A friend of mine read a blog post I put up this morning, where I recommended a DVD with a conversation between Donald Miller and Phyllis Tickle. He gently pointed out to me that not all of Tickle’s work seems orthodox—at least on some topics, what she has to share is problematic at best.
I don’t disagree with that assessment. In fact, while we’re on the subject, not all of what Donald Miller says is easy to digest. He strays a bit outside of orthodoxy himself at times.
So why, then, did I recommend for small groups something that features both of them?
Because it’s good.
It’s important to remember that people are flawed and short-sighted. The best theologians miss things. People who reject truth vehemently get things right. When we’re on a quest to understand God’s truth, we need (among others) at least two character qualities: humility and discernment.
Humility prepares us to welcome truth wherever we find it. Rather than rejecting writers and teachers wholesale because they get (even important) things wrong, we have a willingness to understand their ideas with fairness before we evaluate them. We do them the favor of listening completely.
But that doesn’t mean we’re not careful. Discernment means that, once we have understood, we evaluate to the best of our ability whether the ideas cohere with God’s Word. Even if they seem not to, we don’t write the person off as stupid (humility!). But we are careful to build our lives only on foundations that we are able to see stemming from the Gospel. And this doesn’t just apply to people we suspect are off. It applies to everyone, including ourselves. The book of Acts commends the Bereans for searching Paul’s message by the Old Testament writings, thinking carefully to see if he was in accord with God’s truth. But they listened carefully, too.
In that vein, here are a few thoughts on what it means to be a humble and discerning reader:
- Everyone is wrong somewhere. Let’s just get that on the table. Anyone who tries to express truth, will miss something someplace.
- That includes you. It’s really helpful, as a reader, to remember that you might be wrong. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find truth; it just means, don’t be arrogant.
- Listen/read the way you’d want others to treat you. If you were trying your best to speak the truth, and got something way wrong, how would you want your reader to respond? Your listener? Be honest. You’d want them to know you were wrong, but you’d want to be treated with grace. And you’d want them to keep listening to the stuff that is right.
- Expect to find truth in weird places. The writers who have most helped me in my Christian walk have often been deeply opposed to Christianity (Ayn Rand, Iris Murdoch, Plato) or [I believe] wrong in important ways (Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robinson, Simone Weil, Kathleen Norris, Charles Taylor). Where they are wrong, I try to learn from their mistakes. Where they are right, though, is in places that often evangelical Christianity doesn’t get to see.
- Expect to find lies in weird places. No writer gets it all right, as we said before. So that means, even with the pastors/teachers you like most, consider whether what they are saying is, in fact, in line with God’s Word. Don’t just take stuff on the fact that they’ve been good so far. Engage thoughtfully.
- Understand that communicating to a broad audience is really hard. Many times, the nuances of what we are trying to say get lost in the medium. Plato distrusted writing for this very reason: you can’t ask questions of the text and get clarification. What’s written/said is done, and unless you can find the author you can’t have them say it a different way. But lots of times we need people to say things a different way. Think of how many times you have to adjust in a conversation because someone isn’t quite getting what you’re saying. Many times, a pastor/teacher/writer is not wrong, they’re just talking to somebody else in a way that doesn’t sit well with you. If you could converse you might discover more agreement than you initially believed. Try to get to the intentions of the author, and give them the benefit of the doubt.
- Give it time. Even today I was reading a book and came across a Scriptural interpretation that I did not like—and an hour later I finally understood what the writer was saying and agreed. Sometimes it takes way longer. Years later I’ll return to a book and find that I can now understand the nuances of what the writer is saying.
- Try to augment, if possible. If someone is writing or speaking, it is because they have a message. But not the whole message. No one can say everything. And sometimes authors leave out very important qualifications or considerations, or fail to make connections that are crucial. Many times what looks wrong is just incomplete, and if you can supply the missing subtleties, you can unearth great truths. Give pastors and writers a break; they can’t see every angle.
- Ask other people how something strikes them. You might just not understand. It happens.
- In the end, accept only what seems to mesh with the Gospel—but still try to understand the rest. That may mean that there are whole areas of thought that you cannot bring to complete conclusion. That’s alright. Many people, much smarter than you or I, couldn’t either. There is enough clear truth in the Bible to start building a life on; the rest will come as it does. But only if you have the humility to draw the line between what you do understand, and what you don’t. If you don’t fully understand, don’t be quick to write ideas off.
I hope that’s helpful. And, by the way, I’m wrong here somewhere.
