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The End Of Our Exploring: A Book About Questioning And The Confidence Of Faith (2013)

by Matthew Lee Anderson(Favorite Author)

4.22 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0802406521 (ISBN13: 9780802406521)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Moody Publishers

review 1: This book is just plain weird. I get the feeling the authors heart is in the right place, but there are some really strange vibes running through it.I think it might be a beneficial text if one is coming from a worldview where any question beyond the Sunday school canned answer is viewed in a scandalous light. While the authors worldview differs from anti-intellectualism / canned answer theology in the domain of questioning, there are likely some paths of mutual understanding as he appears to hold to very high views of scripture, obedience, holiness, and submission to authority. He then uses these high views as a baseline upon which he provides scaffolds for "proper" questioning.In doing so, the author promotes a less dangerous path of exploring faith while minimizing the ... morepotential of going down the seemingly rabbit hole to nowhere. The way in which he does this is likely not going to appeal to the skeptic and may well throw up a multitude of red flags for others outside his particular worldviews. Ie, I see the potential for abusive practices and passive aggressive behaviorisms running in and out of the text like rabbits... many folks in the canned answer school might not see this, and some even thrive on it. On the other hand, the author would likely would be aghast at my Christian mentors focus on the rabbit hole and the concept that faith deconstruction / reconstruction while dangerous is often times more beneficial than not.In addition to the worldview issues, there is a danger that when / if those scaffolds collapse, what happens to faith? Certainly it is a better approach than one of avoidance or anti-intellectualism, but it seems to lean far more towards a theology of glory than I'm comfortable advocating. Along the theology of glory domain, a common premise of the author appears to be one of "whats in it for me". How do I question for greater understanding for my walk with Christ, rather than one of questioning from the domains of skepticism and doubt. While on an individual Christian level, such may be a good thing, I seriously wonder how it impacts empathy as concerns others in the skepticism and doubt domain. To me, it looks like yet another path to circular apologetics which are helpful to the choir, but not so much for anyone else. Granted, there are many parts of the body of Christ, one size doesn't fit all.I realize I come down hard on the theology of glory and worldview thing, but to give the author a benefit of a doubt, I think there is likely a cultural aspect involved. He presents a chapter of how to survive a Christian College... the portrayal of such is something much more attuned with the proverbial IFB Bible College than a mainline US Christian university. Alas, as concerns matter of faith, the wisdom he presents has value for both.Bottom line, there are bits of greatness and items to ponder spread throughout the text, with ever increasing relevance to entire body of Christ as the page numbers increase. Its not the sort of text I'd recommend due to the theology of glory leanings and aforementioned red flags, but for Christian cultures where such is not as problematic, it might well be worth checking out.
review 2: I can’t remember exactly when it was, but it was either in late college or early on in seminary that I realized the importance of questions. So when the offer to get a review copy of a book about questioning came up on the blog Mere Orthodoxy I took it because who wouldn’t be happy to get a book that only cost a review of it. It seemed like a book that could be very interesting. Most books are content to give prepackaged answers from a popular figure, so a book on questioning kind of bucks that trend. So how does this book go about talking about questions?This book is ultimately about learning to question well. We live in a day where questions are viewed as important, but it sometimes seems like answers are less important than the questions that are being asked. Questions are also viewed in some circles as a challenge to authority and therefore heavily discouraged and squashed when they do arise. Anderson deals with both of these issues and ultimately seeks to have us ask good questions and to teach those around us to ask good questions, instead of being afraid of questions.At this point it should be said that Anderson is focused on questions centering around Christianity and faith. This isn’t so much a manual on questioning across any discipline, but more of how questioning should function in our faith. I’m just saying this because Anderson comes unapologetically from a belief in Jesus Christ as central to his faith and also his questioning (this should be picked up in the subtitle A Book About Questioning and the Confidence of Faith). This needs to be realized because Anderson is honest about where he comes from, he is not working from any idea of a “clean slate” in regards to his questioning.In fact if there was one point all people should take away from this book it is to learn to question our questions more. I think we all too often assume a “clean slate” or that we’re asking our questions from a neutral starting place. The reality is that we ask questions based on our experiences past and present. It isn’t that hard