Review
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Title: Sceptical Christianity: Exploring Credible Belief
Author: Robert Reiss
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London and Philadelphia
Genre: Religious apologetics
Year Published: 2016
Number of Pages: 185
Binding: Paper
ISBN10: n/a
ISBN13: 978-1-78592-062-2
Price: $14.00 (Kindle: $9.99)
Reviewed by Richard Packham for the Association for Mormon Letters
There have always been those who questioned the literal truth of the claims of the established religions. Until about 250 years ago, those who questioned usually ended up tortured and burned. In our more modern times, when religious leaders no longer had that solution available, and when secular science has shown many ancient beliefs to be questionable, the number of doubters and sceptics has greatly increased. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century, making information more widely available to the masses, facilitated the Protestant Reformation, which was fundamentally a movement casting doubt on the claims of the Catholic Church. The proliferation of Internet access in the last two decades is having a similar effect on religious belief. The number of people in the United States who characterize themselves as “not religious” has doubled and tripled just within the last few years. In many other western nations, those who continue to hold to traditional religious beliefs are a relatively tiny minority.
These developments naturally are of great concern to religious leaders. They have fewer options nowadays, since burning and torture are unpopular and, in most civilized countries, illegal. In some religious organizations the leaders issue dire warnings about doubt or scepticism, labeling them as devilish temptations. In others, the leaders expel all doubters and shun them. In some, the problem is simply overlooked or ignored. And sometimes the information that gives rise to the doubts is acknowledged, with attempts somehow to reconcile the new scientific and historical information with the traditional teachings of the group.
The Church of England seems to be in the latter group, and the present book is an example of what a high-ranking clergyman does to remain true to his faith while at the same time acknowledging the problems that sceptics find in traditional Christianity and in belief in God. The Revd. Robert Reiss is Emeritus Canon of Westminster Abbey and former Archdeacon of Surrey. He recounts here his efforts to reconcile his personal religious faith with the findings of modern science, historical research, and reason.
As the author clearly states, the Church of England is quite permissive in allowing its followers – and even its clergy – to express views and beliefs that are contrary to the creeds and liturgies of the church. Even sermons that contradict doctrine are tolerated, albeit with raised eyebrows and the shaking of heads.
A more well-known example of this tolerance in the American Episcopal Church (a sister or cousin of the established British church) is the former bishop of Newark, John Shelby Spong, who, in his long tenure as the leading Anglican clergyman in New Jersey, published dozens of books urging his church and its adherents to acknowledge that much of their doctrine was in doubt because of the findings of science and secular history. Reiss has a different purpose. He is not so interested in reforming his church as he is in explaining his own path in faithful scepticism as a possible help to other Christians with similar faith problems.
Reiss is not hesitant to point out what is causing those problems for him. He cites the scientific evidence, the historical evidence, the textual evidence that are causing problems with church doctrine. The book is organized into chapters covering each of the major Christian doctrines: belief in God, the role of Jesus, the resurrection, the meaning of salvation, the afterlife, the role of prayer and public worship. In each topic, he enumerates the problems for a sceptic, and then relates how he, as a sceptic, deals with them to give meaning to his continuing faith.
The method he uses is generally to re-define what the words mean, and to interpret them as symbols or allegories for truths that any person – believer or not – might find useful in living a meaningful and useful life. For example, “God” for Reiss is roughly similar to the “God” of the late atheistic scientist Carl Sagan: it is the universe and its predictable and dependable laws. “Salvation” is not being saved from eternal punishment, but rather finding peace and a place in the complex world in which we live. The guilt and fear instilled by religion, says Reiss, are likely to be helped more by good psychotherapy than by church doctrine.
Reiss doubts that Jesus actually rose from the dead, or that he was literally divine. He views Jesus’ suffering and death as being a symbol of how God (the universe?), as represented by Jesus, participates in our everyday human suffering. The purpose was to make us aware that there is (was) suffering greater than ours.
Prayer and public worship, Reiss suggests, are most important not for one’s relationship to God, but for providing psychological support to the worshiper and a meaningful participation in a community. To be a Christian is to be involved in the world in order to help relieve the pain and suffering of others, not to have correct beliefs and correct rituals.
For Latter-day Saints who are struggling with problems of conflict between church doctrine or practices and the wealth of scientific and historical information now so widely available, Reiss may not have much to offer that could help a Saint remain a believing Mormon. Mormonism does not generally tolerate the kind of open scepticism which Reiss represents. If a Mormon in a church position comparable to Reiss’s were to preach or publish what is in this book, there would likely be disciplinary action.
For the non-Mormon Christian, however, his suggestions offer a useful approach to the preservation of one’s individual involvement in Christianity. Some readers, of course, may review his summary of all the problems with Christian doctrines and beliefs, and conclude, “Why bother with religion? Do I really need it to be a happy, useful, moral and beneficent human being?”