Interrogating the Church, 03 – Fallibility and Faith:

Is there room in my faith for questions? Is there room for growth? Is there room for new conclusions? Is there room for deeper understandings that diverge from what I have believed in the past or hold to still? Should there be?

At the heart of fundamentalism lies a basic concern with change. Is faith static, unchanging, and immutable, or is faith a growing appreciation of what may indeed be static, unchanging, and immutable. Must my set of answers or beliefs be defined together as one coherent whole, or is there value to faith when it is yet under development and I am not certain where it is eventually taking me? What is the relationship between my fallibility, my faith, and God who by definition is beyond my comprehension?

Many have attempted to answer these questions by making the Bible out to be infallible or inerrant. They have claimed that in order for the Bible to be God’s Word, it cannot contain any kind of error, due to God’s immutability and inability to lie. Along with claims about the Bible being infallible, they have claimed their interpretation of the Bible beyond interrogation. Too often, that has given little room for growth in the understanding embedded in their faith traditions. Any disagreement with their faith tradition is seen as an attack on the whole of their faith and a direct attack on the Bible.

On the other hand, there is faith in God that maintains room for growth, better understanding, change, and taking stock of new information, contexts, or developments. It also recognizes our understanding of the Bible as a changing reality. What I took as certain a decade ago may not seem as close to what I understand as truth today. Perhaps that is due to growth in my appreciation of the Bible, growth in my appreciation of God and God’s character, growth in my understanding of humanity, or some combination of the three.

Then there are some who approach the Bible as though it were indeed the domain of those with a determinedly definite interpretation. Rather than include room for interpreting the Bible differently and retaining its value and validity, they opt to ignore the Bible as irrelevant. They seem to accept uncritically that it can only be interpreted as the fundamentalists have interpreted it. That presumption is, to my view, just as irresponsible as a faith which must be protected from any doubt and question.

The fundamentalist perspective strikes me as pure hubris: we know the truth and all other claims are categorically wrong. Then again the third perspective is a similar hubris: everything you claim and anything the Bible might say is of no value whatsoever. Ancient wisdom passed down and preserved over millennia is bound to include something worthwhile to humanity in our own day, even while it perceives the world in grossly unscientific terms which can be overlooked as pre-scientific.

I learned many things from my grandparents. I also recognize some of what they taught me as incorrect or inappropriate. The one does not invalidate the other. I can honor and respect some of what they passed on to me, even as I move past other things like racism, environmental harm, or following false prophets.

My faith is fallible, because I am fallible. My faith is also a journey of growth and development. Were I to claim the Bible as infallible, it would remain subject to my fallible interpretations and understanding. If I take Paul seriously in stating that we see only dimly as though looking in a bronze mirror, but shall eventually see more directly, my faith must make room for accepting those current limitations. Anything less is simply dishonest.

Where faith has no room for questions, doubts, and growth, it is dead, frozen in a lost page of history. Meanwhile, the Bible calls us to consistent personal reflection and finding new ways to apply grace and love to the changing environment in which we live and move. It is not a collection of statements about God, theology, and faith. It is a challenging mirror calling for a living response.



— ©Copyright 2023, Christopher B. Harbin 



http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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