Reviews
Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do about It by Brian D. McLaren
canadiyank's review
4.0
I’ve enjoyed McLaren’s books over the years, and this is one that spoke to me the most of his recent books. The title is a little odd, as I think it’s more of a book on “Faith With Doubt,” which describes how I feel at all times. Encouraging and hopeful for those of us who doubt.
kclem's review
5.0
The first three-fourths of this book perfectly capture ideas I have spent hours trying to put into words myself. I listened to the audiobook and could not stop. Just a few years ago, I likely would have felt very apprehensive and even defensive towards the 4-stage framework described. Today, I feel the description of stages 1-3 captures my religious experience perfectly, and I can genuinely say I’ve had glimpses of the harmony he describes in stage 4. We’ll see if I get there.
1 - Simplicity
2 - Complexity
3 - Perplexity
4 - Harmony
I especially love the goal of fostering “4-stage communities” VS “stage 4 communities”. Each stage plays an important role in fostering a productive religious atmosphere. My personal faith community is very effective at fostering stages 1-2, but the type of religious experience described in 3-4 feels very foreign to how we generally talk about faith/doubt.
The final fourth of the book describes the author's vision for how faith communities ought to adapt. This section is filled with the most ambitious (and likely problematic) ideas, but the need for greater interfaith collaboration resonates with my own conclusions.
1 - Simplicity
2 - Complexity
3 - Perplexity
4 - Harmony
I especially love the goal of fostering “4-stage communities” VS “stage 4 communities”. Each stage plays an important role in fostering a productive religious atmosphere. My personal faith community is very effective at fostering stages 1-2, but the type of religious experience described in 3-4 feels very foreign to how we generally talk about faith/doubt.
The final fourth of the book describes the author's vision for how faith communities ought to adapt. This section is filled with the most ambitious (and likely problematic) ideas, but the need for greater interfaith collaboration resonates with my own conclusions.
bethgiven's review
4.0
"Cradled in the snug nest of my faith community, inside the brittle shell of beliefs, faith was quietly incubating. The cracking open of my beliefs was not the destruction of faith, but its liberation into a new tender stage, a new fledgling consciousness, a new freedom to stretch my wings and fly."
As I look back on my faith over the past decade or so, I can see it evolving. It feels only natural that as I mature as a person, my faith will also go through a maturing. Some people describe that evolution of faith as a "faith crisis," or maybe a wrestle -- and it feels that way at times. Doubts emerge and, in spite of real efforts, are not easily reconciled; for many, religious traditions often give only superficial solutions to resolve those doubts.
In this book, Christian author and speaker Brian McLaren puts forth a framework that not only acknowledges the existence of doubts but celebrates doubt as a path toward faith rather than away from it. He himself has moved through four stages of faith in his own journey:
1. Simplicity (faith involved a deference to authority figures, dualistic thinking, and obedience)
2. Complexity (faith that values independent thinking and learning, pragmatism, effectiveness, and results)
3. Perplexity (a stage where faith feels perplexing; you have more questions than answers; you feel skeptical of not only beliefs but entire institutions)
4. Harmony (a "second simplicity" that has built upon all the previous stages; an acceptance that the world is complex and perplexing while also trusting in God; a humility that God can solve our problems without our understanding them all; faith manifest through love)
This framework resonated with me, especially as McLaren explained how fluid and nuanced each stage is; just as we have snowy days in spring or oppressively warm fall days, we find ourselves in different faith stages depending on the day, though one stage may be "home." He is careful to point out that one stage is not better than others; like a tree that grows in rings, we carry the lessons and values of each stage with us on our faith journeys.
McLaren argues that we need to de-stigmatize doubt, because it is doubt that leads to a deeper, more loving faith. Jesus challenged the traditional beliefs of the time during his sermon on the Mount; so many verses follow the pattern "ye have heard it said ... but I say ..." It's okay if we are also challenging the traditional beliefs to lead to more love.
The second half of this book urgently outlines the importance of building faith communities that are more accepting of stage three and stage four believers. This part didn't resonate with me quite the same (maybe I'm too early in stage-three faith for that? I feel like such a skeptic sometimes!). But there were still many gems scattered throughout this part of the book that I appreciated. I love how he talked about his stage-one parents who, though they never seemed to wrestle with their own faith, had chosen to love the doubters in their lives without gatekeeping them out of religion altogether.
