The Value of Doubt

Google Image

I recently watched “Freud’s Last Session” on Netflix, a movie set in England at the start of WW2. It stars Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud, the famous pioneer in psychoanalysis and psychology, and Matthew Goode as C.S. Lewis, the renowned English professor, author and lay theologian. I recommend it.

The movie portrays a fictitious meeting between the two, Freud, the dyed-in-the-wool atheist, and Lewis, the author of 30 books selling millions of copies, whose wartime radio broadcasts promoting faith captivated the minds and hearts of thousands of people during that critical era in British history.

Although the two men undoubtedly knew of each other and each other’s work, historians doubt they ever met.

Can Doubt Strengthen Faith?

And doubt, in a way, is the principal subject of the movie: each other’s doubt about their atheism and faith while outwardly trying to show how firm they were in their belief and unbelief. In my view, the movie shows that faith and doubt go together, that doubt can strengthen faith and that – except for death, if not taxes - there is no such thing as absolute certainty.

The movie reminded me of an article I read online recently entitled, “Seven Interesting Reasons Why People Don’t Go to Church.” Among the reasons: “They feel that legitimate doubt is prohibited.”

It’s true that you hear little about doubt from the pulpit and when mentioned, it may be in the form of negative comments. The priest at our parish, however, recently gave a great homily on the subject, assuring his listeners that God understands our doubt and can help us deal with it.

Kevin Clarke
Google Image

The gospels include several instances in which Jesus chides his disciples and others for their doubt. But overall, it seems to me, he has no problem with doubt, knowing that it is part of the human condition.

His treatment of the apostle, Thomas, for instance, shows he understood Thomas’ doubt and responded with compassion and understanding. Who could blame the apostles for thinking Jesus was too good to be true?

I came across a 2022 article in America Magazine with which, as a former journalist, I can relate. Entitled, “What If Doubt is Actually Good for Your Faith?” It’s written by Kevin Clarke, an America correspondent.

“I was pretty much doomed to be a journalist,” he writes. “There is something deep in me that is most at ease with skepticism. My faith, too, resides anxiously in a muddle of doubt. Even as I write these words, I feel it a faint, fleeting thing. So, I go to Mass, and I doubt; I pray, and I doubt. I seek consolation in my doubt. I raise my children in the faith, and I frankly try most of the time to hide my doubt.”

Act of Will

Clarke quotes Roger Haight, S.J., a theologian, author and visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, who describes faith as an act of will and a “total response of the whole person to what one considers to be transcendent, that which is beyond anything that you can imagine, anything you can conceive, anything you can formulate, anything that you actually know.” 

Certainty is illusive in science as well as religion and an attitude of religious certitude could signal the lack of humility required by faith. Said Pope Francis in 2013: “If one has the answers to all the questions - that is the proof that God is not with him.”

Clarke is unabashed in his view that doubt is a valuable part of faith.

“…Doubt,” he writes, “can serve as a catalyst for growth, intellectual honesty, and empathy. Embracing doubt allows us to explore deeper questions and build a more resilient faith. So, perhaps the value of doubt lies in its ability to keep us curious and open-minded.”