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A review by drbobcornwall
A Curious Faith: The Questions God Asks, We Ask, and We Wish Someone Would Ask Us by Seth Haines, Lore Ferguson Wilbert
4.0
Years ago Tom Skinner wrote a book titled [b:If Christ Is The Answer, What Are The Questions?|2753556|If Christ Is The Answer, What Are The Questions?|Tom Skinner|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|2779255]. He was responding to the message some were proclaiming back in the day about Jesus being the answer to every question. He wanted to push people deeper, especially since some of the questions he was raising had to do with race and civil rights. These days there is a lot of talk about deconstruction and the importance of doubt. For many deconstruction is important because the faith that they had inherited or embraced had proven faulty. The question then becomes, once you've deconstructed your faith, what do you put in its place? There is, however, another path that others have taken. It might include deconstruction and a bit of doubt, but more likely it simply involves the need to ask questions. After all, Augustine and others talked about faith seeking understanding. That process requires asking questions. Or, as Lore Ferguson Wilbert puts it in the title of her book, "A Curious Faith."
The book under review by Lore Ferguson Wilbert, who is a blogger and writer at Sayable.net, came to me as an advanced reading copy from Brazos Press. So, the book is, as I write this review, not yet released but available for pre-order.
Wilbert writes from a fairly traditional theological perspective. She's not so much a deconstructionist and a doubter as she is a person who simply wants to understand this faith that sustains her and encourages others in their journey. Her opening chapter, which falls under Part One, which I'll describe in a moment, is titled "Living the Questions." She writes there that she grew up in a context where the Christian faith was "more behavior modification and moralism than it was abundant life." She wanted instead certainty, but she didn't find that anywhere in her life until she encountered a word from Rainer Maria Rilke that invited her to "Live the questions." As such she found "safety and security in spaces where my questions were welcomed and my doubts not judged. But I also found friendship with God, security in him, and hope in me." (pp. 17-19). She speaks of this process of curiosity and asking questions as a spiritual discipline in which we can inspect "our lives, our faith, our friendships, our friends, our churches, our communities, and God himself" (p. 25).
The subtitle of the book suggests the trajectory of the book, which she divides into three parts. Part One focuses on "The Questions God Asks." Yes, God has questions for us, which invite us to live curiously. She offers twelve questions under this section that begin in Genesis 3, with God's question to Adam and Eve -- "Where are you?" and concludes in Jonah 4 with the question "Is It Right for you to be angry?"
Having invited us to live curiously by listing to God's questions, in Part Two, she points us to the questions that we ask of God, so that we might listen curiously to God's answers. So, she turns to Jeremiah 20 and asks of God why we are born (ch. 130. You will notice the chapters move us from Genesis forward through the three parts to the New Testament. Thus Part Two, like Part One, draws on passages from the Old Testament. So, we begin with why we're born, ponder the question of where God is (Isaiah 63), and conclude the section of 8 chapters with a question from Habakkuk 1: "Why do you make me look at injustice?"
Part Three is interestingly titled "Questions We Wish Someone Would Ask Us: Loving Curiously." She speaks of the question in this section in terms of questions that those who seek to emulate Christ should "ask of others and be asked by others." (p. 124). The twelve chapters in this section are all drawn from the Gospels, beginning in John 1 with the question "What Are You Looking For? This is the question Jesus asked of those who drew close to him after his baptism in John 1. These folks answer Jesus with a question of their own, "where are you staying?" Here is an invitation to be honest with God about what we as Christians want from God. She notes that the process here of deconstructing and reconstructing involves not only our minds but our hearts. Here is an invitation to pursue the integration of our faith into our entire lives. As she moves us through questions we ought to ask of each other, reflecting on passages from the Gospels, she brings the conversation to a close with a reflection from John 21 on the question Jesus asked Peter: "Do you love me?" Here she writes about a faith that centers in one's love of God, for "God is not interested in followers with all the right answers or even the right questions. He wants us to ask the questions, whatever kinds of questions we want, to lead us right to the locus of his love." (p. 182).
