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A review by kennyahlstrom
The Crucible of Doubt: Reflections On the Quest for Faith by Terryl L. Givens, Fiona Givens
3.0
I first stumbled upon Terryl and Fiona Givens when I had to listen to a Maxwell Institute podcast featuring them and this book. I was intrigued with what they had to say and the academic language they employed during the interview. Well I finally got around to reading their book. A lot went over my head. Some words, quotes, and poems were just hard for me to understand haha.
But overall I thought it a great read. A lot related to Planted by Patrick Mason. The two work well together.
Thought I wrote as I read:
Chp 2 - the gospel isn’t meant to have all the answers. Christ came here to discomfort. He taught hard and uncomfortable doctrine. The apostles decided to stick it out but that didn’t make them automatically understand. Part of faith is the ambiguity.
Chp9 - instead of explaining our suffering, God shared it.
Suffer with someone. Don’t always need a happy ending. Look at the end of the Book of Mormon! Just sit and participate in pain.
God will sanction an order made in error. Sustain the leaders in their decision. Our first obligation is to our conscious. The conscious can be infallible. There’s a limit to faithful dissent. There’s grey area between the mountain meadow massacre and the wrong person being called as EQP.
Not put our trust in the arm of flesh. Yet our leaders are human. There’s discordance there. Be generous.
You can disagree with church leaders, but cannot make efforts to destroy the church. If the behavior is destructive, then that’s gone past disagreement.
Faith is a choice. Religion is messy. But it’s ultimately good and worth the fight.
But overall I thought it a great read. A lot related to Planted by Patrick Mason. The two work well together.
Thought I wrote as I read:
Chp 2 - the gospel isn’t meant to have all the answers. Christ came here to discomfort. He taught hard and uncomfortable doctrine. The apostles decided to stick it out but that didn’t make them automatically understand. Part of faith is the ambiguity.
Chp9 - instead of explaining our suffering, God shared it.
Suffer with someone. Don’t always need a happy ending. Look at the end of the Book of Mormon! Just sit and participate in pain.
God will sanction an order made in error. Sustain the leaders in their decision. Our first obligation is to our conscious. The conscious can be infallible. There’s a limit to faithful dissent. There’s grey area between the mountain meadow massacre and the wrong person being called as EQP.
Not put our trust in the arm of flesh. Yet our leaders are human. There’s discordance there. Be generous.
You can disagree with church leaders, but cannot make efforts to destroy the church. If the behavior is destructive, then that’s gone past disagreement.
Faith is a choice. Religion is messy. But it’s ultimately good and worth the fight.