This week we will gather again at the Tap House, downtown, on Monday night beginning at 5:30pm. All are welcome to join the discussion. The group will be upstairs towards the street.
Meghan Aelabouni, an ELCA pastor in Colorado, posted an interesting article earlier in January at boldcafe.org. Give it a read at http://www.boldcafe.org/blog/faithful-doubt and glance at these questions to get your mind going:
1. What in your life fosters doubt — either doubt in God/the divine, or in humanity, or in “good” in general?
2. In faith communities, why do you think doubt has often been blacklisted as an unacceptable feeling?
3. Are the verbs “to accept/to believe/to stop questioning” synonyms? Are “faith” and “certainty” really opposites? Why or why not?
4. What “Holy Doubt” might we consider embracing?
5. (Scripture connection) John’s Gospel, which holds the “Doubting Thomas” story (John 20:19-31), uses a word that can sometimes resemble an english translation of “being untrusting” instead of what we traditionally translate as “doubting”. Trust is a much more relational term than doubt. Let’s play with the language for a minute. If, instead of doubting, we wrestle with trusting, how might that change the way we think about our relationship with God/the divine? Does this perhaps reflect the head doubt/heart doubt that Meghan Aelabouni articulates?
See you on Monday. Happy Theologizing!
Rochester Pub Theology 