to believe that our questions would be influenced by those aspects of our life. It probably isn’t hard to believe that the answers that we’d accept would be influenced by that as well. The idea of not coming from a “clean slate” or neutral starting point isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but something that I think we have to be aware of if we are seriously asking questions. Are we really wanting well thought out answers? Do we just want the answer that will make us happy? Will we then reject any answer that doesn’t fit the assumptions that we already hold? I think these are important questions no matter where you are in life and is a main point in the early chapters of this book.I think another point of The End of Our Exploring worth noting is his emphasis on questioning in a community. He talks about the need of a community to pass along its traditions and the questions that go along with that tradition, which I think is a great insight. As he puts it on page 129, “When the questions are forgotten, tradition ossifies into a rigid, hardened legalism that everyone must accept even if no one can remember why.” I’d call this aspect questioning with the past and present church community that we’re in.He reinforces his idea that later on page 175 where he says, “Our local church communities, instead of on blogs or at conferences, should be where the hardest questions about the Bible are pursued (rather than passed over.)” While I agree with this sentiment, it’s possible that he could be read as saying that the church is the only place these questions should be discussed. I don’t think he is really saying that, but if he is I’d disagree with him a bit. I’d call it one of the places we should be asking the hardest questions but not the only one.I would place importance also on questioning and inquiring with those who don’t readily agree with us as important aspects too (not saying that all our church communities will agree with us on everything, but there is probably at least more common ground than not). He seems to as well since he has a whole chapter dedicated to that kind of questioning too. The reason why I think that this idea of communal inquiry is important is that it helps us run into the questions of others. This helps us sharpen our own questions, help others question well, search for answers, and look at the answers we already have when we disagree with them. However, I’d say we need both questioning within our own church community/congregation, but also with others that may be outside that community. I think this is important so we don’t become ingrown and over confident in our questions and answers, but also because our lives are often more than just our church community or at least should be. So the types of people we are inquiring with should reflect that to some degree.The ideas of questioning our questions and inquiring within a community are two ideas that really popped out at me in the book. I do wonder though if there is that much difference between Anderson’s idea of community inquiry and the current focus on dialogue, at least in terms of practice. Yes he may be calling for a search for answers based on some authority, but I’m not so sure it would look that much different either. Regardless, I think that searching for answers within a community is important whether you call it inquiry or dialogue. I also think that Anderson is right in saying that some authority has to be recognized to get anywhere with this process. I guess I just wonder if he doesn’t play a bit of semantics at the same time.I think this book does more right than wrong. I think Matthew Lee Anderson does a great job at bringing up the issues around questioning. I may wonder about some of his thoughts or if he’s just playing with semantics to make a differentiation, but overall the content is solid. I’ve also heard that the grammar is not the greatest in the book in places, but I’m not a grammar nut so I can’t speak on that too much. I did notice that one of his many footnotes didn’t make sense so there does seem to be the possibility of errors and editing that could have been done better.Who do I think would enjoy this book? Honestly anyone who wants to take questioning of their faith seriously. This book is somewhat easy to read, but moderately hard to digest. It may surprise you how easy the book reads, except for maybe when you hit a big vocabulary word like ossifies. While the sentences by themselves may be easy to read they form ideas that take a little bit of thinking through when put together. This may not be a super easy read for everyone, but if you’ve been experiencing doubt and have questions about the faith this may be a good book to read. Not because it gives you the answers, but because it might help you sort out how you should be questioning.To finish up here, I’ll leave you with the analogy that I keep coming to about this book. It reminds me of a beautiful tapestry. If you look too close you’ll find that the edges are maybe a bit frayed or not quite stitched just right, but it doesn’t really take away from the final picture. There are little statements I’m not sure I agree with here and there, the random footnote typo, or whatever, but it doesn’t take away from the book’s message or the insight that is within. This work may be frayed around the edges in places, but the picture it presents is not undone because of it. Maybe it would have been even better without the flaws, but it can still be appreciated and admired for what it is. less

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