The Gifts and Benefits of Doubt

A couple of weeks ago I was discussing with some people the benefits of doubt in the church. In that discussion I mentioned the "gifts of doubt" I'd outlined in a old post. From that post, here are some of the benefits and gifts of doubt for the church:

1. Epistemological Benefits
This isn't news, but truth claims are more difficult in post-modernity. Particularly those outside of the range of science. Collectively, we've lost the meta-narrative (the big overarching story that shaped everyone's worldview) and have traded it in for more particular and local stories and perspectives. "Big T" Truth has been lost to "little t" truths. And this move hasn't been all bad. The stories of the weak and marginalized are being listened to in post-modernity.

Doubters tend to flourish in this context. The fractured epistemological situation of post-modernity demands a degree of epistemic humility. Doubters are very comfortable with this. Doubters tend to shy away from shouting meta-narratives at people who don't believe in meta-narratives. Rather than lamenting the post-modern situation, as the fundamentalists do ("No one believes in Truth anymore!"), the doubters will "get" the post-modern person and, due to certain shared sympathies, be more likely to articulate the faith in a way that makes sense to outsiders. Doubters trade in paranoid shouting for intelligible conversation.

2. Moral Benefits
As I've described in The Authenticity of Faith, building upon psychological research, dogmatism produces violence. True believers are dangerous.

Doubters, by contrast, tend to be pretty peaceable. Their self-suspicions tend to throw cold water on the violent impulses inherent in ideology and belief.

3. Missional Benefits
As a people sent into the world we are asked to receive the hospitality of others. To, in the words of Luke 10, "eat whatever is set before us."  Doubters are very comfortable sitting at these tables because doubters have a natural curiosity about outsiders. If you ask a group of people at your church the question "How many of you, out of curiosity, have read the sacred writings of other world religions?" most of the doubters will answer in the affirmative. In this doubters represent a reservoir of human capital in the church, a literacy that the church can utilize and lean upon. Within the church doubters will be the most knowledgeable persons about other world religions (and atheists). Consequently, doubters are often the best front line emissaries to outsiders.

4. Biblical Benefits
The assumption might be that doubters would make a church less biblical. However, in a certain key respect doubters often make the church more biblical. Many churches tend to be pretty selective in how they read the bible. These churches often "read around" the more difficult or embarrassing parts of the bible. You can see this vividly in the Lectionary itself. Doubters, by contrast, tend to be drawn to the more difficult parts of the bible and they insist that the church, as hard as this might be, pay attention to these passages. Doubters insist that the whole bible be read. Warts and all.

5. Experiential Benefits
Doubters tend to be acutely aware that life is broken and disordered. Doubters struggle mightily with the problem of pain, evil and suffering. Thus, doubters resist the triumphalistic impulses within the church and insist that the church recognize that God is often absent and silent in the face of horrific suffering. Doubters insist that the witness of the church be an authentic and honest confrontation with the experience of the world. No praise without lament. Doubters insist that we keep it real in the face of human experience.

6. Apologetical Benefits
Dogmatists insist that apologetics (the defense of the faith) should be conducted through argumentation. This is symptomatic of a hollowed out, hyper-rationalistic faith--belief as intellectual assent. In this view apologetics reduces to an intellectual debate. Not surprisingly, these efforts tend to flounder in post-modernity.

By contrast, doubters are themselves not wholly convinced by these intellectual proofs. Thus, doubters will embody a "new apologetics." Doubters will insist on an apologetics based upon invitation and participation rather than argumentation. Faith, to make any sense at all, must be practiced first.