Doubting in Community

I've been thinking a bit about Thomas recently (it was St. Thomas' day on Sunday) and I was struck by the role that community has within doubt.  Thomas’ restoration to Jesus is not an individual experience but is one within the community of disciples.  The community where he has publically doubted Jesus is the community where he is publically restored to Jesus.

I think that within this we see something fascinating, Thomas is not asked to leave the community because he doubts – a week later and he is still part of them, he is still a disciple, still one of the followers, still a member of their community.  Hence, to be a part of the community that follows Jesus does not require certainty in faith but commitment to community and within that community commitment to have people at different stages on their faith journey.  Those who are certain cannot be the thought police that kick out those whom them do not think are ‘sound’ enough, and those who are uncertain should not give up on the community because they’re not sure if they believe.  

I think that this is challenging to both those who doubt and those who do not, when we do have doubts there can be a tendency to walk away from the community that we are part of as we feel that we don't fit it...Thomas shows us a different way, he remains with those people who do believe - he doesn't form a community of doubters.  The community of belief hold him in their presence and I hope that they learn off one another so that when they experience doubts Thomas's experience resources them. 

Comments

[Phil Wood]

You make some good points here. The thought that faith and doubt co-exist in the same community and are even mutually beneficial, is encouraging. Now that we're emerging from all those bullying Christendom certainties we slowly finding our way forward to a new way of being church. Maybe Thomas should be made the patron saint of Post-Christendom. What you said puts me in mind of a recent 'Fresh Expressions' conference where Rowan Williams was the keynote speaker. I called for 'slow church' on the back of that: http://radref.blogspot.com/2011/05/slow-church-coming.html