Faith after Doubt Quotes

“Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving. – Frederick Buechner”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith after Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“you, be gracious to you. May God give you grace never to sell yourself—or God—short. Grace to risk something big for something good. Grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth, And too small for anything but love. So may God take your mind and think through it. May God take your lips and speak through them. May God take your hands and do good with them. May God take your heart and set it on fire. Finally, I offer this simple benediction, modeled on the beatitudes, to remind you that your honest doubts are not a curse but, rather, a blessing indeed: Blessed are the curious, for their curiosity honors reality. Blessed are the uncertain and those with second thoughts, for their minds are still open. Blessed are the wonderers, for they shall find what is wonderful. Blessed are those who question their answers, for their horizons will expand forever. Blessed are those who often feel foolish, for they are wiser than those who always think themselves wise. Blessed are those who are scolded, suspected, and labeled as heretics by the gatekeepers, for the prophets and mystics were treated in the same way by the gatekeepers of their day. Blessed are those who know their unknowing, for they shall have the last laugh. Blessed are the perplexed, for they have reached the frontiers of contemplation. Blessed are they who become cynical about their cynicism and suspicious of their suspicion, for they will enter the second innocence. Blessed are the doubters, for they shall see through false gods. Blessed are the lovers, for they shall see God everywhere. Reflection”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Acknowledging how little we know is, I think, at the core of mature faith. What we boast of as great faith may merely be a boatload of indoctrination and overconfidence.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“I became more comfortable with God being a mystery, a mystery too holy for words. I realized that when people were asking me to agree with (or deny) this or that belief about God, this or that set of words about God, they were only acting out of their scripts as members of Stage One, Two, or Three groups. They were trying to be good people, good soldiers, and they were trying to help me as best they were able. I could respect that, even though some of their well-intended actions actually hurt me. I realized that their acceptance of me was highly conditional, based on my agreement with their beliefs about God. But I became increasingly confident that God’s acceptance of me (and them) was different: unconditional, preemptive, non-discriminatory, free. And that felt, and feels even now, like truly good news, like liberation.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.… Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful. —Paul Tillich”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Eventually, I came to realize that doubt was a companion, every bit as resilient and persistent as faith, and she wasn’t going away. I realized that she had some things to teach me, and I decided that since I couldn’t shut her up or drive her away, I might as well learn from her. She has turned out to be a tough but effective teacher and a difficult but faithful friend.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Yes, you can choose to say you believe something. But whether you actually and authentically do believe it is less choosable than it seems.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Yes, I love a beautiful cathedral or Bach cantata or stained-glass window, but if we think a man-made creation is more effective at communicating the heart of the divine than the original creation, I worry that we would rather see a reflection of ourselves than a reflection of our creator.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Looking back, I feel that some hidden part of me was acknowledging that something is wrong, dangerously wrong, not just in my religion but in all the interconnected religions of the world. These dreams did not give me a sense of grim pressure or duty but a feeling of purpose, vocation, motivation, and even joy. I awoke with the feeling that people like you and me can play a part in detoxifying and healing our religious traditions, and that doubt can play a surprisingly constructive role.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“I’ve organized Faith After Doubt in three movements. In Part One, Your Descent into Doubt, I try to help you understand why your doubts can be so scary and painful. In Part Two, All in Doubt, I present doubt not simply as a deterioration process but as a growth process that provides you with an opportunity to mature intellectually, spiritually, morally, and relationally. I base this section on a four-stage theory of faith development that integrates the insights of many major theorists in the fields of human, moral, intellectual, and spiritual development. In Part Three, Life After (and with) Doubt, I turn to the future, exploring how to live with doubt as a companion rather than an enemy on the journey of faith. In the book’s final chapters, we’ll telescope out to explore how old assumptions are being challenged in nearly every area of human life, not just theology, religion, and spirituality.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“This book distills forty-plus years of personal struggle, heart-to-heart conversations, and cross-disciplinary research about doubt: why it’s unavoidable; why, in fact, it’s necessary and valuable; and how to live with it and learn from it. The research component is significant, because insights from psychologists, neurologists, evolutionary biologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and even political scientists can help us understand the many interrelated dimensions of our doubt. When we bring their research into conversation with theologians and other scholars of religion, everyone has something to learn.