(52) Doubting Christianity: the Church and Doubt (original) (raw)
Related papers
This article was published in a journal, now defunct, that was dubbed "A Review from the Margins," and called CÉIDE. That bi-monthly journal was edited by Rev. Kevin Hegarty, a truly radical Catholic priest who sought to ask bold and hard questions of both Church and Society before it was common to do so. This essay was published in CÉIDE, Vol. 1, No 5, May/June 1998. It's interesting to re-read it now some seventeen years later. I can still stand over most of what I wrote then. Anyone with an interest in pastoral theology will find its approach very much in keeping with good practice in that field.
Religious faith, certainty and doubt
Kerygma und Dogma, 2019
In this paper, I will discuss the relationship between religious faith and doubt. In contemporary religious epistemology, it has been customary to require religious faith to have high epistemic standards. This is in line with many creedal formulations, which typically underline that believers should have certainty (certitudo) in their faith. Nevertheless, in the theological literature, it is not uncommon that doubt and uncertainty are acknowledged as ordinary aspects of a life of faith. In the following, I analyze faith not in its ideal form but as it often appears in the lives of believers, investigating how the relationship between faith and certainty could be understood.
FAITH AS VIRTUE: THE NECESSITY OF DOUBT
FAITH AS VIRTUE: THE NECESSITY OF DOUBT, 2024
This paper focuses on the role played by doubt in shaping faith as a mental state in humans. In contemporary discussions on faith, doubt refutes a theory or supports another. However, the crucial question remains: is doubt an essential element inherent in faith? This paper argues that doubt is a fundamental and necessary component of faith, especially when considering faith as a virtue. The first part of this paper sets the framework for this study by addressing some crucial relevant questions, such as what the necessary aspects of faith are. Is faith a virtue? The second part argues that, given the account of faith developed in the first part of the study, doubt is a necessary element and component of faith for it to be considered a virtue. This study's methodology is founded on critically examining primary and secondary sources relevant to faith as a virtue and engaging in conceptual and argumentative analyses.
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2017
This chapter is a detailed study of William P. Alston’s view on the nature of Christian faith, which is assessed in the context of three problems: the problem of the skeptical Christian, the problem of faith and reason, and the problem of the trajectory. Although Alston intended a view that would solve these problems, the view he sets out does so only superficially. Fortunately, this view can be distinguished from Alston’s illustrations of it, and it is argued in this chapter that, although Alston’s view only superficially solves these problems, his illustrations of it suggest a substantive way to solve them, a way that is sketched briefly.
Making Truth in Early Modern Catholicism
2021
Scholarship has come to value the uncertainties haunting early modern knowledge cultures; indeed, awareness of the fragility and plurality of knowledge is now offered as a key element for understanding early modern science as a whole. Yet early modern actors never questioned the possibility of certainty itself and never objected to the notion that truth is out there, universal, and therefore safe from human manipulation. This book investigates how early modern actors managed not to succumb to postmodern relativism, despite the increasing uncertainties and blatant disagreements about the nature of God, Man, and the Universe. An international and interdisciplinary team of experts in fields ranging from the history of science to theology and the history of ideas analyses a number of practices that were central to maintaining and functionalizing the notion of absolute truth. Through such an interdisciplinary research the book shows how certainty about truth could be achieved, and how ea...