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Archive: September 2, 2007 - September 8, 2007
"In the beginning, GOD...."
In biblical religion, "faith" is the term for affirming the non-sense that God is both powerful and good, both infinite and involved in finite affairs.
By Willis E. Elliott | September 7, 2007; 11:38 AM ET | Comments (850)
How Big is Your God?
The answer to the question how does God allow disasters like hurricane Katrina depends on what kind of God we believe in. The question assumes a God living high up above, a Divine Puppeteer or Shepard of sheep who rewards...
By Irwin Kula | September 7, 2007; 8:10 AM ET | Comments (73)
Making Good For, Not From Evil
Nobody has the answer to this question; only ways of thinking about it. Mostly we prefer not to think about it.
By Kathleen Flake | September 7, 2007; 8:03 AM ET | Comments (10)
Letting God Off the Hook
Hinduism is not hobbled by monotheism, and therefore most Hindus do not assume that their god is merciful, or all-knowing, or all-powerful.
By Wendy Doniger | September 6, 2007; 11:30 AM ET | Comments (89)
Opposition in All Things
"I am not complaining,” my father wrote to my mother from war-ravaged Europe during the closing days of World War 2, when he finally reached the safety of American lines after three years as a POW. “I would not appreciate...
By Michael Otterson | September 6, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (188)
"Oh, My God!"
When great tragedy strikes, people will try to make theological sense of it. When they don’t have any good theology to use, they will use bad theology.
By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite | September 6, 2007; 9:27 AM ET | Comments (43)
I Don't Know
There are libraries full of answers, none of them informed, because humans do not know the mind of God.
By Martin Marty | September 6, 2007; 8:24 AM ET | Comments (30)
God With Us, Not Working Against Us
The belief that God is the causal agent in natural disasters and religious fanaticism is just plain bad theology.
By John Bryson Chane | September 5, 2007; 10:59 AM ET | Comments (151)
The Theodicy Problem: No Problem for An Atheist
If there were a deity responsible for both human evil and impersonal natural disasters, I would hate him.
By Susan Jacoby | September 5, 2007; 8:38 AM ET | Comments (557)
Big Question, Bigger Assumptions
We are never, repeat never, in a position where we can size up God and decide what such a being ought really to do.
By Nicholas T. Wright | September 5, 2007; 7:42 AM ET | Comments (57)
Physicians, Heal Others
Physicians' primary obligations are to their patients, without a doubt. They have other obligations, of course, including to wider society, to their professional colleagues, both physicians and other health care professionals, to their employing institutions, and to their own ethical...
By Julia Neuberger | September 5, 2007; 6:54 AM ET | Comments (1)
We All Are Chosen People
My favourite verse- or perhaps verses- are Isaiah chapter 42 verses 6-7. It's really verse 7 I love: I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will support you, and set you as a...
By Julia Neuberger | September 5, 2007; 6:52 AM ET | Comments (1)
From the Beginning, Obsession with Sex
I think the Lutheran church has been courageous in voting that way, but given the gradual realization that same sex relationships are not anything but what is 'normal' in nature, the question is really why other churches and other faiths...
By Julia Neuberger | September 5, 2007; 6:49 AM ET | Comments (3)
No Faith Without a Doubt
Faith and doubt are the two sides of the same religious experience.
By Gardner Calvin Taylor | September 4, 2007; 12:54 PM ET | Comments (1)
But She Did Help the Poor, Right?
A few days back I read somewhere that Thomas Jefferson was a lousy public speaker. Interesting, but kind of beside the point, I thought. I've had something of the same reaction to the news that Mother Teresa often felt cut...
By Gustav Niebuhr | September 4, 2007; 11:03 AM ET | Comments (3)
Trust Christ, Not Feelings
The recent revelations of Mother Teresa's spiritual struggle should remind all believing Christians that our faith is in Christ -- not in our feelings.
By R. Albert Mohler Jr. | September 4, 2007; 9:31 AM ET | Comments (105)
Belief is Harder than Disbelief
Teresa continued to work within religion despite her doubts of God’s presence. That makes her a saint.
By Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo | September 4, 2007; 8:35 AM ET | Comments (62)
Sacred Doubt
These letters remind us that any faith that is certain is no faith at all just as any love never doubted is very shallow love.
By Irwin Kula | September 4, 2007; 7:34 AM ET | Comments (11)
Mother Teresa and the Experience of Faith
I think less of those who use her experience of the absence of God as proof for the non-existence of God.
By Martin Marty | September 4, 2007; 6:34 AM ET | Comments (10)
God With Us?
She struggled with a different question: does God exist right here with me at this time?
By William J. Byron | September 3, 2007; 10:41 AM ET | Comments (15)
Mother Teresa's Via Dolorosa
If Job can question the plan of Providence and if Jesus can cry out "Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me", then Mother Teresa can, without tarnish or shame, be admired in the midst of her doubts and fears. In...
By Samuel Rodriguez | September 3, 2007; 9:13 AM ET | Comments (2)
Faithful to Christ Despite Doubts
That Mother Teresa continued to long for God as she labored in the soul-alienating slums of Calcutta signifies the genuineness of her faith.
By Kathleen Flake | September 3, 2007; 8:22 AM ET | Comments (327)
Without Doubt, We Don't Grow
Doubt is the fertilizer of faith. We don't grow without it. I would never presume that Mother Teresa's faith was sealed with certainty. These thoughts of hers make her in my mind all the more human, and all the more...
By Jim Cooper | September 3, 2007; 7:49 AM ET | Comments (4)
Doubts Are Inevitable, But Hope Prevails
Despite the 50-plus years of spiritual struggle, she kept going. A person of lesser faith would have quit.
By Charles "Chuck" Colson | September 2, 2007; 2:11 PM ET | Comments (17)
I Believe in Doubt
I favor doubt. I believe in doubt. I even believe that doubt itself must be doubted....
By Elie Wiesel | September 2, 2007; 12:11 PM ET | Comments (712)
Faith and Doubt Fellow Travelers
Faith and doubt are twin brothers or sisters in the human condition. The Qur'an recognizes the capacity of the human being to believe or not to believe. Believing in the visible and the tangible is more widely acknowledged by most...
By Sulayman Nyang | September 2, 2007; 10:50 AM ET | Comments (15)
