Faith’s Unique Perspective

Faith’s Unique Perspective

The small men’s group I attend each Monday recently began a group study of the book, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion. The author, Rebeca McLaughlin, has both a theology degree from Oak Hill College and a PhD from Cambridge. She acknowledges how most of her friends neither understand her Christian faith nor comprehend why she is a believer.

In the first chapter of her book, McLaughlin illustrates how preconceptions sometimes prevent us from honestly examining the strength of positions that challenge our beliefs. She shares several instances of how one academic minimized the significance of faith. What follows are several examples I find particularly interesting.

McLaughlin wrote, “…modern psychology suggests that we have a highly developed ability to synthesize happiness. Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert calls this our ‘psychological immune system.’ To illustrate the point, he quotes the seventeenth-century polymath Thomas Browne; ‘I am the happiest man alive. I have that in me that can convert poverty to riches, adversity to prosperity… fortune hath not one place to hit me.’”

However, Dr. Gilbert, a self-proclaimed atheist, failed to acknowledge how Browne’s statement was rooted in his strong Christian faith. In fact, Browne’s, Religio Medici, the work from which Gilbert quoted, was a theological study based on the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love.

Gilbert went on to highlight others who found joy despite intense challenges, “including Moreese Bickham, an African American man who was dubiously convicted of murdering two white police officers and spent thirty-seven years in prison. Upon his release, Bickham declared: ‘I don’t have one moment’s regret…’” Once again, Gilbert neither mentioned that Bickham was sustained by his Christian faith nor how he thanked God for an injury he suffered before being sent to prison because he believed the pain he endured was instrumental in his spiritual journey.

This type of remarkable contentment in the face of adversity can be traced back thousands of years to something the Apostle Paul wrote, “I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:12-13, NLT)

My point is not to attack Gilbert nor other academics who overlook the positive impact faith can have on people. However, Christians and non-Christians both need to be reminded that faith’s unique perspective offers believers peace. A peace that is impossible to fully comprehend apart from God.