"[People] like the opinions to which they have become accustomed from their youth; they defend them and shun contrary views: and this is one of the things that prevent [them] from finding the truth, for they cling to the opinions of habit." --Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed
I find it interesting, to return to this quote by Maimonides, that he correlates clinging to our accustomed opinions with missing the truth, and advocates that to pursue truth, we need to move beyond our accustomed opinions and ways of understanding reality.
I find it interesting, to return to this quote by Maimonides, that he correlates clinging to our accustomed opinions with missing the truth, and advocates that to pursue truth, we need to move beyond our accustomed opinions and ways of understanding reality.
Maimonides
suggests that becoming free from our habits and accustomed ways of looking at
the world, actually frees us up to discover the truth (I would say, in more
complex, multidimensional ways).
As an
example from my personal experience, consider my understanding of baptism.
Growing up in a (Swedish background) Baptist church in Minnesota, I understood that
the Bible clear taught that believers in Jesus Christ should be baptized as an
indication of their personal faith and intention of following him. It was clear
that this act needed to be performed when one was of an age to understand what
they believed and were committing to, accompanied by a profession of faith and
intent. This was the simple Biblical Truth, as I understood it.
Then, one
day (when I was in college) I ran into a Presbyterian, who advocated a
different view of baptism (baptizing infants). I was astonished that anyone
could have such a crazy view, clearly not in accord with what the Bible
teaches. I did what Maimonides advocates not doing – clung to the opinions to which I had become accustomed from
my youth (but realize – I didn’t see this as opinion, but rather as the clear
Biblical truth), defending these opinions and shunning contrary views. (In
those days, due both to ethnocentrism and perhaps to tendencies of my One
Enneatype, I was fixated on knowing “the Truth,” the “right” view of
everything, etc.)
It would not have been satisfying for my
Presbyterian acquaintance to say, “well, you have your truth and I have mine.”
I clearly wanted to know God’s perspective, what the Bible teaches – after all,
faith is about Truth, reality, not about people just “making it up” and having
whatever opinions they feel like having (right?). I didn’t fall into that relativistic
“trap,” but rather, went on my way confident that I understood the Truth and
that Presbyterians were just clearly wrong.
Fast forward a few years, through being in
church community in North Africa with a variety of expat and local Christians
who had different views and practices than I had grown up with, and my having
been challenged over time to consider that perhaps I didn’t see everything clearly
and know everything perfectly…
I crossed paths with a couple of other
Presbyterians some time later, both of whom I cared for and respected deeply. I
finally asked them to explain the Presbyterian view of baptism, and how it
squared with the Bible. As I listened carefully, trying to understand their
perspective (a key, by the way, for moving from an ethnocentric perspective on
others, into Acceptance and Adaptation), it occurred to me that
Presbyterians and Baptists were essentially doing the same thing, but in a
different order (Baptists “dedicate” their children, and then seek to raise
them in the faith, hoping and praying that as they grow to maturity, they will
embrace Jesus and will choose to be baptized as a sign of their faith;
Presbyterians baptize their babies into the family of faith, and then seek to
raise them in the faith, hoping and praying that as they grow to maturity, they
will embrace Jesus and will choose to walk in the faith they have been baptized
into). And I thought, “perhaps God is ok with both ways of baptizing.” (And I thought,
too, about the fact that 90+ % of all Christians in the world through history
have baptized their babies, and it occurred to me that it might be a tad bit
arrogant to be part of the tiny baptistic minority claiming that we had figured
out the “true, biblical way to baptize.”)
I would say that in listening to others (in
the cause of seeking to understand the Truth), and letting go of some of the “opinions
to which I had been accustomed from my youth,” I have come to a deeper, more
clear understanding of the “Truth” of baptism. At least, that is what it “feels
like” to me. And to me, this experience, this journey of having what feels like
a broader, more multidimensional understanding of baptism, feels enriching and
positive. I still have my preferences on baptism, and my practices; but I hold
them more lightly, and less dogmatically. In fact, over the recent Christmas
holidays, I participated in the baptism of my first grandson in an Episcopal
church. And I believe that God is pleased with that. J
