Much religion is bound up in people’s minds with “teaching” or “doctrine” – the idea that religion is a matter of “believing that” rather than “believing in”. But the essence of faith is not assent to a set of doctrines presented as “facts” about God. It is an experience, a passion, a dream. Its best expression is not in logical propositions or arguments but in poetry, music and art.
Theologians discuss theories and beliefs: they try to understand things. Poets and artists just feel things. Religion can even be a way of avoiding feelings. Doctrines about the afterlife are more comfortable than really feeling the unbearable reality of death. Commandments and rules are so much simpler than the painful uncertainty of relationships and the dilemmas life throws up for us every day. Religion can give us a sense of being in control rather than acknowledging our helplessness and being open to God.
There is surely some significance in the fact that the Bible is not a systematic theology book arguing for the existence of God and describing the attributes of God. It consists mostly of stories, prayers and poetry. The appropriate response to the sense of God in our lives is not looking for the right beliefs but expressing our dreams and our passions. Whether people call this believing in God or call it by some other name is not of ultimate importance. God is the reality in which “we live and move and have our being”. We don’t say, “I believe in air”: we just breathe.
Ray Vincent is an Associate Chaplain at the University of South Wales
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