Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 53
March 9, 2015
Writings and life of Edith Stein shed light on what "Communion with Christ" really means
San Francisco, March 9, 2015 – What does it mean to be in true communion with Christ? Pope Saint John Paul II declared that the great challenge for the Church in our day is to become “the home and school of communion.” Saint Teresa Benedicta, known to many as Edith Stein, is a sure guide to attaining the communion for which every human heart longs.
A new book, Communion with Christ: According to Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
by Sister M. Regina van den Berg, F.S.G.M., considers Saint Teresa’s life and writings in the context of the “spirituality of communion.” As a philosopher she was directed towards attaining communion with the Truth, and she discovered that Truth was a Person, Jesus Christ. As a Carmelite nun she gave up everything for communion with him.
Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, in the foreword, says Edith Stein’s message “is above her time” and that the author, Sister M. Regina van den Berg, “is well qualified to write such a book.” Sister Regina explores in detail Edith Stein’s theory of empathy as developed in her doctoral dissertation, as well as her theory of community. Sister Regina has also used a number of Edith Stein’s writings which, until this work, have not yet been available in English translation.
Each chapter explores an aspect of “communion”, richly revealing how Edith Stein, “a Jew who became a philosopher . . . a convert to Catholicism who became a Carmelite nun and crowned her life with martyrdom.” Stein’s work “provides insights that can help us grow in the spirituality of communion, first by presenting to us the truth about the human person’s nature and vocation and then by showing us how we can arrive at a spirituality of communion in the various aspects of life.”
Colleen Carroll Campbell, author of My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir, declares, “Philosopher, convert and martyr Edith Stein is enjoying a well-deserved revival of interest these days. Readers of this clear and careful study will come away with a stronger sense of the depth and breadth of Edith Stein’s thought, which is as relevant today as ever.”
“This is an ideal introduction for anyone wishing to learn how one of the greatest saints of our time envisioned and lived the ‘science of the Cross’”, says Dawn Eden, author of My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints.
Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, S.C.D., author of Artist and Image: Artistic Creativity and Personal Formation in the Thought of Edith Stein, says that “Sister Regina presents a deeply mature and incisive analysis of the heart of Stein’s teaching on communion as a union of hearts and minds ultimately united towards one eternal goal and divine destiny.”
“Sister Regina unveils the depths of Edith Stein’s insights, revealing Stein’s nuanced account of community between women and men, human and angelic communities, membership in the Mystical Body, etc. An impressive achievement that teaches much about how to be more fully human”, says Sarah Borden Sharkey, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wheaton College.
Fr. John Sullivan, O.C.D., from the Institute of Carmelite Studies, claims that “this book will help the reader deepen an appreciation for the significance of Teresa Benedicta/Edith Stein in contemporary debates.”
About the Author:
Sister M. Regina van den Berg, F.S.G.M., obtained her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America. She has served in various apostolates for her religious community and currently resides in Rome.
Sister M. Regina van den Berg is available for interviews about this book.
To request a review copy or an interview, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or rose@ignatius.com
Product Facts:
Title: COMMUNION WITH CHRIST
According to Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
Author: Sister M. Regina van den Berg, F.S.G.M.
Release Date: February 2015
Length: 168 pages
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-1-58617-951-9 • Softcover
Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com
Ideas and Actions
[Photo: © goir | us.fotolia.com]
Ideas and Actions | Fr. James V. Schall, SJ | CWR
The wars of the world are first fought in the minds and hearts of the wise before they ever reach visible reality; when they do arrive, the ones who suffer most are the weak
“So many past controversies between Christians can be overcome when we put aside all polemical or apologetic approaches, and seek instead to grasp more firmly what unites us, namely, our call to share in the mystery of the Father’s love revealed to us by the Son through the Holy Spirit. Christian unity—we are convinced—will not be the fruit of subtle theoretical discussions in which each party tries to convince the other of the soundness of their opinions. When the Son of Man comes He will find us still discussing!”
— Pope Francis, Vespers, Closing of Christian Unity Week, January 25, 2015.
“'Many are the strange chances of the world,’ said Mithrandir, ‘and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.’”
