Faith in the Age of Criticism Pt. 6

Without critical evaluation, our own faith becomes weak and eventually either erodes, or becomes fundamentalist fanaticism. A continual critical evaluation of what we believe and why we believe it, as well as a constant attempt to apply our faith to our daily lives, keeps us from falling into either extreme. If we truly believe that the Bible is the “living Word”, capable of speaking into contemporary situations, while at the same time believing that things written thousands of years ago to a nomadic, primitive, agrarian society still matter today, we must involve our critical skills. We must know how to engage a text, how to put it into its historical context, how to see it within the larger context of the chapter or verse in which it resides, and how to understand the use of narrative, poetry, and metaphor. Not everything is literal. Not everything is prophetic. Not every detail applies to the modern context. Are we trying to apply non applicable parts of a text to our modern situation? (Yes, there are parts of the Bible, and details in the Bible that don't apply to us today.) Are we trying to take ancient details and make them work today? Or, are we attempting to understand and see the underlying principle that applies across cultures and then apply that principle to our lives? Too many cults don't understand this type of critique. They refuse to apply simple, critical tools to their reading of the Bible and end up creating whole movements around things like what you can and can't eat, what you can and can't watch or listen to or enjoy, who can and can't preach, how to absolutely know the exact time when the world will end, or new (and usually deviant) sexual norms (this is a big one). The other eventuality to a non-critiqued faith is for that faith to become outdated and irrelevant. It is easy, over time and without critique, to lose sight of the importance of the Bible to our lives today. Soon it becomes a collection of irrelevant and boring stories that have no place in the modern world. One day we wake up and find that we haven't opened the Bible for months...years...decades...because there is no point to it. Because of this, it is vital for us to continually ask ourselves what we believe and why we believe it. This critical evaluation keeps faith growing, alive, strong, and relevant.

Life is a journey And a destination

What a journey I am on. This journey began in Boston in 1969 and has taken me through Asia, Europe, The U.S. and Canada. I love the journey even though at times it has been painful and there are parts of it that I wish I could undo or do over. Life is a journey. Just when you think you are settled in somewhere, if you are like me, you feel the need to move again. Maybe I'm the human version of a shark, always needing to be moving in the journey or else I'll die. I don't ever feel like I've arrived, or like I have it all together, or that I can sit down and say to myself "O.K. I figured it all out, I am where I am going to be until I die, I don't need to learn any more or grow anymore." So, life for me is a continual process of growth...a continual journey. This relates to my physical world and my spiritual world. I am continually reminded in this journey that God has more to teach me. Just when I think I have a pretty good grasp on something, God opens my eyes to the next level, the next phase, the next understanding, the next mission, the next journey. So, I have come to a place where I am peace with being on a journey that will last until I die. Then, and only then, will I reach the destination. And then the real journey will begin. So I keep asking myself these questions. Is my life making a difference? Am I part of the problem or part of the solution? Am I where God can best use me? Have I stopped journeying? Am I more kind, compassionate, and caring than I was yesterday? Do I appreciate those around me more today than I did yesterday? Is what I am doing today better than what I was doing yesterday? Is what I am doing today setting me up to make tomorrow better? Am I closer to the destination today or farther away? I want to be part of a community that continually asks those questions. I want to be part of a community that is also on a journey. I hope you will be part of that community with me.

Faith in the Age of Criticism, Pt 5.

4. Criticism builds a deeper, more honest, faith. Far too many people know almost nothing about what they truly believe apart from what they have been told by others or what they have heard on Sunday. If they read anything, they read “safe” books written by those who see the world exactly as they do. They refuse to read books or to engage in conversations with those who, while still holding to the same faith, have deep convictions that are in opposition to the beliefs that they hold. (Ask them to read something by someone who doesn’t hold to their faith tradition, and you might as well be asking them to read the Satanic Bible.) They label people who write these books, or who read them, has heretics and dissenters (see post #2 in this series) often without ever opening the cover of the book they are so critical of (Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” comes to mind) or of trying to understand the critique of the dissenting voices. Again, this does not advocate that they must accept the other position, but they must engage with it. Engaging in the critical dialogue builds a deeper, more honest faith, one that deals with the real issues of today. A long time ago, someone told me that whenever I am criticized I should always try to find the truth in what the critical person is saying. There may be ten things that are false, but there may also be one thing that is truth. I think this advice applies to ideas and beliefs that we do not agree with. Even as we criticize them (or engage in a critique of them) we should be asking ourselves, is their something of truth in this argument that I can learn? Even if I end up disagreeing with most of what this other viewpoint advocates, have I learned something that can enhance and grow my faith? If you are asking yourself this question, it makes the process of critical analysis far more rewarding and valuable.

Faith in the Age of Criticism Pt 4

3. Critical evaluation of what we believe and why we believe what we do does not make a person liberal. Even the terms "fundamentalist" and "liberal" need to be discarded or at least redefined because they carry far too much baggage from our history. Instead, criticism (or questioning) of what you believe is the best way to see if your faith is genuine and real and if it continues to hold true to the principle of the text while speaking to the modern situation to which you are attempting to apply the text. This is not some form of “ situational ethics” but rather an honest attempt to answer the question of how my faith applies to my world today.

