The journey of doubt
Part 3
So, I am alright! I have come through the valley of the shadow of doubt, and I don’t anticipate anything being able to knock my confidence in God. In this respect, I will be OK for the rest of my life. However, as someone very keen on the philosophical search for truth, it is still very important to me to be able to justify my faith. There are two particular concerns.
Firstly, I am aware that – given the extreme difficulty of fighting through to my present position – I may not have embarked on my journey of faith if I had known at the start what I subsequently encountered as obstacles to faith. So, is it only that I began my journey in a previous faith-accepting age that I was willing to persevere, rather than abandon my faith, and all that I had invested in it? As we are no longer in an age of faith, I need to be able to present to young people today convincing reasons to embark on the journey of faith.
Secondly, it is vitally important to be able to attach my faith to solid foundations in reality. This takes us to the difference between theology and philosophy. In theology, believers are entitled to believe whatever they want, but it is up to philosophy to assess the validity of those theological truth claims. So, I am extremely happy within my circle of faith. I move freely and joyfully within my pool of faith, and everything I experience is life-enhancing. But, when I reach the edge of my pool and encounter the boundary between belief and unbelief, am I able to present my faith in such a way that it makes sense to the person outside my pool, just as much as it makes sense to me within the pool of faith? This is where our framework for understanding reality becomes so important. It is not enough for me to be happy in my faith, I must be able to show that my faith is justified in terms of ultimate, absolute reality. It has been on this point that my journey of faith has from time to time led me into deep periods of doubt.
Spiritual Devotion 