Dear Friends in Christ,
I like to read philosophy, though I am not a philosopher. Few people enjoy modern (or, even, ancient) philosophy and get all flummoxed by the systematic doubt that philosophy cultivates. Many philosophers (nominalists, phenomenalists, idealists) even doubt that we can know that an external world exists outside of our minds, even while acknowledging that we have to act as if such a world does, indeed, exist. Common sense folk, e.g.—my wife, wonder what possible use such systematic doubt can be. One of my favorite American thinkers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, was sure there is a point to such doubt—here is what he said:
Illusion, Temperament, Succession, Surface, Surprise, Reality,
Subjectiveness—these are the threads on the loom of time, these
are the lords of life. I dare not assume to give their order, but I
name them as I find them in my way. I know better than to claim
any completeness for my picture. I am a fragment and this is a
fragment of me.
The Christian virtue that this systematic doubt comes closest to is humility—epistemological humility. What I am sure I know may not be so certain after all. It may be a tick of culture or a vagary of psychology. Perhaps, just maybe, the other person’s perspective, which I am so confident must be wrong, deserves a second look. Even in the hard sciences, thanks to people like Einstein, Heisenberg, and Bohr, there has been a movement away from talking about “Laws of Nature” toward a much more careful discussion of Probabilities.
Wow. If only we could take this philosophical/scientific practice of systematic doubt and transfer it to the realm of religion and politics. Our world is in danger of spiritual gridlock leading to actual war over people’s religious and political certainties. We need some more healthy doubt. I’m writing this letter on the day of the New Hampshire primary. I have no idea how all this is going to turn out, but you know what my favorite moment of the campaign has been so far? Last Saturday night, the Democrats were exiting from their debate as the Republicans were entering for theirs and there were these magic minutes—America watched political “enemies” hugging each other, joking, just chatting. The image was shown over and over again on TV and we lapped it up. We are so hungry for a return to civility, so hungry for an end to the politics of refusal and confrontation, so desirous for politicians who will genuinely work to find common ground that we read more into this moment than may have been there.
We are entering the holy season of Lent. It is a time to repent of our sins and to work toward amendment of life and newness of mind. Maybe one of the things we need to repent of is an arrogant certainty, an attribution of base motives to people who see things differently, and a willingness to go to the barricades rather than ever compromise. Humility may be a first step toward an implementation of the love ethic of Jesus.
I am pretty passionate about the things I believe in; just ask my wife and kids, who have to listen while I fulminate at the supper table. I am not at all advocating for surrendering beliefs and values or for not fighting vigorously in the struggle for justice, for peace, for our values. For me, systematic doubt, Christian humility, willingness to take other people’s views seriously, does not imperil that struggle, it advances it and allows us to go together. “Divide and conquer” (both the dividing and the conquering) may bring “victories,” but it rarely gives us genuine solutions. Jesus suggests that it is in loving one another that we will find solutions. The love will allow us to move beyond impasses to new understandings that can become real breakthroughs. Lao Tzu says: “Yield and overcome.” He means both verbs. I am not the whole, I am but a fragment, and my knowledge is fragmentary at best, but together (“love will keep us together”—those great philosophers: The Captain and Tenille!) we can make real progress. Lent is the way to Easter.
Yours in Christ,
–Pastor Bastien
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