— J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
“While ideas are indeed important, a history of ideas is far from being always a history of good ideas. Good ideas may easily be lost sight of, whether willfully or by lack of publicity. It was as true in the past as it is in the present, not only that bad ideas drive out good, but that the fortune of ideas themselves is apparently often a matter of chance….”
— John M. Rist, Augustine Deformed (Cambridge, 2014)
I.
Few titles have been more tellingly cited than that of Richard Weaver’s 1948 book Ideas Have Consequences. One could reverse that title with equal force to read: “Consequences result from ideas.” In this view, ideas—far from being vague, inert, neutral concepts—are the main forces in the world for stability or change, for good or bad. Yet, ideas fall in the order of “formal” causality, not “efficient” causality. That is, ideas only indicate a “what”. As such, they do not have any effect on the world unless someone decides to put them into operation.
Ideas have consequences only when they become that which some agent decides to put into effect. Someone must cause them to become the form or design of an actual deed or action. This view does not deny that all existing things implicitly have a “form” or “intelligibility” that establishes what they are. This intelligibility is what the human mind seeks to know about things outside of itself.
Beyond or outside of action in the contemplative or intellectual order, a “war” or lively examination of ideas does occur. This sorting out of the meaning of ideas takes place regarding the truth of things. As such, in the order of thought, it does not much matter whether or not anyone decides to put any particular idea into effect. This rumination about the validity and content of ideas is what the life of the mind is about. Though books are written about it and lectures given, this war of ideas is essentially invisible, lodged in the souls of those who think them.
What subsequently goes on in the visible world has its origin in the interplay of ideas that previously took place often centuries ago or in distant places. To assess the import of ideas, we need to be educated. We need a sound grounding in philosophy itself both because of our inner desire to know the truth and because we seek to know what ideas are false and dangerous so that we do not set them inadvertently loose in the world. It is true, as philosopher John Rist indicated, that bad ideas can drive out good ideas. Yet all bad or erroneous ideas are presented as if they are true. We cannot escape the effort to distinguish what is true from what is not.
The motto of the Dominican Order—Contemplata Tradere—carries a similar notion. We can only teach or “hand over” what we have first reflected on in our own souls. Both false and true ideas can be given existence, can be taught, can be thought about, can be put into effect. The contemplative side, the actual pondering of what ideas mean, recognizes that one of the major sources of the what is done in the world is always an idea, even a bad idea. Too, we should not confuse an idea with our will or our passions that incite us to take an idea outside of ourselves and put into the world in some form or other.
We are beings who cannot be explained only by our reason, but also by our wills, the immediate object of which are indeed our ideas, which in turn have some relation to what is, to what is not our intellects. An idea remains what it is no matter what will or desire is the impulse that puts it into existence. Once in existence, it has its own life as an idea now embodied in a thing, in an act, a habit or custom, or an institution.
II.
How do we arrive at good ideas to carry into effect?
March 8, 2015
New: "The Secret of Saint Thérèse" (DVD)
Now available from Ignatius Press:
DVD | 51 minutes
Called "the greatest saint of modern times" by Pope St. Pius X, Thérèse of Lisieux lived a hidden life in a Carmelite monastery and died at only 24 years of life. Yet, her "secret" of sanctity has made her not only a great modern saint, but a Doctor of the Church. She promised to spend her Heaven doing good on Earth. Her simple spirituality, humility and complete trust in God revolutionized the 20th century. Over 100 years after her death she continues to inspire millions of people, help them in their lives, and draw them closer to God.
This film tells the story of her life and message, intertwined with the personal stories of twelve people from around the world who testify to the great impact Therese has made on their lives. Including very rare footage of the inside of her monastery at Lisieux, we also meet a taxi driver in Rome, a famous radio priest in the Netherlands, a wedding dress designer in Paris, a teenager in Lebanon, a Protestant professor at Harvard divinity School, a mother of twelve children in Nigeria, a stock broker on Wall Street, and others, who share their moving personal stories of how Thérèse, and her "secret", has changed their lives. A secret so powerful, it confirms her mission to "Love Jesus and to make Him loved by others."
"I have the habit, when I do not know how things are going, of asking Saint Thérèse that if she takes care of some problem, anything at all, to send me a rose."
