Psychology of Losing Faith

by daniel-p 34 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  BurnTheShips

  Just wanted to say that this reminds me of TIME article about Mother Theresa's loss of faith - happens much more than generally thought.

  From CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters:

  Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anticlimax which is certainly coming to the patient. . .The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavor. . .The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin in what he calls His "free" lovers and servants--"sons" is the word He uses. . .Desiring their freedom, He therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them: He leaves them to 'do it on their own'. And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember there lies our danger. If once they get through this initial dryness sucessfully, they become much less dependent of emotion and therefore much harder to tempt.

  Faith is as much an act of the will, an intellectual action, as a feeling of the heart. Mother Theresa saw the worst side of suffering. She saw daily what most of us couldn't handle on a one-time basis. That would bring doubt or spiritual struggle to anybody. This is not the same thing as not believing. Mother Theresa never lost the faith. Her special charism, her special gift, was to know what Christ felt on the Cross. She felt a separation. Spiritual dryness. A dark night of the soul. Other saints have written of this also. This phenomenon is actually quite common among the Catholic saints. It's easy to love someone when they are close to you. But it takes real love when someone is far away.

  Eli, eli, lama sabakthani?

  I don't know all the answers. But I choose to believe.

  BTS
• 

  goldensky

  Meeting Junkie No more, thanks for the link. These words from Mother Theresa have particularly impressed me:

  Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love — and now become as the most hated one — the one — You have thrown away as unwanted — unloved. I call, I cling, I want — and there is no One to answer — no One on Whom I can cling — no, No One. — Alone ... Where is my Faith — even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness — My God — how painful is this unknown pain — I have no Faith — I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart — & make me suffer untold agony.

  So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them — because of the blasphemy — If there be God — please forgive me — When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven — there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul. — I am told God loves me — and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart?
• 

  beksbks

  But I choose to believe.

  How do you choose to believe?
• 

  daniel-p

  Good thoughts on here from all. I especially enjoy your thougths, Burns. Another point in the article I found interesting was this:

  Charles Templeton, the late Canadian evangelist-turned-journalist, argued that a disjunction between what clergymen say publicly and what they believe privately is so common that serious cognitive dissonance comes with the territory. "Most intelligent clergymen preach to the right of their theology," Templeton wrote in his memoir Farewell to God. "They are more conservative in the pulpit than they are in private conversation or when counseling a parishioner."

  The more you read of the experiences of other deeply religious people, the more you realize there really is nothing unique about JWs and ex-JWs and the nature of their faith or loss of faith. Essentially, people believe in the same way, regardless of particular beliefs. Why is it, then, that clergymen will preach more conservatively than their own beliefs? Probably many of us have seen this with elders in the Hall, where they may say some thing from the stage, but then in private counsel more or less obliquely recommend another? Even the Watchtower magazines, if viewed as "The Clergyman" are essentially preaching "to the right" of what most people end up doing with their lives, and probably "to the right" of what most of the people in the chain of command believe, as well.
• 

  daniel-p

  But I choose to believe.

  How do you choose to believe?

  This has stumped me also. As I explained in my memoirs, when I was going through my crisis of faith, it was like it was shattered into a thousand pieces, and no matter how hard i tried I wasn't going to be able to put it all back together again, either for the comfort of others or myself... it was a permanent change in me, as traumatic initially as the loss of a limb.
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  goldensky

  Good question, beksbks.
• 

  Meeting Junkie No More

  Goldensky:

  Have you heard of William James' book Varieties of Religious Experience? It's a really good read about what goes into a person's (as opposed to an organization's) religious outlook...a real classic.
• 

  daniel-p

  Have you heard of William James' book Varieties of Religious Experience? It's a really good read about what goes into a person's (as opposed to an organization's) religious outlook...a real classic.

  I have it sitting on my shelf. Have yet to read it! I also heard some of John Dewey's works in this vain as well. I find that a lot of the older American writers (e.g. Emerson, Thoreau) approached the topic of the nature of faith better than today's writers with their bite-sized platitude-filled paperbacks.
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  goldensky

  Sorry about the delay, Meeting Junkie No More. I was finishing the article about Mother Theresa. Ha, ha! No, I hadn't heard about that book or the author, but I've already written it on my list of "soon-to-be-read" books. My problem is getting them here in Spain. Many of the books you recommend are, I suppose, impossible for me to get hold of at any bookshop in this country, but I'll try. Maybe through Internet. But having them shipped over doesn't sound like a cheap idea...
• 

  AK - Jeff

  Dagitt, Dagney. LOL

  I was going to cut and paste the precise paragraph, and I was going to say precisely what you did about that. Minds escaping control must spring in similar fashion at times I suppose.

  I sometimes feel similar discordance as the author. I am an ordained minister - purely for pragmatic purpose. I perform weddings on request. I am usually asked to pray - and in accordance with the couples' ingrained need to ask for divine direction and aid - I do so. But I feel odd when it is over. Ironically I have been complemented by the last bride that my prayer was 'absolutely beautiful and perfectly worded'. It sometimes bothers me when reflecting on that - I must come across as eerily convincing.

  In my personal life - no prayer these days. I currently hide behind the 'agnostic' moniker, not yet bearing enough courage to accept 'atheist' as the term describing my view.

  Jeff