Dialogue With My Dorm Mate

¶ … dialogue with my dorm mate "Doubting Thomas"

The night before a Theology 101 final

Thomas: It's all so easy for you, Christian! (My name isn't Christian, but Doubting Thomas has nicknamed me Christian, because of his devout agnosticism)

Christian: Studying?

Thomas: No, not studying. (Thomas picks up Martin Luther's book on Faith and Freedom) Believing. Although I guess it must make studying easier if you can say a few words and think the man upstairs, or JC, or whatever you call Him can help you out on the final exam.

Christian: Actually, you'd be wrong on that one -- I don't mean the studying but the believing. Heck, even Martin Luther said: "I have no wealth of faith to boast of and know how scant my supply." I pray for faith, I don't think that saying a few words like a chant is going to make me ace this final, or succeed in life.

Thomas: Huh?

Christian: The point of faith isn't that you just raise your eyes and say, 'save me.' The point of the Christian faith is that believing in God is difficult and easy at the same time. It's easy in the sense that, for example, St. Augustine had studied some of the most difficult Roman authors of his day, but found Christ when he was reading in a simple passage in the Bible, after being told by a child's voice to pick up the book and read. The simple, truthful, reality of Christ enabled Augustine to relate to God, not thinking or doing anything on an intellectual level. But believing hard as well, because you have to let God into yourself, even when your heart is hard and bitter. The nature of God and God's relationship to humanity is that God and the possibility of salvation is always there, you just have to be open to God's gift of grace and you have to be willing to believe.

Thomas: Wasn't Jesus really some Jewish rebel who was put to death by the Romans back in the first century? Haven't anthropologists pretty much proved that fact?

Christian: Of course, Christians believe that Jesus Christ was a real, physical person who walked the earth. The nature of Christ and His role in salvation is partly due to the fact that Christ lived and died for our sins, yet is immortal in the spirit. Every human person, "has a twofold nature, a spiritual and a bodily one," in the words of Luther. Christ's body can die, but He is still immortal, just as a human body can be hungry, sick, or injured, but those facts do not harm the soul.

Christian belief is not about pinpointing that Jesus walked the earth on a particular day in time. It is about Jesus' existence throughout all of human history, both before and after He was alive. That is why Luther also puts such a strong emphasis on the fact that human beings are saved by faith alone. In fact, Luther even goes so far as to say that going through the motions of going to church or contemplation, meditation, and fasts do not buy salvation. Doing the right thing and following the right laws are not enough. This is also seen in Mark's stress upon the messianic nature of Jesus' message -- the world may be corrupt, the flesh may be corrupt, but God saves the spirit.

That is also why Paul is so adamant in his letter to the "Galatians" that Christians don't need to follow Mosaic Laws. The message of Jesus was that the spirit of the law, rather than the letter of the law was what was important.

At first, human beings maybe needed law to behave, back in the days when an eye for an eye was considered compassionate. But now, after Christ, since humanity has evolved, humans can understand that believing with the right faith and heart results in the right behavior, not the other way around. Being told what to do doesn't make you good. It's the internal life not the external life that matters.

And Christ, not the law, was always there. This can be seen even in the Hebraic scriptures, in the words of Nathan's prophecy to David, as the Davidic line was later traced to Christ's lineage in the book of Matthew, and how Isaiah's prophecy about the suffering servant that prefigures the death of Christ. Christ was always present, even before he came to earth, but he waited until humans were able to accept him. The incarnation is still important, as Aquinas would remind us, as this is the ultimate proof of the eternal power and existence of God's power and presence in the world, as spirit even within the flesh.

Luther says: "One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom." A Christian has to willingly and joyously accept the bondage of being a Christian, even though God has left us free in a corrupt world to reject or accept Him.

Thomas: Joyous bondage? C'mon. No one likes being told what do.

Christian: But the faith of a Christian is a bondage freely chosen.

Thomas: I thought religion was about what you were told not to do, and what was fun was wrong.

Christian: Think of it this way -- you're free, if you accept the consequences, to not study, flunk out of school, not do anything with your life. But you don't -- not because you are being forced to make your life better, but because you know that learning and maximizing who and what you can be is the true path to finding happiness in life. It's willing bondage. Now, maybe if your parents nag you, trying to do well in school feels like a burden. But if you chose to act in a good way, it feels good. This is also true of choosing to be a Christian. I accept the bonds and rules of Christianity willingly, as a soul that can chose to do right or wrong.

Thomas: I guess that is why I have always rejected Christianity, on some level. I just don't think I could be that morally scrupulous in my thoughts or my behavior.

Christian: Neither could St. Augustine, at first! Augustine's "Confessions" are filled with tales about how bad he was. For example, he stole apples from a neighbor's orchard as a young man, not because he needed food, but just for the fun of it.

Thomas: Yeah, I have to admit that I've stolen a couple of deer crossing signs to decorate my dorm room that I didn't really need