I recently was perusing a bookshelf of a Christian friend of mine and came across an old book from the 80’s about faith and doubt.  As I’ve written before, I have a tendency to be a bit of a chronic doubter, so I was immediately drawn to the book.

I picked it up and began to leaf through it.  I found a chapter on how to deal with doubt and began reading.  It basically described doubt as the enemy of faith and something to be avoided at all costs.  The author gave pointers about how to choose not to doubt; how to cast away those evil doubts like all other sinful thoughts.

Conversely, I recently heard a quote from Anne Lamott that went something like “the opposite of faith is not doubt; it’s certainty.”

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but the postmodern side of me certainly likes the sound of that much better.

But isn’t it interesting how differently two people of faith can define so oppositely what it even means to have faith?  For one person, faith is a certainty about the world on which to build everything else.  For the other, faith is something that needs a leap.  For her, faith doesn’t even start until the point where certainty runs out.

These are very different definitions of a word.  How do you define faith?  And do you feel like doubt is a healthy supplement to faith, something to purify it and let it grow?  Or do you see doubt as the enemy of faith, something to be discarded and avoided?