Doubting Faithfully, Keith Long. Independently published (ISBN: 9798553814663) 2020.

Summary: A memoir by a pastor who came to doubt Christianity and how he has proceeded from there.

I will be candid upfront. Of late, it has become heroic to question, doubt, and abandon Christian faith for a variety of reasons, write books about it, and be valorized for one’s ‘courage,” “authenticity,” and “vulnerability.” Doubting Faithfully is one such book, although as I will conclude, I take issue with this title and what it reflects of the author’s approach.

The writer is a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America who came to faith through an evangelical ministry, and later attended a denominational seminary before becoming a pastor. He describes the experience that shook his faith. It was the death of his atheist friend Carl from ALS. Carl’s motto had been think strong, be strong. His death made Keith “think strong” about what he believed about God.

This led to a process of questioning. He became an atheist for Lent and doubted much of the creed. He came to deny that Christ died for our sins or bodily rose. Long grew skeptical of the trustworthiness of the gospel accounts. From what I can tell, he read skeptical authors. But it doesn’t appear he read Gary Habermas or Richard Bauckham. Respectively, they give rigorous defenses of the resurrection and the gospels.

Then his own questioning transformed his vision of pastoral work. Long determined to lead a questioning church. He delighted in the questions youth in his church would bring. He likens life to an experience of bungee jumping off the bridge above the New River gorge, a step into the unknown, mysterious and exhilarating.

I am no stranger to questioning, either in my own life or with the graduate students I worked with over a couple decades. We struggled together over the core of Christian beliefs, the shortcomings of the church, cultural challenges to the faith, and those of other faiths, including atheism. We fostered a community where it was safe both to believe and to question. And we kept doing the faith, praying, and caring while being honest about our questions, waiting for God in his own time to give further light.

What I question is the author’s use of “doubting faithfully.” This implies to me a person who remains open to how God has revealed God’s self while honestly confessing one’s questions, struggles, and doubts. On a number of questions, it seems to me Long doesn’t doubt, but has chosen on the basis of his own “thinking strong” to no longer believe. This is neither doubt, which, as Os Guinness has described it, is being “between two minds,” nor faithfulness, in the sense of seeking like Job for God to address him.

I think the most honest and courageous thing Long could do is resign his pastorate. Instead of embracing the creeds and catechisms, he shepherds people in questioning them. Rather than dependence on God, he models a kind of autonomous intellectual self-sufficiency. I believe in a church where people may question and doubt. But doubting faithfully is something very different than what Long describes. I cannot commend his approach.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Speakeasy for review.

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