In my first piece at The Week, I explain why Pope Francis is right to encourage doubt about God and the Church. A sample:
Trying to understand the full meaning of the words and images one uses to speak about God is like attempting to assess the quality of a translation without knowing the original language. No one speaks “God.” Not I. Not the pope. Not even Stephen Colbert… For instance, believers use words like father and mother to refer and relate to God, but without being able to compare and contrast such language with the reality of God, they cannot have a clear sense of the analogies they employ. No one can. Aquinas wrote a lot about God, but he later likened it all to straw. This is the religious condition.
Good essay (as usual), Kyle. I agree that doubt and uncertainty is good. I find those espousing absolute 100% certainty unsettling (regardless of whether they’re Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical or whatever). Doubt is just an offshoot of humility, and humility is a pretty Christian thing*.
*I’m not saying it’s only a Christian thing or originally a Christian thing, just that it’s a definite part of Christianity.
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