Searching for balance, one often must choose a path lined with resistance on either side. Searching for balance in Faith is no different.
For more information on what this post and Theology Thursdays are about, click here. Otherwise…
“Faith starts with awe,” Cox states (22). And awe is birthed in mystery. When that mystery is hunted down, trapped and caged, the mystery dissipates.
There is something awesome about a lion in the wild.
On her last trip to Africa, my sister experienced a safari on which she was able to capture a shot of a wild roaming lion. As she tells the story, the male lion stood majestically only a stone’s throw away from the safari van. Cameras ablaze, the lion began to stroll toward the vehicle. His pace quickened. The photographers and spectators flung themselves to the other side of the bus, just as the beast stopped short and let out a sharp, bowel-shaking roar.
While in Florida, my friends and I visited the Naples Zoo. There was a lion there, behind two walls. The male lion paced proudly, anxiously in his box. One of my friends roared. It came from deep in his bowels, but it was a pathetic roar. The big cat didn’t like this. Not one bit. So after a few more taunts, he showed my friend how its done and let out a sharp roar. Almost mocking our weak attempts.
But it’s right what they say about a caged lion. You can see the fire extinguished from his eyes.
Mystery isn’t meant to be caged. Nor is it something that’s effectively ignored. The two extremes I want to briefly address are atheists and fundamentalists.
The extreme Atheism I am familiar with, the Dawkins and Hitchens type, is a worldview bent on extinguishing the mystery so evident in the world around us. Everything is science. Everything is rational. All can be deduced and explained. Granted, we’ve come light-years further in our scientific understanding of the natural world, but there are mysteries nonetheless.
Fundamentalists aren’t off the hook either. My fear is that this camp attempts to capture and control the mystery. Monopolize (and sometimes monetize) this mystery, announcing, “This is it.” A claim to know and behold Mystery, I believe, is a dangerous one. And, no less, does it extinguish the wonder and awe than its Anti-theistic counter part.
“Awe is a basic and nearly universal human emotion. Not to feel it…[is] to be less than human.” (Cox 23)
I would propose that the third road is one that embraces Faith and Mystery as something essential to our human existence.
And in that embrace, we must learn to Let the Mystery be the Mystery. This doesn’t mean to stop wrestling with it, or by no means be less fascinated and in awe by it. On the contrary, letting the Mystery be as such is to perpetuate our perspective of awe. And in that, we find Faith.
To quote Cox, “Faith, although it is evoked by the mystery that surrounds us, is not the mystery itself. It is ta basic posture toward the mystery, and it comes in an infinite variety of forms.” (35)
To be fair, he’s right. Every age and culture has carried with it traditions and practices as postures toward this mystery. Some have been carried on for centuries, others have fallen off the path and forgotten.
Taking a Darwinian “Survival of the Fittest” view on these postures, we could say that that those lasting are a better posture than the traditions that fall on the wayside. Both the Fundamentalist Believers and the Fundamentalist Unbelievers want to claim their posture as the end-all of future traditions, but as Cox states, neither seems to be the case.
I would hope, then, that it is this third path that gains ground. There is a balance in accepting the unknown. Often we are tempted with wanting to capture and control or even explain off and ignore what we do not understand. Yet by embracing the mystery for what it is, we can more wholly approach the limits in our human knowledge and the proud majesty on display in the natural world around us.
Opening the Conversation
- What does letting “The Mystery be the Mystery” look like to you?
- Is neglecting awe neglecting part of our humanity?
- (And for diversity’s sake) What is the posture toward Mystery you’ve inherited from your culture?
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Great article.
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.” 1 Tim 3:16 NKJV
It takes faith to be “okay” with mystery (clearly, one can never understand how God manifested himself as Jesus!) and I love how Paul says that the greatness of the mystery of godliness is non-controversial!! It takes faith to even say that
Regarding Q3: Responding to mystery naturally reveals one’s taught presupposition and measure of faith! Faith (or lack, thereof) is acknowledged and tested when mystery is present…
Greetings from the land of chunder, and a merry christmyth to you my good sir.
A very well written piece indeed, and despite the fact that I am slightly more hardcore than Dawkins, my personal feeling is such that if there were more people in the world (regardless of which faith they chose to follow) who espoused the tolerant and moderate stance that you present, the world’s religions wouldn’t have such a tarnished reputation.
That being said, being an atheist doesn’t mean we don’t revel in the beauty and awesome power of nature and natural selection. Rather, we simply understand that these things came about through a scientific process, which, quite honestly, makes it all the more incredible!
Here’s hoping that the rise you speak of, the “Thinking Christian”, extends to other religions, so you can all learn to get along with one another. Meanwhile, we atheists will be the ones on the nude beach dancing a merry jig under a handy spring of mistletoe, as we ring the new year in.
Cheers,
Alex.
I think there’s something to be said for including both fundamentalists and atheists in that category of downplaying mystery. The Ditchkins atheists are really a new breed – more militant, more hasty about their arguments, but with less support than the truly forminable atheists of the past (check Russell’s “Why I Am Not a Christian” and Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” against each other). Dawkins relies entirely on his own ‘rational’ thinking, but fails to make an entirely cohesive argument – unless you already agree with him. He and his ilk are hell bent on eliminating that mystery because the scrubbing out of that mystery means that man truly is all there is.
Fundamentalists, too, have lost the idea of mystery. They’ve created a god after their own design, one that they can claim to know inside and out, and only provide lip service to the inherent idea of mystery. This is – I believe – a natural human impulse. It’s really, really hard for us to admit when we don’t know something, at least in this post-Enlightenment, psuedo-scientific way of looking at faith.
I like this idea that faith is a posture to approach the mystery. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Cox had some experience with the Eastern Orthodox or Catholic churches: both tend to emphasize the mystery of the faith (faith being a general term for Christianity here). It’s always a bit hard to admit it, but there are simply things we don’t know, and how we approach those things says a lot about who we are as people.
It sounds like I should read this book.
REALLY like the new thought of faith being my posture towards the Mystery. Really. Am loving Theology Thursdays and Music Mondays…I’ve had the Civil Wars in my head for a good week now. I think I can trace that back to you!
Thanks Chase!
“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.” – Albert Einstein
More and more these days, I really think of the yin-yang / coexistence / balance concepts of how to live my life. I believe science and faith CAN coexist indeed. There are a lot of mysteries in science though. The known universe is only a fraction of the entire universe, that seems infinite! How particles interact with eachother in quantum physics is still unexplainable to science, though it is observed, with great mystery. I think quantum physics is the closest science has gotten to this “mystery”.
And just for fun: http://dvice.com/archives/2009/12/humbling-video.php
Thanks to all 4 of you for stopping by.
I love that each comment attracted a different opinion and different posture. Diversity is Beautiful.
I found this quote and thought it applied:
Floreta, it’s interesting that you bring up Einstein. I chose not to get into it with my post, but the whole chapter was based on Einstein’s approach to Faith.
Good call!