What is faith?

By Steven L. Shields

"Faith" can be tricky because faith is believing in something without evidence. Faith is not unique to Christians, or even any religious persuasion, for that matter. Children have faith that Santa Claus is real and will bring them toys if they behave correctly.

The outcomes of Santa's generosity are practically universal. Children do have some evidence that this is the case from many others' experiences. The same is true for doctors. I only can have faith in my doctors based on the good outcomes of their many other patients.

But with religious faith, even though there are countless testimonies of how the Divine helped someone, there are as many if not more testifying that nothing happened in response to prayer. As a pastor, I encourage prayer, and I encourage faith, but I also have to come up with answers when someone's prayer does not result in their desired outcome. And I cannot, in good conscience, tell that someone that "Well, God heard your prayer, but the answer was no."

My column a few months ago raised the hackles of one reader of The Korea Times. He sent me a lengthy email condemning my views. He aggressively argued that although I claim to be a pastor, in his mind, I was not even a Christian. Frankly, I am glad that he read my column and thought about it. He argued that one need not "interpret" the Bible but must take it literally.

The problem, though, is that many such Christian believers have not studied Hebrew or Greek (the original languages of the Bible texts), nor have they studied the history of the Hebrew people and the cultural milieu in which those people were embedded.

Unfortunately, like my critic, many Christians believe uncritically in their pastor's or their denomination's interpretation of the Bible. While they claim faith in the "Word of God," what they have faith in is the word of their trusted pastor ― without evidence that he (or she) is correct or accurate.

If one wishes to argue that the Bible has remained unchanged since it was written, they need to read the oldest manuscripts in the original languages. There is not one single modern-language translation of the Bible texts that can claim absolute accuracy. There are a few thoughts to consider.

First, there are no "original" manuscripts. The only manuscripts available are copies ― handwritten copies. None of those manuscripts can be dated to the periods they write about.

Second, such a position also suggests that ancient Hebrews were a literate and literary culture. History tells us otherwise. The ancient Hebrews passed the stories orally. Take some time to understand what oral cultures are and how they pass on information. Claims that the Bible's words have never changed or that "God would never allow errors to creep in" are preposterous. Those who have access to the many ancient texts have compared and studied and shown thousands of variations. Copyists were not perfect.

Third, we all have a bias. Translators have a bias. Word meanings change over time. Just talk to some of the kids these days. Contexts change. For example, I can only see the world through my Western eyes, hopefully somewhat broader in vision after my many years living in Korea.

When I translate something into English, my American expressions naturally come through, especially if I don't know my text's full background and context. To claim the Bible can be taken literally with no regard to context is nothing more than a "faith" statement.

Faith applied to the Bible's words is a precarious problem. The position conveniently insulates the "faith only" believer from arguments, though, because it leaves no room for questions or discussion. "Because the Bible says…" is not a proper answer.

If the stories of Jesus tell us anything, it is this: an unquestioned faith is not worth having. He continually confronted his accusers and taught his disciples that questions are not a problem. Faith that has no room for questions is tragic, indeed. Such a position all too often has made good people do evil things, thinking they are doing the will of God.

Having been accused of not being a Christian because I (and millions of others) interpret the Bible differently from the fundamentalists and conservatives, I want to make this point. That point is not that the ancient people of the Bible told literal stories, and we are smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told the stories symbolically, and we are stupid enough to take them literally.

Your pastor may have gone to seminary (so did I), but he or she has only been taught one way of interpreting what faith is all about. Do not just read your pastor's sermon books or your denomination's texts.

Read books by Christian leaders and scholars such as John Dominic Crossan, John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, Bart Ehrman, Elaine Pagels and Jewish scholars Neil Asher Silberman and Israel Finkelstein. Look deep into your soul; do not fear raising questions about life and God and Jesus and all the rest of it. Faith always seeks understanding. Have faith, but be thoughtful.

Steven L. Shields (slshields@gmail.com) has lived in Korea for many years, beginning in the 1970s. He served as copy editor of The Korea Times in 1977. He is a retired clergyman and president of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea.