A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life

A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life
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I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, –that unless I believed, I should not understand.-- St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

The Challenges and Affirmations of Faith as a Way to Deepen Faith

I have spent twenty-six years as a pastor and seventeen years teaching regularly as an adjunct professor in a seminary. I do not view what I do as a pastor and a professor as mutually exclusive. Indeed, I see both roles as complimentary. I know there are pastors who think academics are somehow beside the point when it comes to pastoral practice, and I know some career academics who teach religion (theology, Bible, etc.) as if it is somehow beside the point for the life and ministry of the church. To be frank about it, I prefer that the former group not serve as pastors of churches, and I wish that those in the latter group would not teach; but I have learned in life that I often do not get what I want nor wish for.

But as one who has spent the majority of my days over these many years as a pastor and a professor, I have two major concerns in reference to the making and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ in the pew and in the classroom, both of which are complimentary and indispensable to the other. When it comes to making and maturing disciples, it is critical that people's faith be challenged and affirmed. Without both of these, it is impossible for one's faith to be deepened, for one's relationship with Jesus Christ to become closer and more vital.

There are some (certainly not most) pastors and professors who are good at one-- affirmation or challenge-- but not the other; and the results of neglecting one or the other are often not good.

The ones who know how to challenge the faith of their parishioners or students, but not affirm that faith, too often leave people wondering if Christianity makes any sense at all and whether or not there is anything they have believed up to that point that should be salvaged. I find that pastors and professors on the more liberal end of the theological spectrum tend to be the major culprits here (there are, of course, exceptions). The ones who are the worst tend to be those individuals who are what I call "recovering fundamentalists." They have come to believe that their fundy religious upbringing was so abusive that their major task in adulthood is to do whatever is humanly possible to free people from the "intellectually naive wasteland of fundamentalism." The problem is that as they seek to challenge the faith of their students or parishioners, which is a good thing, they can fall woefully short when it comes to affirming their faith as well. Thus, without affirmation the challenges can create, not a deeper faith, but a faith on the continual verge of shambles-- a faith of all questions with few answers-- a faith of loose ends dangling everywhere with no apparent connection to each other. It's not that liberal expressions of Christian faith are not affirming; rather such expressions tend to get lost amid the obsession to challenge the faith.

The ones who know how to affirm the faith of their parishioners or students, but not challenge that faith, too often leave people with a deeply dissatisfying faith that is unable to challenge the minds of the faithful who are intellectually curious. I find that the pastors and professors on the more conservative end of the theological spectrum tend to be the major culprits here (there are, of course, exceptions). The ones who are the worst tend to be those individuals who are what I call "recovering liberals." They have come to believe that their lib religious upbringing was so abusive that their major task in adulthood is to do whatever is humanly possible to free people from the "intellectually skeptical wasteland of liberalism." The problem is that as they seek to affirm the faith of their students or parishioners, which is a good thing, they can fall woefully short when it comes to challenging their faith as well. Thus, without challenge, the affirmations can create, not a deeper faith, but a faith on the continual verge of surreality-- a faith of all answers with few questions- a faith with all the loose ends tied up neatly into a blissfully coherent whole. It's not that conservative expressions of Christian faith are not challenging; rather such expressions tend to get lost amid the obsession to affirm the faith.

For those pastors and professors who tend to fall into one of these two categories, I suggest taking a lesson or two from Jesus, who was never afraid to challenge the faith of those around him, but who also who never hesitated to affirm their faith as well. It actually makes quite a bit of sense for pastors and professors to take their cue from Jesus; after all, for the former he is ultimately the main focus of their preaching, and for the latter he is ultimately the main focus of their teaching.

Perhaps if we pastors and professors used Jesus as our pastoral and educational model, our parishioners and students might also say of us that we preach and teach as ones with authority instead of having them sit through one more sermon or lecture that is either boring or seems to be somehow beside the point of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

I want to be clear: I am not suggesting that theological liberalism is in general intellectually deep and short on faith. Some expressions of liberalism are both, neither, or one or the other. I am also not suggesting that theological conservatism is in general intellectually shallow and long on faith. Some expressions of conservatism are both, neither, or one or the other. What I am saying is that the lack of either faith affirmation on the one hand or the lack of faith challenge on the other often comes from pastors and academics who have never been able to adequately grapple with their own perceived nightmares of their former religious tradition in which they were raised. On account of this they project those issues into their preaching or their teaching much like the most zealous anti-smokers are former smokers themselves, and the most partisan politicians were former members of the other party. In their attempt to rescue their flock or the student body from unhealthy expressions of Christianity, they have failed to notice that in their own lives they have simply exchanged one unhealthy version of Christianity for another.

Is the dichotomy I have drawn in some ways overly general? Of course-- dichotomies usually are, but we continue to use them anyway because many generalities are serious (albeit broad) expressions of reality. I do think there is a truth here that bears further reflection. You may feel free to offer your reflections in the comments.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very useful ideas, Allan. Thank you. I see something of myself in the "recovering liberal," although I grew up a true agnostic rather than a religious liberal.

Sharon Rowland said...

Thanks. May the journey out of unhealthy God understandings take on clear training to grasp the goodness of God and unlearn the slavery to habituated patterns. It is possible!

Imagine the impact of both persons when avidly, intentionally pursuing an inner spiritual life with Jesus. Each could experience a life founded upon inner transformation into the likeness of Jesus. Such goodness won't all fit in a person, so we will have overflow - like Psalm 23, cups (lives) brimming over.

Parishioners and students who see that will know something unique is afoot.

Sharon Rowland

PamBG said...

This is an excellent outline, I think. And if I may speak to John Meunier through your blog, Allan, I think it's also a worthwhile contribution to the posts on "doubt" that John has posted on his blog.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Pam. Fancy meeting you here.

And, yes, I see your point.

Anonymous said...

Pam, I was thinking the same thing - about this being a contribution to John's post on doubt.

Excellent post, Allan, thank you!

Anonymous said...

It really is all about balance and straddling the dichotomy between one's own personal beliefs and the teachings and advice that will most help one's parishioners. Once you come to grips with that divide, acknowledging that it in fact does exist and it isn't necessarily one over the other, then I think one can be successful in both affirming and challenging.