Doubt and the Journey of Faith

I have been mulling over the role of doubt in our faith journey in a couple of posts, and want to continue that conversation. The importance of considering the role of doubt relates to the issue of certainty and how certainty of a position can hinder dialogue and conversation.

I've noted that John Calvin pointed out that doubt is a reality and that we need to accept it as we live out our faith in God. Now, it's not that Calvin was quavering in his doubt, but he understood its reality. I want to add another quote to the discussion. This one comes from Lutheran theologian Ted Peters, who writes in his systematic theology God -- the World's Future (Fortress, 1992):

Doubt sounds like a negative principle. It is. Yet over time it has led to a positive principle, namely, commitment to pluralism. If one can always doubt one's own position, then one must grant the possible truth of an opponent's position. Nevertheless, as soon as this is done, the opponent ceases to be an opponent and becomes a fellow traveler along the path that takes us toward greater and greater uncertainty about everything except pluralism itself.

He goes on to talk about Descartes's view of doubt/thinking, and the reality that it's no longer possible to prove with certainty anything regarding God. But then, what is faith, except acting on something unseen and unprovable.

As Hebrews puts it:

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1)

I am confident in my beliefs. I confess boldly that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16), but like Peter I may not completely understand what that confession means. And to say with certainty that I am correct and that anyone who makes a different confession is with certainty wrong, should be seen as the height of arrogance. But if I live out my faith in Jesus by trying to live as he would have me live -- as shown both in his life and in his teachings -- then am I not faithful? Ultimately, this is a judgment that God alone can make.

It is more often than not a sense of certainty that leads to violence -- it can be a certainty of religious dimensions or secular ones, but when we believe that we alone are right, then before long we begin to justify acts of violence against the other. But when we step back and recognize that the other could be correct in their beliefs, then we will step back from violence.