Last Sunday, I spoke about doubt and faith, using Thomas as a case study to help diagnose doubt. There was more cutting room floor material from that sermon than normal because it’s a topic I’ve taught an entire ACG on before. So maybe there’ll be more than one of these posts this week.

One point I made should have been fleshed out more. I said something like “Recognize the personal elements of your faith & doubt.” In other words, Jesus is a person, and as such, knowing Jesus is categorically different than knowing who won the World Series in 2024 (not the Yankess!), or the laws of gravity, or any other non-personal fact. I can know those things by observation, research, and the use of reason.

People come to be known differently. Yes, we can still observe, research, and use our reason, but those things will only get you so far. Having researched, observed, and made reasonable deductions about Elvis Presley, I can say I know about Elvis, but I still don’t know him. This is an incredibly important distinction!

Author Lesslie Newbigin writes on this, drawing from the work of philosopher Martin Buber.

Martin Buber made familiar in his distinction between “I and You” and “I and it”. In the latter situation, the autonomous reason is in full control. I analyze, classify, dissect. I decide what questions to put and force the material to answer my questions. Reason is in the service of my sovereign will. But in the other situation, the situation of inter-personal relationships, matters are different. I am not in full control. I cannot force the other person to answer the questions I put. Of course it is possible to treat the other person as an object in the “it” world, and to use the tools of science including eventually the tools of the neuro-surgeon to find out how the brain of the person functions. But none of this gives knowledge of the other person as person. For that I must surrender control. I must listen and expose myself to question. And it is obvious that in thus surrendering sovereignty and moving to the position of one who is questioned I have not abandoned the use of reason. I am still a rational person making rational judgments and drawing rational conclusions from data. The difference is in the role that reason is called to play. Reason has become the servant of a listening and trusting openness instead of being the servant of a masterful autonomy.

Several very crucial implications flow from this distinction. First, in a personal relationship, faith/trust precedes [full] knowledge – Credo ut intelligam – Faith seeking understanding. Michael Green writes, “I have to exercise some prior trust that something is there or someone is there before I can understand it. I can have no assured knowledge of Christ without commitment to Christ.”

Second, to know someone personally, one must open oneself up to the person. That is an act of trust/faith. I can’t know my wife unless I open myself up, and she opens herself up, to being known. I’ll never know what makes her tick, what her innermost hopes, dreams, and fears are, unless she tells me. So, in an I-You type of relationship, we have to be careful to listen for the self-revelation of the other. That means, if we would know Jesus, we need to listen to his voice. His voice still reverberates as Scripture is made to come alive through the power of the Spirit. We need to listen to his voice in the church, his body through which he continues to speak. And we need to experience him personally in the meal he spreads before us, where he communes with us most intimately. Reading books about Jesus is good (if they’re good books). Through those books, you’ll get to know about Jesus. But to know Jesus, you need to attend to his revelation of himself in word, church, and sacrament.

When navigating doubt, it is incredibly important to remember the type of relationship we are considering. In evangelism, we often use the example of a chair to demonstrate faith. The illustration goes something like “When I sit in a chair, I am showing faith that it will hold me.” Every metaphor has its shortcomings, and this illustration certainly has a big one. Jesus is not a chair. If I doubt a chair, I shake it around, bang it on the floor, etc., to see if it seems sound. If I doubt Jesus, the only option: get to know him better personally.