Yes, I can see that @Lamb Chopped and yes, I can also see why @KarlLB is troubled by it also.
I've sometimes wondered whether my faith would dissolve under pressure or fizzle out if I stopped praying or reading scripture or theological books and visiting churches and cathedrals and so on.
Or if I met and fell in love with someone who didn't share my faith.
Yes, all that goes through my mind. I'm not sure worrying about it helps, anymore than trying not to think about it. I don't really know what the answer is except to keep going.
These days I don't see faith as being about 'mountain top' experiences or pyrotechnics. It's a way of life and a gradual process of, hopefully, taming the passions and growing closer to Christ. It can feel like a complete grind at times.
It's a bit like a hike. Much of the time it's a trudge but now and again you get a great view or come across something of interest, however insignificant.
Yeah, I think the trudge is built into it, so to speak. Or to change the metaphor, it's like physical therapy, which I've had a lot of. If Christ is right about the state we're in by nature, and what he's done to set it right, well, I foresee a lot of mildly unpleasant exercises in my future.
I don't understand 'mildly unpleasant exercises in my future', LC.
But hiking is not (usually, in my experience) a trudge when hiking with a friend.
And I'm blessed to have friends, and a wife. And if God is not 'there' most of the time, does that matter? But sometimes, just sometimes, eg when I found myself alone with my dad as he took his last breath, I had all the 'peace that passes understanding' that I needed -and I attribute that to God.
So what difference does this make in the Real World. For many who are persecuted their faith is strong. When people are less persecuted they seem to waver. If we were under pressure would we be talking about this in the same way? What difference does our freedom make to our faith or otherwise? How does it affect our world view?
What about everyone of any and all faith, that you know in person, who isn't persecuted at all? As opposed to people you don't know in cultures nothing like ours, that you don't know either?
What about everyone of any and all faith, that you know in person, who isn't persecuted at all? As opposed to people you don't know in cultures nothing like ours, that you don't know either?
That is not the question I asked. We can go on to that but that isn’t an answer
There are several ways to respond to pressure. You can crack under it. Or it can make you stronger.
Whilst 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church' as Tertullian said, I'm not sure persecution in and of itself guarantees that individuals or faith communities strengthen their resolve.
Hence the Docetist controversy. And early Christian debates about whether people who 'apostasised' should be received back or re-baptised etc etc.
There are also other pressures, of course. As in the Parable of The Sower. And those Shipmates who have lost their faith - and there have been a number over the years - must have been through considerable inner turmoil and pressure as part of that process.
I'm not sure there's any hard and fast rule on this one. It isn't just brittle fundamentalists who lose their faith when their inflexible worldview faces the winds of change.
I was a strong fundamentalist. I only mellowed as the fundamentalism did. Over 30 years. I mellowed off that vine for 7 years and then came back to the very church of my infant baptism. For 16 years, till Covid come. And my last reason to believe died.
So what difference does this make in the Real World. For many who are persecuted their faith is strong. When people are less persecuted they seem to waver. If we were under pressure would we be talking about this in the same way? What difference does our freedom make to our faith or otherwise? How does it affect our world view?
"The truth is, Christians become more confident that they are Christians when they feel persecuted. I want to spend a moment exploring how a misunderstanding of certain Gospel passages can lure people into this way of thinking, and then I hope to show how attending to the logic of the gospel’s promise better prepares us to accept the burden of discernment and the calling to hope."
Comments
I've sometimes wondered whether my faith would dissolve under pressure or fizzle out if I stopped praying or reading scripture or theological books and visiting churches and cathedrals and so on.
Or if I met and fell in love with someone who didn't share my faith.
Yes, all that goes through my mind. I'm not sure worrying about it helps, anymore than trying not to think about it. I don't really know what the answer is except to keep going.
These days I don't see faith as being about 'mountain top' experiences or pyrotechnics. It's a way of life and a gradual process of, hopefully, taming the passions and growing closer to Christ. It can feel like a complete grind at times.
It's a bit like a hike. Much of the time it's a trudge but now and again you get a great view or come across something of interest, however insignificant.
But hiking is not (usually, in my experience) a trudge when hiking with a friend.
And I'm blessed to have friends, and a wife. And if God is not 'there' most of the time, does that matter? But sometimes, just sometimes, eg when I found myself alone with my dad as he took his last breath, I had all the 'peace that passes understanding' that I needed -and I attribute that to God.
That is not the question I asked. We can go on to that but that isn’t an answer
Whilst 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church' as Tertullian said, I'm not sure persecution in and of itself guarantees that individuals or faith communities strengthen their resolve.
Hence the Docetist controversy. And early Christian debates about whether people who 'apostasised' should be received back or re-baptised etc etc.
There are also other pressures, of course. As in the Parable of The Sower. And those Shipmates who have lost their faith - and there have been a number over the years - must have been through considerable inner turmoil and pressure as part of that process.
I'm not sure there's any hard and fast rule on this one. It isn't just brittle fundamentalists who lose their faith when their inflexible worldview faces the winds of change.
Some of what you're asking may be found in this article.
"The truth is, Christians become more confident that they are Christians when they feel persecuted. I want to spend a moment exploring how a misunderstanding of certain Gospel passages can lure people into this way of thinking, and then I hope to show how attending to the logic of the gospel’s promise better prepares us to accept the burden of discernment and the calling to hope."