Questions of Faith: A Skeptical Affirmation of Christianity

by Peter L. Berger

Leading religious and cultural commentator, Peter Berger, explores how and what we can believe in modern times.

Genres: Religion, Sociology, Theology

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Peter L. Berger was an internationally renowned sociologist, and the founder of Boston University's Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs. He was born in Vienna and came to the U.S. in his late teens. He had a master's degree and a doctorate from the New School for Social Research in New York. After two years in the United States Army, he taught at the University of Georgia and the University of North Carolina before going to the Hartford Seminary Foundation as an Assistant Professor in Social Ethics.

In 1992, Peter Berger was awarded the Manes Sperber Prize, presented by the Austrian government for significant contributions to culture. He was the author of many books, among them The Social Construction of Reality, The Homeless Mind, and Questions of Faith.

Reviews

[César · Rating 4 out of 5]

4'5

Descubrí a Peter L. Berger leyendo a Jiménez Lozano. Berger fue un prominente sociólogo de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, especializado en sociología del conocimiento y de la religión. Además de su producción bibliográfica estrictamente referida a su rama del conocimiento, hizo sus pinitos como teólogo laico en varios libros, entre los que destaca este título.
El título deja claro el punto de vista del autor: el de un verso libre dentro del universo cristiano, próximo a los creyentes que merodean el pórtico de entrada a la Iglesia, donde intercambian opiniones y honestas exigencias. Lo cierto es que me siento cómodo en los libros cuyos autores se permiten la audacia de tirar de las faldas de la doctrina, planteando con valentía sus reservas ante ciertas cuestiones, reflexionando con marcado acento personal.
Berger fue protestante luterano y lo suficientemente liberal como para abarcar en el libro las diferentes aproximaciones a los temas contenidos en el Credo que se producen desde las diversas banderas cristianas: protestantes, católicos y ortodoxos. Sometido todo ello a una mirada escéptica y exigente. Una mirada poco complaciente, rebelde, retadora.
Siguiendo los enunciados del Credo de los apóstoles, Berger somete a un riguroso examen temas como la teodicea, la resurrección, la redención, la naturaleza del pecado, la Trinidad, el problema del mal, la escatología, etc. Todo cuanto constituye la fe cristiana, en definitiva. Pone sobre ella los ojos del hombre moderno y la interroga en función de esta condición.
El lenguaje es accesible, el texto bien documentado, con notas que ampliarán el conocimiento del lector, y las escaramuzas humorísticas son habituales durante la lectura, haciendo honor a otro título de Berger sobre la naturaleza redentora de la risa. El libro constituye una aproximación al cristianismo que sonará razonable al hombre de hoy día, que encontrará aquí lo que con exactitud consigna el subtítulo: una afirmación escéptica del cristianismo.

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 3 out of 5]

By far the most theological of Berger's books. Unlike A Rumor of Angels or A Far Glory, which could be perhaps characterised as 'empirical theology', reflecting sociological issues theologically, this one is straightforward theology. Going through the sentences of the apostolic creed, Berger presents an idiosyncratic view of their meaning, combining insights from all the major (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) traditions. I am not qualified to assess the quality of Berger's theology, but for a lay reader his always well-presented prose is enjoyable. As in his other works, he tries to tread a 'reasoned middle position' line. Interestingly, while this puts him in the sociologically conservative camp, theologically he probably comes off as progressive or 'liberal'. For me, this was the first venture in about twenty-five years into this kind of literature and it's hard to think of a better guide--even if I wouldn't rank it very high in Berger's overall oeuvre.

[Haseop Shin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Berger asks the questions, I believe, all serious Christians must ask, and he does so while guiding us through each component of the Apostle’s Creed. As a sociologist especially interested in religion, Berger introduces the importance of modernity and pluralism. “Modernity progressively undermines the social environments which support taken-for-grantedness, in religion as in everything else that people believe” (4). Many beliefs are taken-for-granted not because of their inherent quality, but quite simply for the lack of other alternatives. So, with modernization of technology and mass-communication, many people assumed what is called the secularization hypothesis. Simply put, more modern—less religious. However, this prevalent view among sociologists in the 60’s and 70’s is virtually abandoned by most. Within such a rigid framework, there was just no coherent way in which one could “explain away” the rapid conversions of Islam and the infamous rise of global Pentecostalism. So a more appropriate relationship between modernity and religion might be that rather modernity incurs pluralism.
“Where there is a plurality of beliefs, and where the individual is therefore compelled to make choices between them, a higher degree of reflectiveness becomes unavoidable...Among other things, it means that religious certainty is harder to come by” (5). This is what Berger elsewhere calls “the heretical imperative.” In modernity, everyone must choose, for certainty and taken-for-grantedness of religious convictions cannot be sustained. For Christians, this means three traditional avenues of certainty will have to be blocked: 1) the infallible Church 2) the inerrant Bible and 3) the inner mystical experience. An ordinary perusal of church histories and fascinating origins of various official doctrines might make churches less than trustworthy, a brief education on the tradition of Christian scripture might make those passages less than holy, and various mystical experiences across the globe might make one’s personal “encounter” less than divine.
So in a pluralistic society, as various information becomes more public and faith becomes more private, it seems, what one needs is a connection strong enough for that particular individual between his personal experience and the particular historical tradition in question. While numerous factors have risen in modern times to stand against religion and “boring” interpretation of the ultimate reality of this world, faith is a “bet on the ultimate goodness on the world; conversely, one bets that annihilation is not the ultimate fate of everything one holds dear in the world.” This is Berger’s attempt at his own “bet” on faith.
This book, although wordy at some points, is a great introduction to the various difficulties that mature Christians not only do but must encounter in these times. I found his chapters on the history of Biblical criticism, formations of doctrines, validity of miracles, the church, and the nature of sin particularly helpful.

