“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”

maybe it’s because i know you a little bit and can see your heart, but i think what you are affirming here is the humility that comes from not being sure and the desire to stay in that space until the answer is no long the point.

but, per usual, i could just be putting words in your mouth. ;)

Again, it has not been my experience that people who are serious about their faith and genuinely seeking Jesus don’t ask questions. You must not hang out with many Christian apologists! (Not to say here that only apologists are serious about their faith.) There’s this weird idea that apologists go around yelling at everybody and not listening, but actually, my apologist friends question and challenge their own faith more than anybody I know. I think this is probably why they’re more certain that their answers are valuable–because they’re constantly testing their own answers, examining them from every angle and interacting with those who disagree.

I can see then, if your experience with Christians has been the opposite, why you would want to emphasize thinking carefully through the things of God, but I think it’s important to avoid overcorrection here. The message “questions are always better than answers” definitely implies that we shouldn’t grab on to conclusions when we find them, or even that we can’t find them. Questions are better than wrong answers, but can you truly say that questions are better than the right answers? If not, then they’re not always better. I think it might be more accurate for your position to say something that reflects the end goal of “seeking the truth through questions” instead of glorifying the questions. This might be less confusing for people.

I would challenge you a bit on the primary thrust of Jesus’ message. Jesus didn’t warn the Pharisees against coming to conclusions, he warned them against coming to the wrong conclusions. In fact, every thing He asked or said was meant to draw people to the correct conclusion that He was the Messiah from God. But I’m interested in hearing how you see the theme that “questions are better than answers” plays out in the gospels.

Also, in terms of the early Christians, Titus 1:9 says that leaders are to hold fast to the Word so they can “exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” This would mean they would have to have at least some solid answers to defend and propagate. Shouldn’t we be encouraging people to focus on pursuing those answers so they can fulfill this command from God? I think you would say yes, which is why I think this new motto may not reflect what you truly believe and may actually mislead people or discourage them from finding answers.

What do you think?

amy — several responses (i don’t mean to be combative, and i hope this doesn’t come off that way — please don’t read that tone into my comments, as it’s not here as i type them):
- be cautious what conclusions you draw from my comments. you make a few small leaps and say that i said things i didn’t say. for instance, i would not, and did not, say we should “avoid answers”. i just think we should hold loosely to our answers.
- sure, i agree that whatever answers we come to provide an impetus to a new set of questions (i said that, i think) (though i wouldn’t tend to use the “build upon” phraseology you use). but what i’m contending is that even those answers deserve further reflection and refinement and re-definition, and even, occasional dismissal and replacement. in the “god is love” example i used — well, nothing is leading me away from that answer, and i’m confident in it. but i’m constantly being brought to a new place of redefining what that means. it’s not ONLY that it leads me to new questions (though it certainly does that). but those same new questions can (should?) bring me back to re-examine my answer in the first place.
- as to anywhere in the bible that warns us against coming to conclusions: yes, i think this was a primary thrust of jesus message, especially to the religious (actually, i don’t see it in his message to the non-religious). i can’t list a propositional verse that says this, but it sure seems a clear theme in the story of the bible, especially in jesus’ teaching.
- i never meant to imply (as you seem to think i did — so, my bad) that questions are ends in themselves. just the opposite — the wonder of questions is in their ability to lead us somewhere.
- i disagree with you that christians aren’t afraid of questions. in my experience, that simply isn’t true.

I’m uncomfortable with this whole idea.

yes, questions are good. They lead us to search out truths. Granted, there are some things we can not know, but there are also many things that we can. I figure that Jesus raised so many questions, because he had so many answers.

He left us with so many answers as well. What a disappointment it must be to Him, when we ignore those answers, and live only with questions.

To only question leaves us more confused, rather than more confident. In fact something else also occurs. Rather than make it seem as though the Emergent crowd is ‘not afraid of questions’, just the opposite seems to be the case.

Last Friday, one of the first statements made by Spencer Burke at the Emergent Church Conference was something to the effect of: don’t ask me questions about what I stated a year ago, because I probably don’t agree with it anymore.

James, to make your way down a path, you have to pass points along that path. Finding answers leads to more questions, but you won’t get anywhere unless you build on the answers you already have.

I think it’s difficult for anyone to argue that we should only stick to questions when the Bible specifically says we are to “give every man an answer.” Can you point to anywhere in the Bible that warns us against coming to conclusions? Anywhere that says that questions (without answers) have the highest value? If not, then please consider that you may be choosing your own philosophy over a direct command of God.

We are, of course, told to study and ask questions and grow, but the Bible always honors questions as means to coming to actual answers (for example, the Bereans) and not simply because they are questions.

Questions are extremely valuable to challenge our thinking and most effective in getting others to think about Jesus. But avoiding answers prevents learning certainly as much as avoiding questions does. Mark, you say the defining mark of emergents is that they are not afraid of any question. But actually, I personally don’t know any serious Christians who are afraid of questions–this isn’t particularly distinctive. Instead, I think the defining mark is that they are afraid of answers. If you can point to anyone in the Bible who is praised for avoiding answers, then I’ll gladly take on this aversion as well. But I think you should seriously consider changing this particular conclusion you have come to.

Thanks for hearing me out!