Overall, this book was helpful and hopeful. I devoured it on audio.
More quotes:
"It's hard enough having doubts. It's impossibly hard to have them and feel that you must pretend that you don't. Right now, let's grant one another permission to doubt, and let's see the doubt in ourselves and each other not as a fault or failure to be ashamed of, but as an inescapable dimension of having faith, and being human, and more: as an opportunity for honesty, courage, virtue, and growth -- including growth in faith itself. I promise you, there is faith after doubt … wait until you see where doubt can lead you and what doubt can teach you."
"Doubt isn't the opposite of faith, it is an element of faith." --Paul Tillich
"The origin of the word doubt helps name the pain. Doubt derives from the same roots as 'duo' and 'double,' suggesting that 'to doubt' is to be in two minds: one that believes and one that doesn't. The two minds wrestle and writhe in tension, pulling you in two directions, leaving you in distress. You can see with the eyes of faith or with the eyes of skepticism, leaving you with double vision or with internal division. Before doubt, you simply believed. You were in one innocent and undivided mind, seeing with one vision, feeling a comfortable confidence rather than distress, but that innocence, that simplicity, that peaceful unity of mind and clarity of vision now slip away, the first casualties of doubt."
"Now, it's scary to be a sinner falling into the hands of an angry God. But it can be equally scary to be a doubter falling into the hands of angry believers."
"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. Many of us linger at the threshold … afraid to move ahead but unable to stay wherever are. If we dare take a first step, we discover faith can can be a road, a doorway out of the fortress prison of certainty, and into the adventure of living."
"Expressing or even entertaining doubt sometimes takes so much takes so much courage that we may say it takes real faith to doubt." --Lloyd Geering
"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."
“If you need permission … don’t expect stage-one or stage-two gatekeepers to give it. They never will for they simply can’t. Pull away into solitude. Open your heart to the Spirit and listen; you will receive all the permission you need. From that point on, it will not be permission you require, but courage and creativity.”
"Faith was about love all along, we just didn't realize it -- and it took doubt to help us see it."
As I look back on my faith over the past decade or so, I can see it evolving. It feels only natural that as I mature as a person, my faith will also go through a maturing. Some people describe that evolution of faith as a "faith crisis," or maybe a wrestle -- and it feels that way at times. Doubts emerge and, in spite of real efforts, are not easily reconciled; for many, religious traditions often give only superficial solutions to resolve those doubts.
In this book, Christian author and speaker Brian McLaren puts forth a framework that not only acknowledges the existence of doubts but celebrates doubt as a path toward faith rather than away from it. He himself has moved through four stages of faith in his own journey:
1. Simplicity (faith involved a deference to authority figures, dualistic thinking, and obedience)
2. Complexity (faith that values independent thinking and learning, pragmatism, effectiveness, and results)
3. Perplexity (a stage where faith feels perplexing; you have more questions than answers; you feel skeptical of not only beliefs but entire institutions)
4. Harmony (a "second simplicity" that has built upon all the previous stages; an acceptance that the world is complex and perplexing while also trusting in God; a humility that God can solve our problems without our understanding them all; faith manifest through love)
This framework resonated with me, especially as McLaren explained how fluid and nuanced each stage is; just as we have snowy days in spring or oppressively warm fall days, we find ourselves in different faith stages depending on the day, though one stage may be "home." He is careful to point out that one stage is not better than others; like a tree that grows in rings, we carry the lessons and values of each stage with us on our faith journeys.
McLaren argues that we need to de-stigmatize doubt, because it is doubt that leads to a deeper, more loving faith. Jesus challenged the traditional beliefs of the time during his sermon on the Mount; so many verses follow the pattern "ye have heard it said ... but I say ..." It's okay if we are also challenging the traditional beliefs to lead to more love.
The second half of this book urgently outlines the importance of building faith communities that are more accepting of stage three and stage four believers. This part didn't resonate with me quite the same (maybe I'm too early in stage-three faith for that? I feel like such a skeptic sometimes!). But there were still many gems scattered throughout this part of the book that I appreciated. I love how he talked about his stage-one parents who, though they never seemed to wrestle with their own faith, had chosen to love the doubters in their lives without gatekeeping them out of religion altogether.
