The Apostle Paul made it clear that childishness does not a Christian make (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:11). So, I wonder, why is it that biblical literalists refuse to grow up? In other words, it seems to me that Christian faithfulness needs to be more about maturation and less about habituation. Living in Christ means allowing the ideals of faith to develop beyond the ideas we learned in Sunday School as a kid. Believing is not about beliefs alone, it requires us to actually think about that in which we believe. The unfaithful practice is constraining the intellect to hold onto beliefs that do not stand up to common sense, let alone to reason. (Insert your own example here.)
The more time I spend becoming a scholar (of religion), the more I realize that education is about development. Enlightenment is never an instantaneous moment, but rather one that occurs over time, and with much work and reflection. Just as there is no way to suddenly awaken as an astrophysicist, it is equally unlikely that one becomes truly faithful overnight. But one can hardly begin with quantum mechanics; first one has to learn the definition of a vector. Although the string theorist knows that certain basic fundamentals no longer hold as absolute, she first has to pass through the idea of a stable nucleus before she could conceptualize a quark.
The critique of religion from strict empiricists and skeptics misses this point. Surely persons of faith have ab-used religion (think the Inquisition, the KKK, or any contemporary form of religious terrorism), but the remedy is not to reject religion wholesale. That is tantamount to discarding the baby with the dirty bath water. Instead, we remove the baby and allow him to mature, and let the infantile faith wash down the drain.
Growing into Christlikeness does not come easily. In fact, it usually means a lot of wrestling and struggling—with one’s own self, faith community, and even yes, the Bible. But as the late Rev. Professor Peter Gomes said, "the Bible is not a book, but a library.” Though I value the library, I do not read all of its books equally—and nor can I. But there is a reward in the struggle: in the end one arrives at a place to do with rocket science what one cannot do with Physics 101. Faith (in God) offers rewards that disbelief cannot promise.
So, as for me and my house, I’m going to keep wrestling, and hopefully keep growing. And I’m going to choose not to deny religion because some of the faithful have denied the faith that God ain’t finished with me yet.
jay williams
19 march 2011