- Pope Francis
March 7, 2015
True Worship and the Cleansing of the Temple
"Christ driving the moneychangers from the Temple" (1635) by Rembrandt [WikiArt.org]
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, March 8, 2015, the Third Sunday of Lent | Carl E. Olson
Readings:
• Ex 20:1-17
• Psa 19:8, 9, 10, 11
• 1 Cor 1:22-25
• Jn. 2:13-25
Benedict XVI, in Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (2007), explained that Jesus Christ is the new Torah and the new Temple. “Jesus understands himself as the Torah—as the word of God in person”, wrote Benedict. And then, a bit later: “The issue of Jesus’ claim to be Temple and Torah in person also has implications for the question of Israel—the issue of the living community of the people in whom God’s word is actualized.”
This understanding is not unique to Benedict. For example, Dr. Matthew Levering developed it in his book, Christ’s Fulfillment of Torah and Temple (University of Notre Dame Press, 2002), emphasizing the insights of St. Thomas Aquinas. But, you ask, what does such high-minded theology have to do with living a Christian life, especially during Lent? Today’s readings, which focus on the Torah and the Temple, provide an opportunity to reflect on that question.
Let’s begin by asking: what was the purpose of the Torah? The Ten Commandments (and 603 other commandments) were given within the context of two key events: the Exodus from Egypt and the covenant at Mount Sinai. The Exodus was aimed at two things, the first obvious, the second less so: land and worship. We all know of the promised land flowing with milk and honey, but we often overlook God’s words to Pharaoh, given by Moses: “Let my people go to serve me in the wilderness” and “We must go a three days’ journey in the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord, our God, as he commands us” (Ex 7:16; 8:23). Freedom from slavery meant freedom to openly worship God.
Finally free, the people went to the base of Mount Sinai, where Moses eventually received the Torah. As Joseph Ratzinger notes in The Spirit of the Liturgy (Ignatius Press, 2000), the covenant established there united “the three aspects of worship, law, and ethics”—that is, how to relate to God and to others, in public and private relationships. The Torah was meant to lead to the fullness of life, which included entering the promised land. Rather than giving blind submission to an unknown, capricious deity, the people were to respond with love to the mercy and goodness of the Lord (see CCC 2062).
The Torah, then, was not legalistic or based in anger, but came from a rather stunning expression of divine, personal love. Just as God had created everything out of love, he also created a people of his own out of love and with a distinct purpose. Jewish scholar Maurice Samuel, in his introduction to Solomon Goldman’s commentary, The Ten Commandments (University of Chicago, 1963), wrote, “Just as Genesis is an explosive denial of the randomness of the physical universe, so the Revelation at Sinai is a repudiation of the meaninglessness of history.”
That repudiation culminated in the Incarnation. And Jesus Christ, by his life, death, and resurrection established a new and everlasting covenant that perfectly fulfilled the Torah (cf., CCC 2052-2055). Through him, we have life and purpose, for in him we share in the very life of God.
The Temple in Jerusalem was, of course, a place of worship; it was God’s dwelling place among his chosen people. Sacrifices were offered there for the atonement of sins, but it had increasingly become the home for a lucrative system of money changing and price gauging. The house of God had become, in many ways, a supermarket and a “den of robbers” (Jer 7:11). Rather than a sacred place where man be reconciled to God, the Temple was becoming a place of corrupt commodity.
Just as the covenant at Sinai established man’s right relationship with God, the cleansing of the Temple drew a line in the sand—not to repress, but to redeem. If God is not given proper honor and worship, love begins to die and relationships are perverted. We begin by loving God and accepting Christ’s mercy, grace, and life. All else follows.
(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the March 11, 2012, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
March 6, 2015
Fantastic Francis Fantasies
Pope Francis passes a video monitor as he arrives to lead his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican March 4. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Fantastic Francis Fantasies | Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille | CWR blog
Young leftist Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig is the latest breathless fan cheering madly at the 2015 running of the Ultramontane Sweeps
The media is so predictable. With Lent well underway, and Easter now just a month off, watch for an increasing spate of cover stories about whether Jesus was really resurrected, whether he ascended to heaven, or whether he fled to Morocco and married one of his apostles in a long-secret gay marriage only now come to light because of a scrap of undated papyrus containing a half dozen Greek letters. I last bothered reading one of these tedious stories around 1995. They never change.
