When we visited with Marcus Borg in Portland, we spent a whole session discussing what it meant to believe. Borg said "'to believe' is 'to belove'--to center deeply in God; and Christian faith means to center deeply in God as known in Jesus." He pointed out that in our modern thinking belief means "an opinion or conviction" and that we most often use it when our beliefs are somehow counter-intellectual. As an example, he mentioned that Random House Dictionary's first definition of belief is "an opinion or conviction" and then provides this example: "the belief that the world is flat."
Borg shared that prior to the 1600 (or the advent of the enlightenment) "to believe" always had a person as its direct object. And Christian belief always had God or Jesus as the object of belief. Therefore, the opposite of faith was not doubt or uncertainity but rather unfaithfulness.
So he suggested that we need to return to the older understanding of believing as relationship (or beloving) with God rather than the newer understanding of belief as a conviction in a set of facts about God.
Part of me wants to say, "Right on, brother!" But what bothers me is this--how do I believe in a God I don't know anything about? Don't our statements about what we believe about the God we worship affect our ability to believe/belove God?
What do you think?
3 comments:
Sherill, I really enjoyed yesterdays sermon.
I second Jeff's comment. and then I third and fourth it. haha
The thing about believing/beloved is that it's a two way street; God is believing and loving us even as we attempt to know him better and understand our relationship to him through all the Bible Study, experience, prayer, and all the common wisdom we can share. But how do we reveal God's love? Does he need us to reveal his love? Can we be a reflection of him? There are countless personalities in the Bible that do all of these things at some point in thier life, but fail miserably at other times. So it comes down to Jesus' question, "Do you love me?" There are answers to Peter's "Lord, you know I do!" He answers, "Feed my sheep; tend my lambs." So, in serving do we find out more about God? In serving do we find out more about ourselves? I know, I'm asking more questions than answering the original. But I'm feeling particulary "sheepish" in my life right now and it is good to know the Shepherd.
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