The Death of Thoughtful Christianity
Why we struggle to hold truths in tension
“You go back to the first 1,300 years of Christianity, and faith is defined as a combination of knowing and not knowing. Of a willingness and readiness by the grace of God to live with a certain degree of unknowing or what the mystics call darkness.” — Richard Rohr
M.C. Escher, “Relativity,” 1953
Again and again, I find myself returning to the same issue: our culture’s growing inability to hold multiple truths in tension. We live in an age of both misinformation and over-information, where the pressure to have an opinion—regardless of expertise—has overtaken the ability to think critically and honestly about complex issues. Theologically, we struggle to navigate the tensions between grace and truth, God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, suffering and blessing, individual faith and church community.
I believe this polarization, combined with increasing isolation and a lack of credible sources of truth and authority, has deeply eroded our ability to engage difficult and complex ideas with nuance and wisdom.
Modern Examples of This Struggle:
COVID-19 Pandemic
Some Christians believed faith should override all precautions, rejecting masks, vaccines, and public health measures. Others fully embraced government mandates, sometimes shaming those who questioned certain policies.
Tension to hold: Trusting God does not negate wisdom and responsibility. Faith and science are not enemies. Loving our neighbors often means making sacrifices for the sake of others.
Racial Injustice and the Black Lives Matter Movement
Some Christians dismissed systemic racism entirely, seeing racism only as an individual sin. Others fully embraced the movement without critique, even supporting aspects that conflict with biblical values.
Tension to hold: Racism is both a personal sin and a systemic issue. Christians must pursue justice while discerning the influence of secular ideologies.
Immigration and Refugee Policies
Some Christians supported strict immigration policies without regard for the biblical call to care for the foreigner. Others pushed for open borders without acknowledging the necessity of law and order.
Tension to hold: Scripture calls believers to care for immigrants and refugees while also respecting the role of government in maintaining order.
Christian Nationalism and Politics
Some Christians believed electing a particular candidate was the only way to “save Christianity in America,” equating political power with God’s kingdom. Others rejected all political involvement, disengaging from civic responsibility altogether.
Tension to hold: Christians should engage in politics without making political allegiance their primary identity. The gospel transcends every political system.
Ultracrepidarianism: The Modern Crisis of False Expertise
Our cultural moment is deeply affected by a phenomenon known as ultracrepidarianism—the tendency for people to act as though they are experts in areas where they have little or no real knowledge. The term originates from the Latin phrase Sutor, ne ultra crepidam (“Cobbler, not beyond the shoe”), referencing a Greek painter, Apelles, who a shoemaker warned to stay within his expertise.
This phenomenon manifests in several ways:
Imposter Expert Syndrome – The compulsion to overstate knowledge in order to maintain credibility.
Performative Knowledge – Projecting expertise for social validation rather than seeking true understanding.
Dunning-Kruger Effect – A cognitive bias where those with minimal knowledge of a subject greatly overestimate their expertise.
This cultural pull toward overconfidence, superficial understanding, and misinformation has led to a crisis of immaturity, division, and an inability to hold paradox. We struggle to engage in nuanced discussions without defaulting to certitude or simplicity.
When we lose the ability to hold paradox, we lose far more than we realize.
We lose mystery—our faith becomes an idol of certainty rather than an invitation into trust.
We lose beauty—fear and insecurity replace wonder and humility.
We lose unity—people become categories and camps rather than brothers and sisters in Christ.
Social media fuels this crisis, amplifying division and oversimplification. Though we have never been more “connected,” we are also more isolated and incapable of wrestling with complexity in meaningful ways.
Recovering the Art of Paradox
While our post-Enlightenment world struggles to hold tensions in balance, church history provides beautiful examples of how paradox has shaped faith for centuries. Yet today, our culture has traded the richness of paradox for the false comfort of certainty. As Richard Rohr puts it, we have made an “idol out of certitude,” mistaking doubt for the loss of faith when, in reality, it may be the beginning of finding it.
So how do we reclaim the ability to live in tension? How do we faithfully hold paradox?
Four Practices for Living in the Tension:
1. Practice Intellectual Humility
Acknowledge what you don’t know. You don’t need to have an opinion on everything. Instead of rushing to speak, cultivate a posture of curiosity and learning.
Ask more questions than you give answers. Seek wisdom, not validation. (Proverbs 18:2 – “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”)
2. Embrace Mystery
Faith is not certainty—it is trust in the midst of uncertainty. Some tensions are meant to remain unresolved.
Accept that God’s ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). If the gospel itself is a paradox—where the cross is both suffering and victory, and Jesus is both fully God and fully man—then faith should not fear paradox.
3. Resist Tribal Thinking
Our culture demands we pick a side, creating false divisions. Instead, resist the pressure to divide people into “us” vs. “them.”
Be shaped by the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), not just the loudest voices around you.
4. Cultivate a Safe Community
One of the greatest losses in modern faith is the lack of safe spaces for hard conversations.
Seek out biblically grounded communities where you can wrestle with truth without being forced into extremes.
A Call to a Deeper Faith
Holding truth in tension is not a weakness—it is a mark of spiritual maturity. A faith that demands absolute certainty in all things is fragile; a faith that can live with mystery and paradox is resilient.
Jesus Himself modeled this way of thinking—welcoming sinners while calling them to holiness, submitting to death yet conquering through resurrection, and embracing the cross as both suffering and triumph. To follow Him means learning to live in the tension, trusting that even when we don’t have all the answers, He is the answer.