Night of the Confessor: Christian Faith in an Age of Uncertainty by Tomáš Halík

Night of the Confessor: Christian Faith in an Age of Uncertainty by Tomáš Halík

Author:Tomáš Halík [Halík, Tomáš]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307952820
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2012-01-09T16:00:00+00:00


. 10 .

God Knows Why

God knows why the phrase “God knows why” is slowly disappearing from everyday speech. The creeping atheization of our language is an unlikely explanation. After all, one of the most common epithets in the language of today’s Czech teenagers is “divine”: it can be applied to a rock song, as well as to the singer who performs it, or to some item of clothing. And then there is the somewhat bold assertion bellowed by reveling fans after ice hockey or soccer matches in recent years: “[Name of player] isn’t human, he’s a god!”

Perhaps this is further evidence that our society is not in a state of dereligionization at all, but of something quite different, namely: de-Christianization. After all, assigning divine attributes to people and things of this world is a typical sign of the opposite of atheism, that is, paganism. If Jews or Christians in this context were to see in that expression of pagan religiosity not just lighthearted exaggeration, but the sin of blasphemy or idolatry, they would earn the reputation of being “a-theists” or “un-believers.”

The statement “God knows why” is something quite different, however. It doesn’t refer to any god within this world but points beyond the horizon. Whenever something in this world seems mysterious, incomprehensible, or nonsensical to me, this assertion indicates a more distant horizon—albeit one that is mysterious, hidden, and inaccessible to me. I do not know (and probably no one does) what is the cause of such things, but they are definitely not entirely without meaning—God is the one who knows, and He knows the meaning of everything.

The saying “God knows why” is thus an involuntary confession of faith in the biblical sense of the word, and it is also an act of faith, protecting me from being swamped by events that could overwhelm me with their apparent absurdity. Moreover, it preserves me from pointless speculation and intellectualization; I am able to brush aside many mysteries or accept them as mere chance, because it is not up to me to know everything, let alone perfectly understand or explain it. I can happily live in the vicinity of mystery, because my life is not meaningless, despite all the surprises and enigmas: although I don’t know the meaning now and do not understand, “God knows why.” That’s what I rely on and it’s quite sufficient for me.

The saying “God knows why” is thus a brief credo of what is sometimes called “collier’s faith.” A collier needn’t know all the fine points of theological argument, yet by his act of faith—an undeveloped faith not based on intellectual reflection—he has a part in the faith of the community of believers.

Several distinguished theologians (and they just happened to be those who were obliged to submit again and again to the Vatican authorities’ fresh interpretations of their ideas and statements because of the unwonted depth and novelty of their utterances about subtle and detailed theological problems) revived in the twentieth century the issue of “collier’s faith”:



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