There are certain movies and works of literature that make absolutely no effort to create believability. I’m not referring to sci-fi books or movies because even those seem to make an attempt to create a world where certain things (sci-fi type things) are able to happen. The first movie that came to mind was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Brad Pitt was born as an old man and slowly over his life aged backwards. He got younger and younger as each year went by. While this movie was about forty-five minutes too long, it was an interesting and enjoyable movie. But in no way (if my memory serves me correctly) did they try to create a sense of believability concerning the unusual story. It just was. I cannot speak for anyone else, but I found that I didn’t care. The point of the movie was not about belief, it was about life. The literary pieces that either assume belief or simply ignore it are in pursuit of a different sort of narrative. They are more about experience and meaning than they are about belief.

In Christianity we have become inebriated with our understanding of belief. We have defined belief as cognitive in nature, as right thinking, pertaining to head knowledge, and relegated to the realm of logic. We have come to agree that Jesus died so that we might believe with this understanding of belief. I believe that our definition of grace supports this fact. Grace, as we speak about it, is available to those who cognitively agree that Jesus is who he said he was etc. etc. In our general teaching if you agree with this fact you can then proclaim that you are saved by grace even though your lifestyle might not look it (the caveat always added in is that if you REALLY ARE saved then you’ll want to follow it up with right actions…but this is nearly always relegated to an asterisk). The assumption here is that cognition is of more value than action. Not equal. The assumption is that belief is a matter of logic, not lifestyle.

I would suggest that the belief that the Bible speaks of is often more focused around the Benjamin Button model. Rarely (Luke’s writings?) does the Bible try to prove itself. Rarely does it try to give evidences in order to support a cognitive centered approach to belief. Instead the focus seems to be on an experience with Jesus/God/Holy Spirit, there seems to be an emphasis on a relational narrative that creates meaning for its participants and observers. Like in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the Bible often assumes or ignores trying to prove that the story is believable (based on our western definition of belief). Instead its focus is on knowledge of God/Jesus that occurs THROUGH relationship…in other words, experience.

In a very real way it is not one or the other. It is not right action OR right thinking–it is right action AND right thinking. With that said however, I just wonder if Christianity would make a better movie, a better narrative if we spent less efforts trying to be provable and more effort on creating meaning and experience. I can define Biblical love or I can demonstrate it. And while I wish that demonstrating Godly love necessitated biblical knowledge the reality is that at different times I have seen stronger examples of Jesus-love in pools of biblical ignorance than I have in seminaries filled with biblical scholars. If I’m not mistaken, the Old Testament gave us a great system of belief and a black and white system of how to act…and it was hugely incomplete. Instead God decided that intimate experience and relationship is where its at. My guess, however, is that right living will not sustain itself for very long, or stay on track very well without its pairing with right thinking.

I’ve been holding this post in “draft” purgatory for nearly  a week now trying to figure out how to end it. If our ways of defining grace only builds off of right thinking then we’re not creating balance, we’re not being honest about our commitment to both right thinking and right living. But swinging completely the other direction will not sustain itself, nor will it keep its focus on the right thing.

In the end I think we are invited to experience God holistically. We are invited to experience his grace and mercy with our whole selves. With our minds, our hands, our hearts, our…everything. If our foundation is Matrix-like, trying to prove believability then I think we’re missing something. Knowing about God does us little good if it does not translate into knowing God. Movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Encino Man create an experience that has little to do with cognitive believability and everything to do with experience.