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Course 3 · Lesson 7.3

Doubt and perseverance

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 3 outline

Module 1: The Idea of a Rule

  1. What a rule of life is, and what it is for
  2. Pachomius and the first written rule
  3. Basil of Caesarea and his Rules
  4. Benedict: the Rule as a school of the Lord’s service
  5. Adapting a monastic rule for ordinary life

Module 2: The Hours and the Psalms

  1. Origins of fixed-hour prayer in Jewish and early Christian practice
  2. The Divine Office in the West and the hours in the East
  3. How to pray the Psalms: lament, praise, trust, wisdom and imprecation
  4. Building a simple office for one person

Module 3: Scripture and the Prayer of the Heart

  1. Lectio divina: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation
  2. Meditative reading compared with study and with Ignatian imaginative prayer
  3. The Jesus Prayer: its words, its history and its Eastern setting
  4. Practicing the prayer of the heart, with its cautions

Module 4: Fasting, Giving, Rest and the Year

  1. Fasting in Scripture and tradition, and its safe limits
  2. Almsgiving and care for the poor
  3. Sabbath rest and the Lord’s Day: how traditions differ
  4. The church year: Advent to Pentecost and the ordinary weeks

Module 5: Conscience, Confession and Worship Alone

  1. Examination of conscience: methods old and new
  2. Confession in the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions
  3. Repentance, confession to God and to a trusted person when no minister is available
  4. What worship alone can include: prayer, Scripture, song, the hours
  5. What the traditions say requires a church or ordained minister

Module 6: Seasons and Ordinary Duties

  1. Silence as a discipline and its dangers
  2. Planning a day, a weekend and a longer retreat
  3. Work as part of the rule: ora et labora
  4. Hospitality, family and neighbor

Module 7: Dryness, Perseverance and Review

  1. Dryness and the dark night: what the tradition teaches
  2. Acedia: Evagrius, Cassian and the noonday demon
  3. Doubt and perseverance
  4. Accountability for a rule of life
  5. Reviewing and revising a rule at thirty days, ninety days and one year

All courses

Program / Course 3: The Rule of Life / Lesson 7.3

What you will learn

  • Distinguish kinds of doubt: honest questioning, unbelief and spiritual dryness.
  • Describe how Scripture treats doubt, including Thomas, the father in Mark 9 and Psalm 73.
  • State the main traditions’ teaching on doubt and on perseverance.
  • Plan practical ways to persevere when belief feels uncertain.

The big idea

Doubt is a normal part of faith for many people. Scripture records doubters who were met with patience, and the traditions distinguish honest questioning from willful unbelief. They advise people in doubt to keep praying, to go on with the practices, to seek wise counsel and to study the questions honestly. Perseverance is faithfulness over time, with small steps on bad days. The word also names a doctrine, debated between traditions, about whether true believers can fall away.

Key terms

Doubt
Uncertainty about whether something is true. In religious use it can mean honest questioning or a settled refusal to believe.
Unbelief
Refusal or failure to trust what God has said or done.
Perseverance
Continuing in faith and practice over time despite difficulty.
Perseverance of the saints
A doctrine in Calvinist tradition that true believers will be kept by God to the end. Other traditions teach it differently.
Assurance
Confidence that one is in God’s favor and will be saved, discussed differently by the traditions.
Apologetics
The reasoned defense of the Christian faith, including answers to objections.

Background

The Bible includes doubters. A father brings his son to Jesus and says, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief (Mark 9:24), and Jesus heals the boy. Thomas will not believe the resurrection without touching the wounds, and Jesus meets him a week later and invites him to do it (John 20:24-29). Psalm 73 begins with an honest struggle over the prosperity of the wicked, and its writer says his feet were almost gone until he went into the sanctuary of God. John the Baptist, in prison, sends to ask whether Jesus is the one who was to come (Matthew 11:3). Jude tells believers to have compassion on some who doubt (Jude 22).

Scripture also warns of unbelief. James says that the person who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed (James 1:6-8). The writer of Hebrews warns against an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God (Hebrews 3:12). The traditions read these texts to distinguish between a person who wrestles with questions and keeps seeking, and a person who has turned away. They differ on where the line lies, and on who may judge it.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Kinds of doubt

Doubt has many forms. Intellectual doubt asks whether a claim is true, for example whether the resurrection happened. Emotional doubt is a feeling of distance from God that need not involve a reasoned question. Moral doubt asks why God allows suffering. Doubt can also arise from hurt by the church or from a life change. These are different problems and need different responses.

It is also useful to ask what the doubt does. Doubt that leads a person to study, pray and ask questions can deepen faith. Doubt that becomes a settled reason to avoid God, to harden the heart or to justify a wish to live otherwise is a different matter. Only the person and God know for certain which is which.

Step 2: What the traditions teach about doubt

The Catholic Catechism distinguishes involuntary doubt, which is hesitation or difficulty in believing that is not willed and does not remove faith, from voluntary doubt, which deliberately refuses what God has revealed and is a sin against faith (Catechism 2088). It teaches that faith is a gift that can be strengthened by prayer, study and the sacraments. Orthodox writers also stress humility and the guidance of the church and an elder. They remind believers that God is beyond all concepts, so that some questions are met with reverence and silence.

Protestants emphasize that faith is trust in Christ and not the absence of questions. Luther’s trials and Puritan pastors’ counsel to doubting believers alike pointed them to the promises of God. Reformed teaching on assurance says that believers may have confidence, though it may be shaken. Evangelical writers and apologists encourage honest study of objections, and many think that doubt can be an occasion for deeper understanding.

