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Hi, I'm Sophy ~ your editor for this edition of the Spiritual Newsletter. Most people of faith have times of doubt -- even a person like Mother Theresa had doubts about her faith, God, and her place in the world. So this week we'll talk about the power of doubt as a positive part of a spiritual journey.
The Rev. Scotty McLennan, author of the book Finding Your Religion, compares humanity's innate need for spiritual searching to climbing a mountain. In his view, we are all endeavoring to climb the same figurative mountain in our search for the divine, we just may take different ways to get there. In other words, there is one "God," but many paths. I honor whatever path or paths you have chosen to climb that mountain in your quest for the Sacred. 
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The Benefits of the Doubt
Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking
Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God,
if you don't have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep.
Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.
I have been activing pursuing a spiritual path for as long as I can remember. And while traveling on that journey, I have experienced times of doubt and confusion. When I was younger those times worried me because I had been told by others to never doubt my faith, that it was a sin of sorts. But as I've grown older, I've realized, as Buechner says, that doubts are not a bad thing. They can be welcome companions which keep me actively seeking the Divine. Thus I consider searching, questioning, and wondering to be very positive aspects of a healthy, alive spiritual journey.
A few months ago I listened to a podcast that explored the power and positive aspects of healthy doubting. It was a "Speaking of Faith" interview entitled "The History of Doubt" with poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht, the author of Doubt - A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson. She is interviewed by the host of "Speaking of Faith," Krista Tippett, and I've listened to it several times since it first aired. I even picked up a copy of her book - I recommend both to you.
You can find the interview online at:
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/doubt/index.shtml
And here is a link to her book:
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Amazon's Price: $ 12.22
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It would be impossible to narrow down a 500-page book or one-hour interview into a WDC newsletter, so not to worry, I won't even try.  Instead I'll share a couple of highlights from the interview I particularly connected with -- the first being that Hecht defines doubt as "broadly addressing the human impulse to question what is given in order to invest one's days with meaning." I love that definition … questioning for the sake of investing one's days, or life, with meaning. She says that as a scholar she always noticed the "shadow history of doubt out of the corner of her eye, and observed how non-belief, skepticism, and doubt have paralleled and at times shaped the world's great religious and secular belief systems." (This comes from the show's intro page). In fact, it was doubters who brought about the greatest religious reformations in human history.
At the beginning of the interview, Krista Tippett summarizes Hecht's book as "tracing the forms doubt has taken through many cultures and eras, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophers whose writings from the third and fourth centuries B.C.E. still influence our thought today." Hecht begins with the original and most well known cynic, Diogenes, and moves on to Epicurus and Socrates, who said he knew more than anybody else because he knew he didn't know anything. Included in the history of great doubters are many who have grappled with religious questions as well, and, as Hecht puts it, "found the possibility of other answers." She also counters some popular notions about what doubt means. For instance, in our time doubt has often been equated with negativity and an outright rejection of beliefs and theologies, but Hecht shows that doubters have often articulated quite positive philosophies, which she calls "graceful life philosophies."
Hecht suggests that "only in modern times has doubt been narrowly equated with a complete rejection of faith, instead of the broader definition history gives us." She adds, "The great figures I love the most are ones who [constantly question]. They may decide for sure that they don't believe in God, but they don't decide for sure that they really know what the universe is all about. They decide for sure that questioning is for them. You have to be a little bold and a little brave in most periods of time to be a doubter. And I liked them. I also was surprised by them because the dominant history basically suggests that doubt is very modern and that we [only] had a few doubters in the ancient world, but I kept seeing it everywhere. And so I just wanted to tell that story, to sketch it out. And then when I did the research for it, I found it was much more cohesive and self-knowing than I had ever dreamed."
I'll stop there and again commend the entire interview and book to you if you are interested. Probably the reason that I related to it so well is because it struck a chord with me in terms of my own faith journey and how doubt has enhanced, rather than hindered it. In my younger years I carried the burden of certainty around through much of my teens - not as long as some, but long enough that it literally and metaphorically made my back ache from the weight of it. But then, as it does for all of us, LIFE happened to me, and when it smacked me the way it does sometimes, I was confronted with unanswerable questions about faith and life and where God fit into it all. And that challenged me to let go of my burden of certainty, which was a bit scary at first, but as soon as I did, I experienced immediate relief was able to move forward much more easily, and happily, with doubt as my companion along the way and my spirituality enhanced as a result. In other words, the doubting and questioning ended up refreshing my faith rather than dampening it.
I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences with doubt, befriending it somewhere along your own journeys. I find it very helpful to write about those times, not only to give me perspective and an opportunity for later glimpses of my past spiritual self, but also as a valuable tool to help me work my way through it. I encourage you do do the same as a valuable spiritual writing exercise. Perhaps you might share about when you first embraced doubt on your journey and how it affected you, or an example of a time doubt was a welcome friend and companion along your way. Whatever the case, don't be afraid of doubt -- healthy doubt has resulted in amazing reformations and evolutions of faith throughout time, both individually and collectively. I know some may disagree, but experience has told me to befriend it, take its hand, embrace it and invite it to journey with me.
Until next time! Sophy
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Below you'll find some offerings from other WDC members that relate to the issues of spirituality and doubt. Please let the folks know if you read their piece by leaving a thoughtful comment or review.
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About my own self-doubt when I worked for the Catholic Church...
#1216355 by momwrites  |
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#1296283 by Not Available. |
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#1209557 by Not Available. |
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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Now for some comments about my March newsletter about time:
From Cubby 
I can't wait for the weekends to come, but when they do, I end up dreading Monday morning. Sunday is not a good day because I know it is the end of my weekend. What a vicious circle! I feel like I'm wasting so much time dreading the week days, that weekend days are just flying by.  No wonder I can't sleep well at night! And no wonder I have no energy to write. When I do, it seems other people need me. Sorry... I just had to vent, lol! I sure could connect with your newsletter this week. 
~Cubby
Thanks for the comment, Cubby, it DOES sound like you really connected with the newsletter topic I shared about time. And believe me, you are not alone in what you experience about that vicious circle!
     
From faithjourney
Thanks for the great newsletter on time. What a message in season. Last night my husband and I watched "Click" on one of our movie channels on TV. I thought it would be silly, but it hit me hard - what profound messages on not "fast forwarding" through life. Thanks for the great reminder!
You are most welcome! And thank you for the thoughtful comment. I'll have to check that movie out!
From Incurable Romantic
Sophy, your editorial on the passage of time is GREAT. A lot of caring went into it. Now those of us who have read it have to apply it. That could be a challenge for many, but well worth it. Thanks for an excellent newsletter!
Thank you for your comment! And believe me, I have to work to apply it just as hard as everyone else -- it's a real weakness of mine, learning to live in the moment. Good luck to you!
From Jaye P. Marshall 
Excellent newsletter and the passage - used or not - of the time we're allotted.
I would be interested in getting your readers' feedback on this story, if that is possible. ""I Can Make It!""
Sure it's possible -- I've linked it above!
From Katya the Poet 
Perfect timing! I was just working things out in my blog about time needed for writing projects and how best to juggle jobs/time appropriately in the life I have now and the life I've got left. Your newsletter is very reassuring! And thanks for using my poem.
I love syncronicity! And thank YOU for your poem!
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming, they are greatly appreciated! And on behalf of myself and the other wonderful Spiritual Newsletter Editors, Puditat larryp kittiara -- thanks for reading this newsletter!
Until next time! Sophy
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Spiritual: April 09, 2008 Issue [#2326]
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