Peter Enns
World tragedies, devastating personal losses, the incomprehensible vastness of the universe next to the fragility of our planet - there's no preparing for the inevitable curveballs blowing past us from all angles. We're often left doubting God, the Bible, our faith, and even ourselves. Many Christian traditions see these crises as problems that need to be overcome, something Peter Enns tried and failed at. But he found help from an unexpected source - the Bible itself. Rather than denounce our reservations, the Bible models how we need to face them and wrestle with them. Rethinking faith according to life's evidence is part of God's plan. God wants us to question, because doing so actually leads us to building a stronger, more resilient faith.
I read this alongside a friend who was going through our church's elder apprenticeship. I was told the author was well-known for having "deconstructed" his faith, so I was kind of On Guard as I read this. It was interesting to slowly realize that he NEEDED to deconstruct his faith; it was originally a faith in a small, comprehensible diety that didn't match the Bible's picture of a glorious, infinite, too-wonderful-for-words being of perfect love and justice. The author seems to have had trouble accepting a God who is beyond comprehension, but dabbling in quantum physics seems to have cured him of the worship of his own intellect...and that's a good thing. So...though I started reading this with a readiness to rip it apart, I end it saying to Mr. Enns, "It's about TIME you figured it out that you can't figure it out!"
First Line: I spent much of my life unknowingly abdicating the task of taking full responsibility for my faith.
Page 56 / Line 5: John's Gospel (probably written in the 90s CE) comes somewhat close to this way of speaking, but we generally don't find this language in the New Testament.
A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: That is the God I want - not the God of my logical deductions, not the God who behaves according to Newton-like, predictable, deterministic, cause-and-effect, theological laws, but the God I cannot control.
Last Line: And what we decide will make all the difference.
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