As one who has been on a journey that has taken me many places within the Christian faith (see my book [b:Called to Bless: Finding Hope by Reclaiming Our Spiritual Roots|59236209|Called to Bless Finding Hope by Reclaiming Our Spiritual Roots|Robert D. Cornwall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1633626124l/59236209._SY75_.jpg|93387508]0, I welcome the invitation to engage in a curious faith. I believe that we are better off if we continually pursue the questions that deepen our faith in God. It's not always easy, because it can require us to let go of easy answers, but in the end, we are better for it. Lore Ferguson Wilbert writes from a pretty stable evangelical perspective that is open to learning new things, of asking and hearing questions that one's faith. That is good news for us all.
The book under review by Lore Ferguson Wilbert, who is a blogger and writer at Sayable.net, came to me as an advanced reading copy from Brazos Press. So, the book is, as I write this review, not yet released but available for pre-order.
Wilbert writes from a fairly traditional theological perspective. She's not so much a deconstructionist and a doubter as she is a person who simply wants to understand this faith that sustains her and encourages others in their journey. Her opening chapter, which falls under Part One, which I'll describe in a moment, is titled "Living the Questions." She writes there that she grew up in a context where the Christian faith was "more behavior modification and moralism than it was abundant life." She wanted instead certainty, but she didn't find that anywhere in her life until she encountered a word from Rainer Maria Rilke that invited her to "Live the questions." As such she found "safety and security in spaces where my questions were welcomed and my doubts not judged. But I also found friendship with God, security in him, and hope in me." (pp. 17-19). She speaks of this process of curiosity and asking questions as a spiritual discipline in which we can inspect "our lives, our faith, our friendships, our friends, our churches, our communities, and God himself" (p. 25).
The subtitle of the book suggests the trajectory of the book, which she divides into three parts. Part One focuses on "The Questions God Asks." Yes, God has questions for us, which invite us to live curiously. She offers twelve questions under this section that begin in Genesis 3, with God's question to Adam and Eve -- "Where are you?" and concludes in Jonah 4 with the question "Is It Right for you to be angry?"
Having invited us to live curiously by listing to God's questions, in Part Two, she points us to the questions that we ask of God, so that we might listen curiously to God's answers. So, she turns to Jeremiah 20 and asks of God why we are born (ch. 130. You will notice the chapters move us from Genesis forward through the three parts to the New Testament. Thus Part Two, like Part One, draws on passages from the Old Testament. So, we begin with why we're born, ponder the question of where God is (Isaiah 63), and conclude the section of 8 chapters with a question from Habakkuk 1: "Why do you make me look at injustice?"
Part Three is interestingly titled "Questions We Wish Someone Would Ask Us: Loving Curiously." She speaks of the question in this section in terms of questions that those who seek to emulate Christ should "ask of others and be asked by others." (p. 124). The twelve chapters in this section are all drawn from the Gospels, beginning in John 1 with the question "What Are You Looking For? This is the question Jesus asked of those who drew close to him after his baptism in John 1. These folks answer Jesus with a question of their own, "where are you staying?" Here is an invitation to be honest with God about what we as Christians want from God. She notes that the process here of deconstructing and reconstructing involves not only our minds but our hearts. Here is an invitation to pursue the integration of our faith into our entire lives. As she moves us through questions we ought to ask of each other, reflecting on passages from the Gospels, she brings the conversation to a close with a reflection from John 21 on the question Jesus asked Peter: "Do you love me?" Here she writes about a faith that centers in one's love of God, for "God is not interested in followers with all the right answers or even the right questions. He wants us to ask the questions, whatever kinds of questions we want, to lead us right to the locus of his love." (p. 182).
As one who has been on a journey that has taken me many places within the Christian faith (see my book [b:Called to Bless: Finding Hope by Reclaiming Our Spiritual Roots|59236209|Called to Bless Finding Hope by Reclaiming Our Spiritual Roots|Robert D. Cornwall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1633626124l/59236209._SY75_.jpg|93387508]0, I welcome the invitation to engage in a curious faith. I believe that we are better off if we continually pursue the questions that deepen our faith in God. It's not always easy, because it can require us to let go of easy answers, but in the end, we are better for it. Lore Ferguson Wilbert writes from a pretty stable evangelical perspective that is open to learning new things, of asking and hearing questions that one's faith. That is good news for us all.