I’ve sometimes said to fellow Christians that we need more atheists in church. Belief, by its very nature, includes non-belief. The kind of belief that is closed, afraid to consider other possibilities, and fearful of those who see things differently, is more juvenile than it is mature.
Those who grew up learning stories of Jesus might remember the man that approached Jesus hoping that Jesus would heal his son who was ill or spiritually oppressed. Jesus told the man that even this was possible, with belief. The man replied, “I believe! Help my unbelief.”
These things exist together, belief and unbelief. If we believe without unbelief that can mean that we are unwilling to examine our beliefs or are too afraid to accept that, at times, our belief doesn’t seem to make sense of what we see in the world. When I was growing up, a young teenager at a Baptist church, the word “atheist” carried an almost sinister sensibility. Something was wrong with you if you identified as atheist, or so was the assumption. Worse, perhaps, atheism was thought of as evil or anti-Christian.
As a pastor, I occasionally remind people who desperately wish that their loved ones shared their faith that it makes good sense, when we look at the world, to not believe the claims of Christian faith. I have faith, but I understand that others do not and their non-belief makes sense to me.
We say, as Christians, that belief, salvation, and even sanctification are works of the Holy Spirit. Yet, too often Christians get upset, almost angry, at people who do not believe, as if they have a deficiency of some kind or as if their unbelief is a form of rebellion.
A question: if someone that you love does not believe what you believe in terms of religious faith, would you prefer that they be honest about this or would you rather they pretend that they do believe?
If you would rather that they pretend, is that more a comment on their lack of faith or on yours?
There was an article in the Washington Post this week looking at the growth of the demographic often labelled as “nones” in regards to religious practice and identification. 50 years ago, only 5 percent of Americans had no religious affiliation. Now, it is 30 percent. In Canada, this number is higher. The article points out that studies of the so called “nones” often focus on what it is that they are leaving or what it is that they don’t believe. A recent Pew Research Center report showed, instead, that 56% those identifying as “nones” believe in a “higher power” of some kind. 67% say that they believe that humans have a soul or spirit. In other words, it is not that they don’t believe anything. It is, perhaps, that they don’t consider what they see as Christian religious practice, including church, to line up or enliven the sense of faith and hope that they do have.
Recently, I was reading a book by Olivier Clement called The Roots of Christian Mysticism. Clement was a French intellectual who converted to Orthodox Christianity and after that wrote some beautiful reflections on faith. While Clement was raised in a non-religious, even atheist context, when he converted to faith he did not pick up an anti-atheist bias.
Here are a couple of the things he said in the book:
Christendom, the society in which Christianity was, to the great detriment of freedom, the dominant ideology, has finally collapsed, and we can no longer talk about matters of faith in the way that we used to do. The living God is no longer the Emperor of the World but crucified Love.
History, including the history of Christianity, is littered with caricatures of God, like so many mental idols which have led people either to cruelty or to atheism. But how, in modern times, after the growth of liberty and the critical spirit, could people have accepted a God who seemed to them worse than themselves, or at least inferior to the highest demands of a conscience secretly nourished by the Gospel?
And perhaps contemporary atheism, to the extent that it is not stupidity but a purifying revolt, could be understood in a new way, as the path of ‘unknowing’ that is not an intellectual path (for negation is denied just as much as affirmation) but is pure adoration.
There is a lot to consider in the quotes above. First, that Christendom was a detriment to freedom (and to real faith). Second, that caricatures of God posing as faith lead people to cruelty or atheism. Third, that atheism might be thought of as a kind of purifying revolt.
You can see this, right? I mean, you can see the gift that atheism is to faith. If it were not for unbelief, just imagine the terrible things that we might still believe, even as Christians. What would Christian faith and theology look like if it did not face questions and dissent?
Of course, unbelief is not a threat to truth. Hopeful faith can leave room for unbelief because it trusts in God’s goodness and it trusts that such goodness is manifest, not because we believe it, but because it is real for those who believe and for those who do not.
Our faith can be grateful for unbelief, we can acknowledge the unbelief in our own hearts and minds, and we can trust that spiritual growth itself includes not believing at times.
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