But there is another cycle to media mischief, and it is tied to the forthcoming synod in Rome in October. After the shambolic affair this past October, we can expect reporters to descend on Rome again to report breathlessly on how Pope Francis is going to wave his magic papal wand and declare “gay marriage”, abortion, and Big Macs to be good things. In fact, the media campaign for him to make changes has already begun. Exhibit A is Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig article, “Fear of a Radical Pope”, just published in The New Republic.
If Bruenig, who describes herself on her website as a doctoral student who brings “a Christian leftist perspective to public discourse”, were one of my graduate students and she turned in such a sprawling and incoherent essay she would have received it back drowning in a veritable Red Sea of inky corrections. Leaving aside the fact that there is so very little serious content, and still less rational sequence, to this article, and overlooking its abundant and very adolescent sneering and sloganeering (“irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas” to re-purpose Trilling’s famous phrase), the most risible passage is surely this bit of armchair psychoanalysis:
Conservatives inside the Church and out will, in all likelihood, continue to rankle at Francis’s presence, his persona, his wildly successful evangelism. With every word, he offers an obviously superior approach to theirs.
When I was a graduate student, a professor once said to me: “watch your adverbs.” I offer the same counsel here to Bruenig because her careless usage offers very fat targets ripe for ready rejoinder: wildly successful evangelism? Obviously superior approach? Relative to whom—the Westboro Baptists? Such lazy, tendentious and noticeably fact-free generalizations have no place in the writing of any would-be serious scholar—and the fact she’s writing for a once-popular magazine does not excuse this evidentiary burden.
It never occurs to Ms. Bruenig for even a moment that people may disagree not with Francis’s presence or persona, but his practices and perhaps even his ideas, and that doing so is a welcome, necessary, and healthy practice of the Church going all the way back to the apostles themselves.
March 5, 2015
New: "Saint Rita of Cascia: The True Story" (DVD)
Now available from Ignatius Press:
Saint Rita of Cascia: The True Story
DVD | 61 minutes
A compelling docu-drama that tells the whole story of the amazing life of St. Rita of Cascia, the very popular saint who lived in Italy in the 14th century. Famous as the patron of hopeless situations, St. Rita dealt with many very difficult, and tragic, events in her life. Through it all she developed a profound faith in God that was the source of her great strength, and why she is such a popular saint for all those dealing with difficult events in their own lives.
Her story combines high drama, great love, deep betrayal, profound forgiveness and strong faith, about this brave woman who married her knight, helped him overcome his dark past and convert to faith, happily bore him two children, and later endures immense pain as she loses everything in her life.
She finds peace and new hope through the generosity of a nearby convent of sisters, and with their help she develops a deep union with Christ that greatly inspires all who are near her.
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It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird
Novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner Harper Lee in 1962, two years after the publication of her novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" (Photos: Wikipedia)
It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird | Thomas M. Doran | CWR blog
News that Harper Lee, at 88, is publishing a newly discovered manuscript raises a number of difficult and troubling questions
Full disclosure: I'm a lifelong admirer of Harper Lee. My book, Terrapin, was inspired, in part, by her storytelling in To Kill A Mockingbird. We corresponded in the 1990s. None of this makes me an expert on Harper Lee or her forthcoming book (a story about an adult Scout returning to Maycomb), nor is my personal respect an argument for canonization. Like all of us, she surely has her flaws and weaknesses, but what I am reading leads me to believe that, in the evening of her life, she is being treated as a sensation and a commodity.
Is Harper Lee, at 88, truly making decisions about this newly discovered manuscript, Go Set A Watchman? If not, are the people making these decisions doing so with her previously expressed wishes and best interests front and center? We aren’t supposed to judge hearts, and I certainly don’t know the motives of the people who are driving this project, but we know there are people who will do anything for money, power, and notoriety.
To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1962. Millions of copies were sold in the first year, and many millions more since. Harper Lee’s publisher wanted her to write more stories, but no new books appeared in 1970, 1980, 1990, or 2000. If she had an almost-ready book on the shelf, why didn’t she, her editor, and publisher turn it into another bestseller? Isn’t this decision to publish a sequel to Mockingbird—though Watchman is said to have been written before Mockingbird—inconsistent with what Harper Lee has said for decades? Why has all of this happened after her beloved sister and advocate died? To what extent can the ostensible author of Go Set A Watchman be involved in the editorial process for this book?