Overall, this book was helpful and hopeful. I devoured it on audio.
More quotes:
"It's hard enough having doubts. It's impossibly hard to have them and feel that you must pretend that you don't. Right now, let's grant one another permission to doubt, and let's see the doubt in ourselves and each other not as a fault or failure to be ashamed of, but as an inescapable dimension of having faith, and being human, and more: as an opportunity for honesty, courage, virtue, and growth -- including growth in faith itself. I promise you, there is faith after doubt … wait until you see where doubt can lead you and what doubt can teach you."
"Doubt isn't the opposite of faith, it is an element of faith." --Paul Tillich
"The origin of the word doubt helps name the pain. Doubt derives from the same roots as 'duo' and 'double,' suggesting that 'to doubt' is to be in two minds: one that believes and one that doesn't. The two minds wrestle and writhe in tension, pulling you in two directions, leaving you in distress. You can see with the eyes of faith or with the eyes of skepticism, leaving you with double vision or with internal division. Before doubt, you simply believed. You were in one innocent and undivided mind, seeing with one vision, feeling a comfortable confidence rather than distress, but that innocence, that simplicity, that peaceful unity of mind and clarity of vision now slip away, the first casualties of doubt."
"Now, it's scary to be a sinner falling into the hands of an angry God. But it can be equally scary to be a doubter falling into the hands of angry believers."
"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. Many of us linger at the threshold … afraid to move ahead but unable to stay wherever are. If we dare take a first step, we discover faith can can be a road, a doorway out of the fortress prison of certainty, and into the adventure of living."
"Expressing or even entertaining doubt sometimes takes so much takes so much courage that we may say it takes real faith to doubt." --Lloyd Geering
"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."
“If you need permission … don’t expect stage-one or stage-two gatekeepers to give it. They never will for they simply can’t. Pull away into solitude. Open your heart to the Spirit and listen; you will receive all the permission you need. From that point on, it will not be permission you require, but courage and creativity.”
"Faith was about love all along, we just didn't realize it -- and it took doubt to help us see it."
dwager's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
This book was a bit uneven; I nearly dnf'ed it because it was due at the library. But I found several chapters in the second half thought provoking and interesting. If your religion (esp. Christianity) isn't working for you anymore, this book gives a different perspective that can be helpful and hopeful.
kimberwood's review
3.0
This one started out really strong for me and I really resonated with it, but the more I read, the more I seemed to be skimming. The irony of a 4 stage process highlighted in a book that remarks on churches constantly using "X-step processes" as ways to keep people in a stage one faith isn't lost on me. I feel like I need to read this one again in the future when I'm able to sit and focus more on it, but I really did like what I read.
rukistarsailor's review
4.0
I enjoyed Faith after Doubt because it provides me with a framework that accurately describes my current faith journey. This is not a book about "doubting your doubts" or clinging to a religion or religions despite having doubts. Instead, McLaren validates doubting. He claims doubts are essential in the faith journey, which is exactly what I needed to hear.
This is the second leftist Christian book I've read, and it was very therapeutic; however, the book isn't perfect. I don't fully agree with McLaren's vision for the future, and the part in which he dismisses Marxism as a brother of capitalism (which I'm not sure is accurate???) hurt my poor anarcho-communist heart. I was like, "Hey, don't throw that out! We still need it!"
In spite of its flaws, Faith after Doubt is still an invaluable read for people like me who are honestly trying to deconstruct (and reconstruct) their faith.
This is the second leftist Christian book I've read, and it was very therapeutic; however, the book isn't perfect. I don't fully agree with McLaren's vision for the future, and the part in which he dismisses Marxism as a brother of capitalism (which I'm not sure is accurate???) hurt my poor anarcho-communist heart. I was like, "Hey, don't throw that out! We still need it!"
In spite of its flaws, Faith after Doubt is still an invaluable read for people like me who are honestly trying to deconstruct (and reconstruct) their faith.
micklz24's review
5.0
A really refreshing and hopeful perspective. I’m really thankful for books like this that paint a picture of love without conditions, faith without dogma, and an openness and perspective that prioritizes solidarity over supremacy.