{"id":1685,"date":"2004-12-02T14:13:41","date_gmt":"2004-12-02T19:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2004-12-02T14:15:40","modified_gmt":"2004-12-02T19:15:40","slug":"faith-doubt-tennyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2004\/12\/faith-doubt-tennyson\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith, Doubt, Tennyson"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was just reading over Logan’s (re)post at BCC<\/a>, and I recalled a familiar line about faith and doubt, from Tennyson’s In Memoriam<\/em>. The poet wrote:<\/p>\n

You say, but with no touch of scorn,
\nSweet-hearted, you, whose light-blue eyes
\nAre tender over drowning flies,
\nYou tell me, doubt is Devil-born.
\nI know not: one indeed I knew
\nIn many a subtle question versed,
\nWho touch’d a jarring lyre at first,
\nBut ever strove to make it true:
\nPerplext in faith, but pure in deeds,
\nAt last he beat his music out.
\nThere lives more faith in honest doubt,
\nBelieve me, than in half the creeds.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

(XCVI) (emphasis added)<\/p>\n

The famous last two lines express a sentiment that resonates with me — sometimes it requires greater faith to articulate doubts, to grapple with problems, to acknowledge honestly the limits of one’s belief, than it does to simply adopt a set of beliefs. <\/p>\n

[And given our tendency as churchmembers to prooftext extensively, let me point out a fact that might be relevant only for Mormons: A passage from this very poem is included in our (prophet-endorsed) hymnal. So there must be something divine about at least some of Tennyson’s writings, and at least some of this poem in particular. Now this is a limited endorsement — the passage included isn’t the one I’ve cited here — but nevertheless potentially illustrative. I don’t think that any lines from Nietzsche would ever be included in the hymnal, no matter how many wild bells he wrote about.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was just reading over Logan’s (re)post at BCC, and I recalled a familiar line about faith and doubt, from Tennyson’s In Memoriam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}