of this passage and went on in my third post to examine other relevant passages to show that doubt can be very much a part of one’s spirituality.

In this post, I would like to further my thoughts in this idea, focusing on mature faith. Is it possible to live a vibrant, healthy and mature life of faith in God, and yet experience moments, even seasons, of doubt?

Going back to the Romans 14 passage, it does seem that Paul was quite unequivocal on the issue if one were to disregard the context. He says that whatever is foreign to faith is sin. Peter Kreeft’s comments in this regard is instructive. Kreeft distinguishes three senses to the word “faith.”

The first sense is the general sense that relates to a sense of trust in, or reliance upon, someone or something. An example, would be to atest that we have faith in, for instance, a business partner to do the right thing in a business transaction. The second sense, according to Kreeft, is the notion of biblical, or saving faith, an act through which we receive God’s gift of salvation. This is the notion of intellectual belief. The third sense is the technical sense, namely that

faith is the act of the intellect, prompted by the will, by which we believe the truth of all that God has revealed on the basis of the authority of the one who has revealed it.

However, in this article, I believe Kreeft confuses the notion of faith and sin in Romans. Although he correctly understood faith as an intellectual term and sin as a moral term, he confuses what Paul says in Romans 14 about faith by suggesting that he is referring to faith in the second sense. As you have seen in my earlier posts, I suggest that Paul is referring to “faith” here in the sense of living out the life of faith, which he was urging in the rest of the chapter (that is, to love, not to stumble, and to maintain peace, etc.)

Regardless, it is instructive to understand that faith is a virtue in which we can grow. And, just having faith does not mean one cannot doubt.

As I highlighted earlier, the act of Jesus inviting Thomas to touch His sides and hands in order to dispel his doubts signals to us that He is keenly aware of the place of doubt in a disciple’s life. In the same way, doubts, when faced honestly can lead us to a deeper experience of the Holy. Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote “There is more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds…” and how true are those words! Perhaps, it is more accurate to say that doubt is not the opposite of faith, but as someone else says, it is the springboard to a much richer, healthier, more mature faith.

What do you think? Do you have doubts? Is your faith “doubtless”? Ought it to be “doubtless”? Discuss!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2006 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Faith, Reflections. Subscribe to RSS: RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Email This Article Or Print This Article