Beliefs: more like a Scrabble game than jigsaw puzzle

There's a pretty strong resistance to beliefs in our time. What one believes, what beliefs seem to be essential, and what beliefs are critical in terms of faith.

If you consider the trilogy of beliefs, belonging and behavior, beliefs would be at the bottom of the list- at least, in the circles I tend to hang around. I understand why many have this resistance to beliefs for far too many have been immersed in church cultures where one must have the precise set of beliefs- propositional truths. Christianity was set up, in those settings, with the abstract truths that one must hold or one is out. As in, "I'm in and you're out!"

One of the wonderful things taking place among those who follow Jesus is a deep understanding of narrative. The Big narrative. The Story of God unfolding in history, with God at the center, with God Incarnate- Jesus, at the center, and finding where we fit in this Story. I love the line in "Emerging Churches" (Gibbs and Bolger), "Who wants to listen to abstract, contextless propositions when one can hear or watch a story unfold?" (p. 68)

Belonging and community take on much more meaning than beliefs, in our setting. Behavior is much more engaging than abstract truth statements- "How are we going to live?"

But, beliefs are not discarded, on the other hand. I've been pondering this recently: what beliefs are essential in this way of Jesus? I don't see this divorced from the larger framework of narrative and the story of God. I came across a nugget in a short book by James Reimer, "The Dogmatic Imagination," in which he takes on tough questions in seeking the "dynamics" of Christian belief.

In thinking about beliefs, and endeavoring to paint what beliefs might be crucial, he uses the metaphor of a Scrabble game vs. a jigsaw puzzle. The dynamic of beliefs is not like a jigsaw puzzle which is totally predetermined and there is no freedom. Each piece of the puzzle fits exactly in one spot. When I shared this notion with one friend, he said that for many Christians the metaphor is more like "paint-by-numbers." Good one! Robotic. No room to think. Just paint inside the lines.

In contrast, the Scrabble game gives freedom to the players, the outcome is not known until the end of the game, and reason and intelligence is involved. But, Reimer points out that there is a fixed component; "The cosmos is not entirely open."

This metaphor is compelling, for me. As we think of what beliefs are crucial (I want to include all three: belonging, behavior, and beliefs), there is freedom, we use reason, and it is not a rigid jigsaw puzzle or paint-by-numbers game. And yet, there is a fixed component- not all beliefs are the same and there is a broad parameter within which we are working.

So, there is room for diversity and differences of belief as we attempt to put words to the narrative- the Big Story of God. We can see things from different angles. We will differ with one another on some of these beliefs. And, yet "the cosmos is not entirely open." As we attempt to identify core beliefs, there is great freedom and yet there is a fixed game board that we are working with.

This metaphor helps me to see the folly of both extremes: on the one hand- a rigid view of abstract, propositional truths that allows no room for diversity; and on the other hand-a view that has no parameters for beliefs or places all beliefs on the same level.