Blessed are the agnostics. Blessed are they who doubt. Those who aren’t sure, who can still be surprised. Blessed are they who are spiritually impoverished and therefore not so certain about everything that they no longer take in new information. Blessed are those who...
Hope is not blind faith that things will get better. It's a realistic belief that things can get better. Despair is an illusion of certainty. Hope is an appreciation of possibility. Change requires a way. There is no way without will. There is no will without...
The longer I’m a pastor, the more I believe that the road to heresy doesn’t begin with questioning God. The road to heresy begins with being unquestionably certain that no one knows God better than you do and believing that everyone else is a heretic but you.
"The Bible is VERY clear!" What's meant by this phrase: I have reduced the Word of God exclusively to my own particular interpretation of an English translation of the Bible and I'm so certain that I have nothing more to learn about it that I can now use it as a...
I have a lot of faith. But I am also afraid a lot, and have no real certainty about anything. I remembered something Father Tom had told me - -that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the...
A church which pitches its tents without constantly looking out for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling....(We must) play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky, live by improvisation and experiment." from...
In the gospels, Jesus is asked 187 questions. He answers (maybe) 8 of them. He himself asks 387. Maybe faith isn't about certainty, but learning to ask--and sit in the complexity of--good questions.
Those who read the press of their group and listen to the radio of their group are constantly reinforced in their allegiance. They learn more and more that their group is right, that its actions are justified; thus their beliefs are strengthened. At the same time,...
I am certain in my heart that all that I am, I have received from God.
What a distortion of the gospel it is to have limited sympathies and unlimited certainties!