If you missed Part 1, you might want to read it first.
Here’s where I think we relate. Though my experience wasn’t so dramatic, it parallels that of theologian Marcus Borg, who posits that people go through three or four phases of faith development in their lives. (This is not an academic journal, so forgive me if I don’t comb through his writings for footnotes. This is just my memory of what I’ve read. If I’ve erred in factual recall, I apologize, but the overall picture is useful even if flawed in attribution.)
I think I remember that in his childhood Borg’s viewed God as somewhere between a Santa Claus and a vending machine—do certain things, pray in certain ways, and God would give you things, the stereotypical “old man with a white beard in the sky.” That’s the first phase. Though it’s hard to maintain a belief system like that, some people manage a version well into adulthood.
However, it doesn’t hold up well to investigation. By the time Borg finished a college degree in religious studies he had lost his childhood faith. He continued to teach and study religion, but as a sociological phenomenon, the way one might study interesting superstitions. That’s the second phase: wholesale rejection. A lot of people reach this phase and stop.
Life has a way of getting your attention through some crisis or another. I don’t remember what it was the caused Borg to re-examine things, but I do know that something happened to cause him to rethink his wholesale rejection of Christianity, God, and Jesus. It ultimately led him to a mature faith that looked beyond the surface. If the second phase throws out the baby with the bathwater, the third phase seeks to retain and nurture the baby while draining the tub.
Borg is a theological liberal. (I don’t use that as a term of denigration or judgment, but as a technical label.) Conservative Anglican N. T. Wright frequently disputes Borg’s positions but shares with him a love of Jesus and a longtime friendship. He, too, has passed through the phases of faith development and come to a more orthodox but still deeply meaningful faith that serves well in the modern age.
I’m not concerned with liberal or conservative. I’m more concerned with those three phases. Here are a couple of things that I think will guide us going forward: dog and cat theology, and the Pauline-Corinthian principle.
Dog and Cat Theology
I have written about this elsewhere, but it continues to play around in my thoughts. As we try to understand the things of God, the mystery of faith, we inevitably find ourselves metaphorically in the place of our pets.
We used to have a chihuahua, and I noticed that she would watch me as I readied for work in the mornings. I could imagine the conversation she might have in her head.
“What is he doing? He rushes from place to place, goes out the door, runs back in, grabs bags, and then runs out again. Where does he go for the whole day? Is he hunting? Why does he grind up perfectly good beans and put them in water? Why doesn’t he just eat something and then take a nap? Why does he sometimes push the angry loud machine around on the floor?”
I could not explain veterinarian visits to her, either. She must have thought, “I absolutely cannot understand how this human to whom I have dedicated my undying love can actually hold me down and let that strange human stick sharp things into me. How can this be?”
There was absolutely no way to explain it to Tinkerbell. And yet, somehow, she still loved me and trusted me though she couldn’t understand. She shivered and tried to get away, but when I held her for the vet to give her the vaccination, she still trusted me.
We cannot possibly understand God. And yet we try, because it is in our nature to strive for that. We will fail, but we must try. I think that’s how Borg and Wright come still to regard each other not only as friends but brothers. We’re just all trying to understand that which is far beyond our comprehension.
Next week: The Pauline-Corinthian principle. Plus, what’s this “abundant life” thing? Later this week: a couple of short bits of encouragement for the journey.