March 4, 2015
Chesterton the Poet
Chesterton the Poet | Michael J. Lichens | Catholic World Report
Although often overlooked today, G. K. Chesterton's wide-ranging poetry has been praised by atheist Christopher Hitchens, novelist Graham Greene, and poet W. H. Auden.
"A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found its words." — Robert Frost
In his otherwise disparaging review of Dr. Ian Ker’s G. K. Chesterton: A Biography, the late atheist critic Christopher Hitchens noted that he and Ker were in agreement “on the high quality of Chesterton’s poems.” Hitchens had many unkind comments about a whole host of Catholic writers but on the subject of Chesterton’s poetic works, he found within the rhymes “his magic faculty of being unforgettable.”
This will come as a surprise for many, even as G. K. Chesterton’s work has undergone something of a renaissance with practically all his work being brought back into print. However, few are aware of his poetry outside of his drinking poems and what W. H. Auden called “the best pure nonsense verse in English.” Chesterton's poetry sold well in his own time and earned him praise, but even the great Bombastic Journalist thought of himself as “a very minor poet.” So it is that few people today neither read much of his poetry nor are familiar enough with it to see the brilliance hiding beneath the careful rhymes and whimsical verse.
With the renewed interest in Chesterton and his work, we should not neglect the contribution he made to English verse, which is at times child-like as it explores the deep mysteries of faith and existence with the very heart of a child he was so praised for possessing. While his poetry might have seemed archaic compared to the great modernist poets of the twentieth century, his desire to express beauty and truth within a traditional rhyming and sometimes iambic form left a legacy of good and unforgettable poems that are worthy of study and memorization.
Wine, Water, and Song
The majority of those who have encountered Chesterton’s poetry have most likely heard his drinking ballads as they are recited before or after a pub crawl. With the right cadence, these particular verses are a golden mean between traditional drinking songs and rowdy poetry. His most famous one is “The Rolling English Road,” a poem against temperance societies and possible prohibition in England:
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.
The rolling drunkard and road in this case is part of a theme underlying much of Chesterton’s work: looking back on the English way of doing things in defense against what he saw as the rising tide of the cult of progressivism. Like many historians, Chesterton saw the pub and the pint as essential to the English soul as the ancient footpaths of central England. Even in something as simple as a pint of ale, the Chestertonian sees a highly traditional practice worth protecting and preserving.
This particular view of the pub as a citadel against modern errors was also echoed in “The Ballad of an Anti-Puritan”:
March 3, 2015
New: "Communion with Christ According to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross"
Now available from Ignatius Press:
Communion with Christ According to St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross<
By Sister M. Regina Van den Berg
Foreword by Dr. Alice von Hildebrand
Pope Saint John Paul II declared that the great challenge for Christians today is to become "the home and school of communion." St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein) in her life and her writings, is a sure guide to attaining the communion for which every human heart longs. This work considers St. Teresa's life and writings in the context of the "spirituality of communion." As a philosopher she was directed towards attaining communion with the Truth, and she discovered that Truth was a Person, Jesus Christ. As a Carmelite nun she gave up everything for communion with him.
Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, in the foreword, says Edith Stein's message "is above her time" and that the author, Sister M. Regina van den Berg, "is well qualified to write such a book." Sister Regina explores in detail Edith Stein's theory of empathy as developed in her doctoral dissertation, as well as her theory of community. Sister Regina has also used a number of Edith Stein's writings which, until this work, have not yet been available in English translation.
Each chapter explores an aspect of 'communion,' richly revealing how Edith Stein, "a Jew who became a philosopher. . . a convert to Catholicism who became a Carmelite nun and crowned her life with martyrdom." Stein's work "provides insights that can help us grow in the spirituality of communion, first by presenting to us the truth about the human person's nature and vocation and then by showing us how we can arrive at a spirituality of communion in the various aspects of life."
Sister M. Regina van den Berg, F.S.G.M., obtained her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America. She has served in various apostolates for her religious community and currently resides in Rome.
