God Is No Longer a Working Number

For a growing number of thinking Christians in the modern era, large swaths of traditional beliefs are no longer viable. For people in this camp, maintaining faith requires a large dose of theological modesty and a high tolerance for theological ambiguity. Several examples follow.

1. Embracing ambiguity about “God the Father Almighty.”  Most Christians across the globe still affirm belief in a personal, all-powerful, loving God who providentially cares for the world, supernaturally intervenes, answers prayers, and performs miracles. But for a growing number of people, these ancient concepts about God have become difficult if not impossible to believe. In the words of Bishop John Shelby Spong, “The heart cannot worship what the mind cannot believe.” In response, some of them have given up belief in God altogether. Others, however, have developed a nontraditional alternative. Instead of conceptualizing God as a humanlike deity, they envision God as the evolutionary life force, energy force, and love force of the universe. They resonate with Paul Tillich’s concept of “The Ground of Being,” and the words of Acts 17 that affirm faith in the one “in whom we live and move and have our being.” In short, they are comfortable embracing great mystery and ambiguity about God.

2. Embracing ambiguity about “Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.”  Most Christians today still believe in a divine Christ who was born of a virgin, walked on water, healed the blind, physically rose from the dead, and ascended into the sky. But a growing number of people are no longer confident about these beliefs. They know the Gospels were written four to seven decades after Jesus’s death during a prescientific age with a massive supernatural bias. They suspect many of the miraculous claims about Jesus became exaggerated over time and then became enshrined in fourth-century creeds. However, in spite of their skepticism about the divine Christ, they feel affinity for the human Jesus. They believe in his love, service, compassion, inclusion, grace, and call to justice. Regardless of their doubts about orthodox Christology, they still find significant meaning and purpose following the example, spirit, and teachings of Jesus. Some of them follow Jesus outside the constraints of organized religion, while others remain in the church.

3. Embracing ambiguity about “the Holy Catholic Church.”  It’s no secret that organized religion is in steep decline in the Western world. However, that doesn’t mean all the people leaving church are disinterested in spiritual matters. They’ve just given up on institutional religion for many good reasons. Of course, plenty of people still remain in church, in spite of its significant failures and flaws. And some are seeking to create new faith communities more in tune with the modern ethos, including an embrace of theological and ecclesiastical ambiguity. Since the Christian faith is a “we” faith rather than a “me” faith, fresh expressions of Christian community are sorely needed in the modern world. A Doubter’s Parish reader recently asked me, “Where are you finding church these days?” My honest response was that my most meaningful experience of “church” is found in a group of six mainline retired clergypersons who gather regularly to honestly, transparently, and vulnerably discuss spiritual matters and support one another on the journey. After the pandemic is over, I’ll have to make a decision about my relationship with a traditional congregation. But one way or another, I’ll find a way to experience Christian community, even if I need to do so through nontraditional means.

From the beginning of the Christian movement, every generation has felt the need to rethink and reconstruct faith in ways that make sense to them during their particular time in history. For many of us, at this moment in time, that means (1) rejecting unhealthy faith, (2) affirming essential faith, and (3) embracing ambiguous faith. And the journey continues.