Abstract:
In this article about the origin of differences in faith and how we can / should deal with them, the article explores the extent to which language may guide or misguide our reflections about God as mystery, and how differences in faith become embedded in the nature and dynamics of religious discourse; both external and internal. Such discourses are then linked to four phases of faith which emerge in various permutations and combinations; are recursively linked; and together attest to faith as a journey and not as a fixed destination. These phases are: blind gullibility and stultification; conflict and doubt; outsidership; and a sense of wonder / fundamental trust. Focussing on the latter faith "position" the author then explores how our talk about God can be guided by what the philosopher Paul van Buren calls the "edges of language" - where the word God serves as the final speech act when one wants deperately to say the most that is possible. Various examples from literature, the arts and Scripture are supplied to elucidate the edges of language and how these may retain connections with traditional / convential religious language utterances and the various phases of faith. Finally, the article explores the deeper meaning of tolerance as as a disposition that emerges from the integrity of commitment and which would allow the respectful accommodation of all such commitments.
