Many people care about proving the factual historicity of the biblical narrative. I don't see that God does, and so neither do I. (eg. announcing the Incarnation to shepherds and pagans, the resurrection to women and true believers... why not Roman historians, or even waiting a second, in God time, for a videographer...) Proofs don't matter to God, and they didn't matter to Christians until Christendom started competing with science rather than proclaiming the good news of God's present commonwealth in story and kenotic love.
The "Faith" is full of mysteries that I neither believe nor disbelieve, rather I contemplate their meaning. I pay attention and try to discern the Divine Invitation from the voice of The Accuser. I risk engaging in the practices that have led others to Christlikeness.
And I can tell you that paying attention has changed my life far more than believing. Paying attention is an ongoing, humbling, transformational activity. It's placing oneself under the object of attention, making oneself vulnerable to it, rather than dominating it by containing it as a thing that can be known.
Believing, on the other hand, is relatively passive, an affirmation of a tribal identity, which made no noticeable impact on my life. Yes, it gave me a set of values, some of which I still value, but it also gave me a great big bag of assumptions and unconscious shadow material, which often hinders rather than aides my attempts to join the incarnational solidarity that I see Jesus modeling in that quasi-historical library commonly known as the bible.
The "Faith" is full of mysteries that I neither believe nor disbelieve, rather I contemplate their meaning. I pay attention and try to discern the Divine Invitation from the voice of The Accuser. I risk engaging in the practices that have led others to Christlikeness.
And I can tell you that paying attention has changed my life far more than believing. Paying attention is an ongoing, humbling, transformational activity. It's placing oneself under the object of attention, making oneself vulnerable to it, rather than dominating it by containing it as a thing that can be known.
Believing, on the other hand, is relatively passive, an affirmation of a tribal identity, which made no noticeable impact on my life. Yes, it gave me a set of values, some of which I still value, but it also gave me a great big bag of assumptions and unconscious shadow material, which often hinders rather than aides my attempts to join the incarnational solidarity that I see Jesus modeling in that quasi-historical library commonly known as the bible.
