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BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
BREAKING THE IDOL OF CERTAINTY
Gregory Boyd
(Baker Books, 272pp, $17p)
The great American theologian, Paul Tillich, taught that doubt is not the enemy of, but rather an element of faith. In recent months heavyweight Christian authors like Alister McGrath, Philip Yancey, and John Ortberg, have built on that idea. Now, Greg Boyd adds his views in “Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty.” Granted, Boyd is somewhat of an evangelical enigma—a pastor with whom I often agree and at other times disagree. While he is a firm believer in the Bible as God’s Word, he sometimes interprets it differently. He is former atheist, a vocal advocate of open theism, a committed pacifist, and leans a bit to the left politically and in his book, he redefines faith, although I think he would say he is returning us to biblical faith—we have already redefined it, creating a “false faith,” that is more of “psychological certainty” than the genuine article.
Boyd contends that most of what we call “faith” is just a blind “certainty” that what we want to happen will happen if we just believe hard enough. In the process he confronts the Health-Wealth-Prosperity teaching, saying that model of faith is unbiblical, more akin to pagan magic than biblical faith. Rather than trusting God's character, it promotes a belief in one’s ability to manipulate God, hence idolatry, faith in faith rather than in trusting the character of God. It would have been nice if those believers who drank Jim Jones’ Kool Aid or those suicidal people who flew airplanes into the Twin Towers would have questioned what they believed? They were “certain” of the rightness of their beliefs. They had faith in faith. Truth for them was a system of beliefs, not a Person.
According to Boyd, “any faith that is alive must evolve” and any change in theological reflection should be “celebrated, not feared.” Clinging to and protecting a personal theology based only on what we have been taught destroys, not enhances, faith. “Truth” becomes an itemized list handed down from our preferred group. Should we accept what we are told simply because we are taught it? Or should we question it? What about our cherished beliefs about baptism, the Lord’s Supper, women in ministry, even the infallibility of scripture? Boyd is not saying that everything we were taught is wrong; just that, well, it could be. We will never know until we are free to question. My God, Why?
For me, chapter 4 was most enlightening. Here Boyd argues that there are at least nine things “wrong with certainty-seeking faith.” It is dangerous because it focuses on our ability to believe “without doubt” than in trusting the character of God. Further, “certainty-seeking faith” makes us rigidly inflexible, is based more on assumption than reality, and is idolatrous because it is built on a skewed belief about God and not grounded in a relationship with him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author bio
Gregory Boyd (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary), formerly professor of theology at Bethel University, is senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where average attendance has grown to 5,000 since he helped plant the church in 1992. He is the author of many books, including the critically acclaimed Seeing Is Believing and the best-selling Gold Medallion Award-winner Letters from a Skeptic. He is also Greg is a national and international speaker at churches, colleges, conferences, and retreats, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows. He has also authored and coauthored 14 books, including Escaping the Matrix (with Al Larson), Seeing Is Believing, Repenting of Religion, and his international bestseller Letters From a Skeptic.
http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/benefit-of-the-doubt/340380
BREAKING THE IDOL OF CERTAINTY
Gregory Boyd
(Baker Books, 272pp, $17p)
The great American theologian, Paul Tillich, taught that doubt is not the enemy of, but rather an element of faith. In recent months heavyweight Christian authors like Alister McGrath, Philip Yancey, and John Ortberg, have built on that idea. Now, Greg Boyd adds his views in “Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty.” Granted, Boyd is somewhat of an evangelical enigma—a pastor with whom I often agree and at other times disagree. While he is a firm believer in the Bible as God’s Word, he sometimes interprets it differently. He is former atheist, a vocal advocate of open theism, a committed pacifist, and leans a bit to the left politically and in his book, he redefines faith, although I think he would say he is returning us to biblical faith—we have already redefined it, creating a “false faith,” that is more of “psychological certainty” than the genuine article.
Boyd contends that most of what we call “faith” is just a blind “certainty” that what we want to happen will happen if we just believe hard enough. In the process he confronts the Health-Wealth-Prosperity teaching, saying that model of faith is unbiblical, more akin to pagan magic than biblical faith. Rather than trusting God's character, it promotes a belief in one’s ability to manipulate God, hence idolatry, faith in faith rather than in trusting the character of God. It would have been nice if those believers who drank Jim Jones’ Kool Aid or those suicidal people who flew airplanes into the Twin Towers would have questioned what they believed? They were “certain” of the rightness of their beliefs. They had faith in faith. Truth for them was a system of beliefs, not a Person.
According to Boyd, “any faith that is alive must evolve” and any change in theological reflection should be “celebrated, not feared.” Clinging to and protecting a personal theology based only on what we have been taught destroys, not enhances, faith. “Truth” becomes an itemized list handed down from our preferred group. Should we accept what we are told simply because we are taught it? Or should we question it? What about our cherished beliefs about baptism, the Lord’s Supper, women in ministry, even the infallibility of scripture? Boyd is not saying that everything we were taught is wrong; just that, well, it could be. We will never know until we are free to question. My God, Why?
For me, chapter 4 was most enlightening. Here Boyd argues that there are at least nine things “wrong with certainty-seeking faith.” It is dangerous because it focuses on our ability to believe “without doubt” than in trusting the character of God. Further, “certainty-seeking faith” makes us rigidly inflexible, is based more on assumption than reality, and is idolatrous because it is built on a skewed belief about God and not grounded in a relationship with him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author bio
Gregory Boyd (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary), formerly professor of theology at Bethel University, is senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where average attendance has grown to 5,000 since he helped plant the church in 1992. He is the author of many books, including the critically acclaimed Seeing Is Believing and the best-selling Gold Medallion Award-winner Letters from a Skeptic. He is also Greg is a national and international speaker at churches, colleges, conferences, and retreats, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows. He has also authored and coauthored 14 books, including Escaping the Matrix (with Al Larson), Seeing Is Believing, Repenting of Religion, and his international bestseller Letters From a Skeptic.
http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/benefit-of-the-doubt/340380