Step 3: The doctrine of perseverance

Christian traditions disagree about whether a true believer can lose salvation. Calvinists teach the perseverance of the saints: those whom God has chosen will be kept in faith to the end, even if they stumble. Arminian and Wesleyan Protestants teach that believers can fall away through persistent unbelief or sin, though God keeps those who hold fast. Catholics teach that grace can be lost by mortal sin and regained by repentance, and that no one can be certain of final perseverance without a special revelation. Orthodox Christians speak of continuing cooperation with God, with salvation as a lifelong journey.

A student does not have to settle this question to persevere. The traditions agree that perseverance is a gift, that it is supported by prayer, the church and the sacraments or means of grace, and that Christians are urged to run with patience (Hebrews 12:1) and not be weary in well doing (Galatians 6:9).

Step 4: Practical perseverance

Practical advice is consistent. First, keep the floor of the rule even in doubt. Pray the Psalms, which give words to doubt. Second, say honestly to God what the doubt is. Third, study the question in the best books of more than one side, and avoid reading only those who confirm a conclusion. Fourth, talk to someone wise who is not afraid of questions. Fifth, serve others, since action keeps faith alive. Sixth, accept that some questions will not be resolved soon.

It also helps to remember that faith is more than certainty about propositions. It includes trust, habit and love. A person can keep praying and acting on faith while questions remain, as the father in Mark 9 did.

  1. What exactly am I doubting, and since when?
  2. Is my doubt an honest question or a reason to avoid something?
  3. Have I said it plainly to God?
  4. What is the best book on the other side of the question, and have I read it?
  5. Who would not be frightened by my questions?
  6. What small practice can I keep while the question is open?

Examples

An honest doubter

A man begins to doubt the reliability of the Gospels after reading a skeptical book. He reads a scholarly defense, a skeptical response and a neutral introduction, talks with his pastor and keeps up his morning psalm. After a year he has a more settled view, though some questions remain. (A constructed example.)

Emotional doubt

A woman who lost a child finds that she cannot pray and tells her friend that she does not know whether she believes. Her friend does not argue but sits with her and prays the Psalms for her. (A constructed example.)

A hardened position

A student decides in advance that no evidence will convince him, and reads only sources that agree. A friend asks him what would change his mind. He realizes he has no answer. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

The Catholic view

The Church distinguishes involuntary from voluntary doubt. Involuntary doubt does not destroy faith. The tradition values the study of reasons for faith, with Aquinas as a model, and the support of the sacraments and prayer.

The Orthodox view

Orthodox writers stress that God is beyond human understanding and that faith grows in prayer and worship. Doubt is met with humility, the guidance of an elder and participation in the church’s life.

The Calvinist view

Reformed teaching holds that true believers will persevere because God keeps them. Doubt may shake assurance but does not undo election. Pastors urge doubting believers to look to Christ and the promises.

The Arminian and Wesleyan view

These traditions teach that believers can fall away by persistent unbelief but are urged to hold fast through the means of grace, with assurance by the witness of the Spirit.

The skeptical and secular view

Many thoughtful people hold that doubt is the reasonable response to the available evidence and that faith should be held with humility. Christian traditions answer that doubt can be honest and that faith involves trust as well as reasoning, and they invite engagement with skeptical arguments.

Why it matters

Doubt is one of the main reasons people leave a rule of life or a faith. Knowing that Scripture and the traditions expect it, and that they offer ways to continue, helps a student not to read doubt as the end. It also encourages honesty, which is more useful than pretending.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Doubt is the opposite of faith.

Correction: In the Gospels, the father says both I believe and help my unbelief and is answered with healing. The traditions distinguish honest questioning from willful unbelief.

Misunderstanding: If I doubt, I should stop praying until I am sure.

Correction: The tradition advises continuing prayer, since prayer is one of the means by which faith is strengthened. Pray the Psalms, which speak of doubt.

Misunderstanding: Christians agree about whether believers can fall away.

Correction: They do not. Calvinists, Arminians, Catholics and Orthodox hold different views, and the debate is old.

Knowledge check

What does Mark 9:24 teach about doubt?

A father says, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. Jesus heals his son. The story shows that faith and doubt can be present together and that an honest cry for help is answered. Many traditions read it as permission to be honest about doubt.

How does the Catechism distinguish kinds of doubt?

Involuntary doubt is a hesitation or difficulty in believing that is not willed and does not destroy faith. Voluntary doubt deliberately refuses what God has revealed and is a sin against faith. The Catechism teaches that faith is a gift that can be strengthened by prayer, study and the sacraments.

How do traditions differ on perseverance?

Calvinists teach that true believers will persevere because God keeps them. Arminians and Wesleyans teach that believers can fall away by persistent unbelief. Catholics teach that grace can be lost by mortal sin and regained, and that final perseverance is not certain. Orthodox speak of lifelong cooperation with God.

What practical steps help a person to persevere in doubt?

Keep the floor of the rule, pray the Psalms, tell God plainly what the doubt is, study the question in books on more than one side, talk to a wise person, serve others and accept that some questions may stay open for a time.

Think it through

  1. What question would you most like answered, and why?
  2. How would you respond to a friend who says doubt proves faith is false?
  3. Which small practice would you keep even if you were unsure of everything else?

Independent assignment

Naming a doubt

In your notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Choose one real doubt or question. State it as exactly as you can. Say what kind of doubt it is. List two books or people on opposite sides that you will consult, and one person you will talk to. Write a prayer in the manner of Mark 9:24. Review in a month. Do not post it.

Further study