The Case for Christ

Reflection

An investigative journalist setting out to disprove his wife's newfound faith, only to be changed by what he discovers, is a familiar shape in the history of belief. C. S. Lewis followed something like it, as did many sceptics before and since who expected their scrutiny to end in disbelief. Christianity has never asked for blind acceptance; Peter urges believers to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope they hold, which assumes that hope can withstand honest questioning. There is something bracing about a faith willing to be examined rather than merely felt, and something moving about a marriage tested by a fundamental disagreement over truth. Doubt, pursued honestly rather than dismissed defensively, has a way of leading further in rather than further out. Whatever conclusions a person reaches, the willingness to actually look at the evidence, rather than assume the answer in advance, is itself a kind of integrity worth admiring.

Questions to sit with

• Have you ever changed your mind about something important after genuinely investigating it?
• What role does evidence play in your own faith, if any?
• How might a marriage or close relationship be strengthened rather than broken by honest disagreement over belief?