[John Martindale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved Berger's book "In Praise of Doubt." Berger is my all-time favorite sociologist; I find him so insightful on matters of religion. Anyhow, it was thus a pleasure to sit in and hear Berger's thoughts, reflections, and musings on each part of the Apostle's Creed. There is a decent bit of history and differing views explored on each aspect of the Creed. I found it amusing that a critique of certain views he rejects is that he found it "uninteresting." I'd have to re-listen and take notes to recall all of the affirmations. On the atonement, for example, after rightly rejecting the Satisfaction and Penal Substitution for being morally repugnant, and ditching the moral influence view as uninteresting, he lands with Gustav Aulen's Christus Victor.

Berger mentioned three avenues for certainty. The church (the catholic position), the bible (the protestant), and experience (the Charismatic), I would want to add reason (The philosopher's god).
However, as Berger would recognize, it is quite hard to lay claim absolute and exclusive certitude if we have a clear-eyed look at church history, or recognize the messiness of the bible, or the subjectivity of experience (and how people of variety of faiths can lay claim to them), or see the failures and shortcoming of reason.
To believe something, as Augustine was quoted as saying, something must first seem believable—and for many educated people, the previous avenues for religious certainty are no longer travelable.
So what is one to do? While there may indeed be a God, this God is quite elusive and silent and has provided humanity with grounds for certainty. If this God is good and there is a final judgment, it seems to follow that this being wouldn't judge people for their beliefs. So yes, relax, and just do your best to be in approximation to the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, and love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly in the meantime.

I do agree with Berger that Hick’s pluralism fails and that exclusivism is completely off the table. The remaining option for Christians is "Inclusivism". Inclusivists believe God truly revealed Himself fully in Jesus, but this true God is at work in other traditions as well.

[Ana Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este livro foi desenvolvido dentro do género pergunta/resposta, tomando como partido diferentes frases do Credo. Admito que não o li na íntegra (li apenas as respostas para as questões que eram, de certa forma, as minhas questões) mas, de um modo geral, fiquei bastante satisfeita com as "respostas" que obtive.
Coloquei a palavra "respostas" entre parênteses porque, como todos sabemos, existem perguntas sem resposta e estas são um belo exemplo disso. No entanto, estudando, questionando e observando, conseguimos retirar algumas conclusões que, depois de bem pensadas e interpretadas, nos podem servir de tal.
O autor realizou um excelente trabalho de pesquisa e apresentou inúmeros argumentos para sustentar cada "resposta", mostrando em cada situação o outro lado da moeda. Está de parabéns por isso.
A religião é um tema que me interessa bastante, pelo que faço questão de continuar em busca de resposta para o resto das minhas perguntas.:)

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Se si può ragionevolmente affermare di non credere nell’esistenza di un tale destino trascendente, meno ragionevole è sostenere di non essere interessati ad esso. La religione implica in definitiva che la realtà abbia un senso in termini umani. Si tratta del pensiero più audace che l’essere umano abbia mai concepito; può essere un’illusione, ma anche in questo caso è interessante." (p. 11)

[Fahimeh Dehbashi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very useful for my research and it is necesary to me to read and analize it. It is originally about the socialogy of Ethics although it discusses about the Christian categories.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this book. Although it was based around a critical line-by-line discussion of the Apostle's Creed, it didn't really reach any definitive answers on most issues. And to a certain extent it was contradictory. On the one hand, Peter Berger affirms the centrality and truth of the resurrection, yet on page 66 he suggests that even if using a time machine could reveal that Jesus did not die on the cross but revived in the tomb and went on to live a long and happy life, it would not undermine faith in the resurrection, which I find incoherent. It isn't possible to in good faith believe something that you know for a fact didn't happen. (it reminds me of Jesus encounter with Paul towards the end of the film "The Last Temptation of Christ": Jesus, after having been saved from the cross by God and moving in with Mary Magdalene in a small village, on encountering Paul preaching his death and resurrection, tells him effectively "that's not how it happened" and Paul basically says that it doesn't matter what really happened, it's what people believe happened that counts.)

Having said that there are parts of this book I quite liked: the parable of the railway station (p.105) where he compares people waiting for the second coming with people waiting for a delayed train and their varied reactions, the idea of conscience as not telling us what to do but drawing our attention to things that require us to make a moral decision (p.159), the idea of moral actions as participating in "the repair of the world" (p.160)(which I think is a Hasidic idea as well) as well as the discussion of the differences between Othrodox and Catholic views on various issues and cmparisons with Hindu and Buddhist ideas. He contrasts and critiques the views of a large number of different theologians, but in the end the only conclusion you can really draw is that none of them really know what the truth is about any of it.

[Brett · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually quite enjoy Berger's work, but this title simply fell flat. It's an ambitious book, but disappointing in both approach and insight.

[Trish]

I only made it to page 26. UGH!

[Donald Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of his many great works, a nice balance between his most famous scholarly works ("The Social Construction of Reality" and "The Sacred Canopy") and his more books of more personal and pastoral orientations ("Rumors of Angels", "A Far Glory", etc.)