Faith in the Age of Criticism Pt 3

2. We need to be critical of ideas, not people. When we can divorce criticism from personal attacks (I believe the two are very different) we can engage in healthy critical dialogue with others that can help us evaluate and sharpen our own world view. What is more, we can maintain deep and honest friendships with people who do not see the world the same way we do. This is easier said than done. It is difficult to listen to someone like Ann Coulter and not want to be critical of her and her tactics, rather than to simply be critical of the agenda she supports. Yet, if we are able to realize that every person has the right to believe and say what they do, and if that person will realize that we have that same right, we can move past personal attacks, to critique ideas. I have great friends who have very different political views than I do. We disagree on a lot of things, yet, we love to hang out and to be together. I consider them my friends and they consider me a friend. Here is a simple way of telling if you are being critical of an idea or of the person who holds that idea. If you say "You're an idiot for believing that" than you are engaging in a personal attack. If you say "I disagree with what you believe" than you are making the focus of the critique the idea and not the person. What you can't control is how the person responds. Many people believe that if you don't like their idea or their belief, than you obviously don't like them personally. So find ways of validating the person, of letting them know that you love them as a person and that your critique has nothing to do with them as a person and a friend. If we can divorce criticism from personal attack, we will be able to begin dialogues with people and discuss issues critically with people who don't think or believe like we do, without (hopefully) alienating them. This critical dialogue is vital. Only when we engage with ideas that we don't hold are we able to see our own ideas within the crucible of critical thinking. If I never engage with anyone who believes differently than I do, then who will challenge me to think, rethink, defend, and ultimately affirm or change my own ways of thinking? How will I know if my ideas are old and outdated or if they continue to stand the test of time? Critical dialogue with people who think differently than I do helps to expand my worldview and see an idea from different viewpoints. We can always learn something. We never have all the answers. People who think and believe differently than we do can help us see things from a different perspective. And, we may just gain a new friend in the process.

Faith in the Age of Criticism Pt 2

1. We don’t understand the true nature and strength of criticism. Those who wish to make themselves feel better and others feel worse, who wish to prop up their own agendas, who fear change, or who cannot build anything of their own but hate to see others build things, have hijacked the true understanding and use of the term ‘criticism’. For these people, criticism becomes the means AND the end. For them, criticism exists only to destroy and tear down. So, first of all, we need to redefine what healthy, life giving, criticism is and how we can apply it in order to create, maintain, and strengthen our faith. Dissenters and critics are vital to the survival of any belief system. Healthy criticism, self-criticism, the ability to understand both sides of any issue (without having to support the other side) allows a person to approach any issue with a sense of openness rather than defensiveness. According to Sociologist Emile Durkheim, in group formation the founders of the group initiate boundaries to which members must adhere. Within each group, there are those who critique (or criticize or question) those boundaries. These critics force the group to continually reevaluate its boundaries and make necessary changes. These critics also force the group to continually reevaluate its boundaries and maintain original boundaries when appropriate. The one thing that Durkheim's (and others') studies revealed is that although this process of criticism can at times be difficult, it is also vital to the survival of the group. Without criticism the group will not critique it's own boundaries and will, in every case, eventually decay to a point that they are unable or unwilling to defend "ancient" boundaries that they no longer engage with and therefore do not fully comprehend. Along with this, the group that does not continually critique its boundaries will lose touch with the changing nature of how its' belief systems engage with the culture around it. This means the group sinks into obscurity and irrelevance. Essentially the group no longer matters to the culture around it. It has become outdated without even realizing it. This same scenario applies to the individual and his or her belief structure.

Faith in the Age of Criticism Pt 1

Timothy Dunfield, MA, PhD dropout, gypsy, believer. In the history of the human race we have had many “Ages”. We have experienced the age of reason, the dark ages, the age of science and progress, the Age of Aquarius, the pre-industrial age, the industrial age, the age of dinosaurs, the ice age, and pre-modern age, the modern age, and the post-modern age. One thing that defined every age (at least the ones mentioned above that were real, and no doubt a few I didn't mention) was an underlying spirit (if “spirit” is in fact the right word) of criticism. If “criticism” is too strong a word, perhaps “questioning” or “evaluating” would also apply. Whatever the word, brilliant men and women evaluated, questioned, and criticized the ideas of previous ages and generations, discarded what no longer applied, what had become outdated or impractical, and then applied new ways of thinking and new ideas to current problems. Without criticism we would still be rubbing two sticks together to make fire or grinding wheat by hand in a field to make bread or believing the world was flat. Without criticism we may still believe that slavery is acceptable or that women are inferior to men. We live in an age of criticism. We have professional ‘critics’ who make their living criticizing everything from what people wear to what they watch to where they live or who they vote for. Criticism forms the basis for the academic community, yet within many religious circles, criticism is taboo, unless we are criticizing people and theologies we don’t like. Rather than being the enemy, however, criticism can be the greatest friend of the serious student, the serious seeker, the person who will not accept complacency, those who wish to see a better future; but only if we understand what real criticism is and is not. For far too long, I have listened with growing dismay to Christians (and honestly to most people of any faith) who decry the advent of criticism, who fear any form of criticism directed at their belief system, and who view criticism as somehow “evil” and those who dare to criticize their faith as at best, “deluded” or “lost” and at worst, “agents of evil”. For my own faith tradition, the response to criticism is almost always reactionary, closed-minded, and ungraceful. It is time to change this. I feel this is the result of an unhealthy fear of criticism based on a skewed understanding of the role that criticism plays in the creation, maintenance, and strengthening of faith (this theory formed the basis of my MA thesis at the University of Alberta in 2009). Because this is most likely the outline of a book I’m going to write, I will keep this blog to point form. Each day for the next six days I’m going to write briefly on a different reason why I believe proper criticism is essential to a mature faith, and is also important if we are going to engage with our culture in the “Age of Criticism.”