I’ve just recently finished reading a book that I really enjoyed. The title of the book is Speaking of Faith and it’s written by Krista Tippet. I love what she says about embracing mystery. The following is from her book:
"But we are left, in the end, with arms full, minds full, of mystery."
"At their orthodox core, religious traditions themselves ask us to hold our notions of earthly certainties and transcendent mystery – what we believe we know, and what we can never know for sure in time and space – in an exacting, creative tension.
Mystery is the crux of religion that is almost always missing in our public expressions of religion."
"Mystery resists absolutes. It can hold truth, compassion, and open possibility in relationship."
"If mystery is real, even more real than what we can touch with our five sense, uncertainty and ambiguity are blessed."
"I find that mystery is a word people of every tradition love, whether they speak it often or not. It is a word that many nonreligious people are open to embracing and exploring, perhaps more so now than in previous generations. Introduce mystery into any conversation and the conversation gentles…"
I believe that fully embracing the concept of the mystery of God is crucial as we move into this post-modern era. What do you think?
Learning to live with mystery is part of the faith journey, isn't it? Seems that the psalmists could coexist with it as they asked their questions, vented their anger, put words to their confusion . . . and still believed. Not everything had to be explained. We probably set ourselves up when we attempt to explain everything. I think the post modern mind can live with mystery better than some of us can, so we would do well to become more comfortable with it ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI love that you have enjoyed speaking of faith. I loved it and find myself wanting to go back and re-read it.
ReplyDeleteI too had marked the quote
"Mystery is the crux of religion that is almost always missing in our public expressions of religion"
I think for too long we have needed to explain everything... have all the answers. Rick brings up the Psalmists and I love that you see this wrestling and questioning of God.. the embrace of mystery. WHY are we (the church)so afraid of that?
I know embracing mystery brings more peace and freedom... but it is hard as we move through this post modern era.
Well, modernity was all about discovering and organizing truth, so I guess it makes sense that mystery is the language of postmodern faith. I love the quotes and ideas you've referenced in your post and I'll have to check out the book. I do get frustrated sometimes when it seems that people are using "mystery" as a way to avoid wrestling with complicated ideas or as a way to minimize the reality of intellectual problems with faith. On the other hand, I am even more frustrated with people who only believe what can be put into an outline or a declarative sentence. And I predict that anyone who talks too much about mystery will find scathing rebuke from the evangelical church in the form of simplistic questions: "All I'm asking is, do you believe in _______ or not?" And then it gets really hard.
ReplyDeleteMuch of it comes down to interpretation and understanding of what we THINK we know. This obviously varies with respect to our culture, upbringing, and, of course, our individual characters.
ReplyDeleteCase in point...look at the history of the church and the mass splintering that's happened over the many years. Each feels that they have solved more of the mystery and have more answers than the last; in fact, some feel they have all of the answers and there is no mystery any longer, as Trisha stated! Ha ;)
I read this great quote from a book I'm reading by Caputo that says "The more credible things are, the less faith is needed, but the more incredible things seem, the more faith is required."
I feel like God has been very intentional with giving us as much as we can handle, leaving things quite mysterious.
We call it mystery but without it we'll feel we know it all--we'll stop searching, and eventually, we won't need God any longer.
It's my opinion that without mystery human nature will allow us to believe WE are god. God has called us to a life of faith, I trust there is a reason for that; I feel it's what keeps us leaning into and striving to know Him!
Mystery is genius, I'll embrace it :)
Wow, how can I follow that? Well put Jess. I must say I agree with what you said, especially about "without mystery, human nature will allow us to believe WE are God. God called us to a life of faith...". Faith calls on us to believe in what we might typically label "mysterious". When said that way, it does kind of shed a different light on things, changes the tone of conversations and perhaps brings back some of the childlike wonder we've lost in our grown-up ways of having to know all, understand all. I like it...mystery.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that we all jumped on mystery and didn't touch anxiety from Sunday. Seems to me that they go together. To be able to accept the mysteries of faith means there will be unanswered questions. Unanswered questions are what produce anxiety, like Can God really supply all of my needs? Will my wife's cancer come back? Will she die from that recurrence? How much can I trust God with my life? There are no satisfactory answers to some of the questions that I ask. I have suffered from health issues the last few months that my doctor keeps telling me are stress induced. Does that mean I do not trust God enough? Am I unable to accept that there are things that remain in mystery, no explanation as to the answer, or source, or end result?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that the presence of mystery keeps us leaning into and striving to know God more. I also believe that it is OK to accept that there are some things that remain a mystery for now and simply trust God and rest from the struggle to always have answers. The acceptance of mystery will lead to the absence of anxiety.