Praise for Communion with Christ:
"Philosopher, convert and martyr Edith Stein is enjoying a well-deserved revival of interest these days. Readers of this clear and careful study will come away with a stronger sense of the depth and breadth of Edith's thought, which is as relevant today as ever."
- Colleen Carroll Campbell, Author, My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir
"This is an ideal introduction for anyone wishing to learn how one of the greatest saints of our time envisioned and lived the 'science of the Cross.' "
- Dawn Eden, Author, My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints
"Sister Regina presents a deeply mature and incisive analysis of the heart of Stein's teaching on communion as a union of hearts and minds ultimately united towards one eternal goal and divine destiny."
- Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, S.C.D., Author, Artist and Image: Artistic Creativity and Personal Formation in the Thought of Edith Stein
"Sister Regina unveils the depths of Edith Stein's insights, revealing Stein's nuanced account of community between women and men, human and angelic communities, membership in the Mystical Body, etc. An impressive achievement that teaches much about how to be more fully human."
- Sarah Borden Sharkey, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Wheaton College
"This book will help the reader deepen an appreciation for the significance of Teresa Benedicta/Edith Stein in contemporary debates."
- Fr. John Sullivan, O.C.D., Institute of Carmelite Studies
March 2, 2015
From Atheism to Catholicism, By Way of Truth and Beauty
From Atheism to Catholicism, By Way of Truth and Beauty | CWR Staff | Catholic World Report
“All the different threads of my inquiries,” says Dr. Holly Ordway, “when followed up, led me to the same place: the Catholic Church.”
Dr. Holly Ordway is Professor of English and Director of the MA in Cultural Apologetics at Houston Baptist University. She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her academic work focuses on imagination in apologetics, with special attention to the writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams; she teaches courses on apologetics, medieval culture and philosophy, and modern and post-modern culture.
Dr. Ordway's book Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms (Ignatius Press, 2014) describes her journey from atheism to Christianity, and her subsequent entrance into the Catholic Church. She recently corresponded with Catholic World Report, discussing her life and beliefs as an atheist, her journey toward Christianity, the mistakes made by many Christians in conversing with atheists, and the main reasons why she became Catholic.
CWR: Early in Not God's Type, you state that as a young atheist, you thought that the “decisive argument against faith was that I could not believe, no matter how much I might want to.” What sort of understanding of “faith” did you have at that time? How might you respond now to an atheist who expresses a similar notion?
Dr. Ordway: I had the faulty (but common!) idea that faith meant blind faith: that is, believing something without evidence or even contrary to the evidence. Unfortunately, this is a misunderstanding that is propagated by many Christians. As an apologist, I’ve heard Christians say that they don’t want to know about evidence for the Resurrection or for the existence of God, because that will “diminish their faith.” It’s no wonder that many atheists conclude that ‘faith’ is a synonym for ‘ignorance’.
If having faith really did mean believing something without any grounding for that belief, I would never have been able to do it. I couldn’t then, and I can’t now: it’s simply not possible. It would be wishful thinking or self-deception.
So I would respond to an atheist with this objection, first of all, by saying that the word ‘faith’ is better understood as a form of trust, and in particular, trust of a person. I have to trust that my close friends are reliable, on the basis of my understanding of their character, from many observations and interactions over time. I can never prove that they aren’t secretly manipulating me for their own ends; I can only conclude that it is reasonable for me to trust them. I could be wrong, but that doesn’t make my faith in my friends irrational. Once you trust someone, then you are willing to accept what they say as true, even when you don’t have enough information to judge for yourself, because you have reason to believe that you can rely on them. That’s faith.
Hebrews 1:11 is an important verse to consider: “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. An atheist might point to “hoped for” and “not seen” as indicating that Scripture teaches blind faith. Not so! First, the key words are “assurance” and “conviction”: in order to have an assurance or a conviction of something, you must have some reasons for doing so. Second, ‘not seen’ does not mean ‘not real.’ There are plenty of things that are not seen and yet are completely real: my own consciousness, for instance, and all relationships between people. If you know that your mother, spouse, or child loves you, that is the conviction of something “not seen.” And that’s precisely what faith is.
CWR: You admit that after the 9/11 attacks, you found that “atheism was eating into my heart like acid.” What sort of conflicts or tensions were you experiencing? How did you try to resolve them?
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