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“This is not just your journey, but a journey we’re on together, they said. Please lead us through it. We trust you. And we need you.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Between their doubts and my own, it’s no surprise that I went through my own intense period of faith deconstruction. Doing so is hard for anyone at any time, but doing so while being paid to believe and spread belief can feel like a combination of temptation and torture.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Sixty-five million adults alive in the United States today have already dropped out of active religious attendance, and that number grows by about 2.7 million more every year.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“But for younger generational cohorts, the tide of doubt seems to flood in at younger and younger ages, suggesting that this epidemic of faith-struggle is more a stage of faith than a stage of life, reflecting a massive cultural shift that is making traditional beliefs less and less viable for more and more people.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Falling Upward resonated with hundreds of thousands of readers because it told a secret that few dare to tell: somewhere in the journey of our lives, the faith we inherited often stops working.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“I promise you: there is faith after doubt, and life after doubt, and life with doubt. If you thought life before doubt was good, wait until you see where doubt can lead you and what doubt can teach you. You don’t have to feel ashamed or be afraid.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“It’s hard enough having doubts; it’s impossibly hard to have them and feel you must pretend that you don’t.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“you and I don’t have to keep our doubts a secret any longer.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Eventually, I came to realize that doubt was a companion, every bit as resilient and persistent as faith, and she wasn’t going away. I realized that she had some things to teach me, and I decided that since I couldn’t shut her up or drive her away, I might as well learn from her.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“My friend Rachel Held Evans has often used a phrase that captures how many of us feel: “On the days when I believe this…”1”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“I understand, because I too am a doubter. And I am a believer. And a doubter. Sometimes I flip back and forth five times in one day, and sometimes, I’m both at exactly the same time.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“She looks around. Her fellow students seem bored, looking at their phones, a few quietly napping. “How strange that this is just another class for them,” she thinks, “but for me, this dark classroom is a spiritual battleground, and I feel I have to choose between opening my mind and saving my soul.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“It was as though he had been hurtling toward this point for weeks, months, maybe even years, but now he had come to an abrupt halt, run out of road. —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“and writhe in tension, pulling you in two directions, leaving you in di-stress.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“For those who regress, the fear of what lies beyond Complexity feels so terrifying, or the sense of belonging that is often found in strict Stage One communities feels so alluring, that they willingly resubmit to Stage One authority, or even authoritarianism.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“Faith before doubt: it’s about correct beliefs. Faith after doubt: it’s about revolutionary love.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“All my road is before me, but All familiar paths lie far behind me. My map’s here in my hand, but I have ventured past its tattered edges.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“If I had not come to doubt the reactive dualism of Simplicity, Complexity would have been impossible. If I had not come to doubt the analytical pragmatism of Complexity, Perplexity would have been impossible. If I had not come to doubt the suspicion and critical deconstruction of Perplexity, Harmony would have been impossible. Each stage contributed to Harmony, and so did doubting each stage. No stage was bad because it wasn’t Stage Four. (That would be a Stage One thing to say.) Neither was any stage a distraction, delay, or obstacle to success because it wasn’t Stage Four. (That would be a Stage Two thing to say.) Nor was any stage futile and in vain because it wasn’t as mature and complete as Stage Four. (That would be a Stage Three thing to say.) Rather, each stage made a vital contribution, appropriate for a time, that made possible what followed, and each stage remained a central element of what followed. No stage was the destination, but each played a vital role in the journey toward and into Harmony, toward non-discriminatory, revolutionary love. (That is a Stage Four thing to say.) If I began this book by saying, “Doubt is the doorway to love,” it would have sounded like nonsense. But perhaps now I can say it and you will see it. It’s what I have wanted to say since the beginning: doubt prepares the way for a new kind of faith after (and with) doubt, a humbled and harmonious faith, a faith that expresses itself in love.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It

“For some of us, faith is a fortress of certainty we will defend to the death. For others, faith is a prison to leave behind forever.”
― Brian D. McLaren, Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It