"The finest thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.  He who does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle."

-  Albert Einstein

You might think that Christianity is about providing answers rather than prompting questions. There’s a perception in our secular society, that Christian believers have parked their common sense and curiosity at the church door.  Faith may have some admirable qualities but in essence it’s a culturally predetermined package of dogmas, rituals and sacred texts. 

So then, can religious belief really elevate and expand our humanity or does it foster a narrow worldview and an impulse to shut down novelty and critical enquiry?

Saint Augustine of Hippo, located the seed bed of faith in the deep restlessness of the human heart. He argued that we have an insatiable longing to understand, to create and to be valued. This is where the sacred is to be found. The more we search for answers or self-fulfilment and expression, the more likely we are to stumble upon the mystery of our existence. 

Faith can be understood as a kind of conscious enchantment with the beauty of the enigmatic, perplexing and inexplicable.  Augustine concludes that at the heart of faith is a decision to be nourished by profound mystery or to use his famous phrase while arguing with God in his Confessions: “Our hearts are restless, until they find rest in you.” For the followers of Christ, the profound mystery of the Word made flesh, I suspect there will always be more questions than answers. 

Fr Justin Dodd