Mystery is popular today. Many a postmodernist worships at the altar of mystery. Many a modernist spurns it with every chance they get. In reality though its impossible to be a Christian without mystery – in fact if you think you’ve removed mystery there’s a good chance you’ve created a heresy (just ask our 3rd century friend Arius). That’s an odd thought really that us conservatives don’t like to entertain at any serious level – we don’t like to explore the probability that too much rationality and too much empiricism can lead to heresy. We’re terrified of doubt and prefer to champion the cause of certainty. Yet in that quest to make certain that, which isn’t always certain we are causing others to doubt that which should be certain.
A very wise old church history professor said to me today:
“You can’t be a Christian without mystery”
Is it not perhaps that the very certainty of our faith is strengthened in the acknowledgment of that statement?
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