Suspicion & Faith #1: Introduction

For most Christians, it would seem strange, even blatantly wrong, to welcome virulent atheists to the pulpit on a Sunday morning to propound their views on religion. However, that is what Merold Westphal seeks to do in Suspicion & Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism. Westphal proposes ways in which the believing community can hear the ideas of Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche as prophetic calls for reflection rather than attacks to be feared and resisted.

Suspicion vs. Skepticism. First, Westphal distinguishes between atheism of skepticism and atheism of suspicion. Atheism of skepticism focuses on doctrinal claims and evidence. The basic argument of skepticism is that there is not enough legitimate evidence for the believer to make his claims or the skeptic to accept them. This is the common atheism we encounter in Bertrand Russell and the New Atheists (Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris). However, Westphal focuses his attention on the atheism of suspicion found in the works of Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche. Where skepticism challenges the evidence for God-claims, suspicion narrows in on the heart of the believer and the believing community. Skepticism questions the evidence; suspicion searches for motives and self-deception in the believer. Westphal, therefore, argues that atheism of suspicion bears a striking resemblance to many of the pronouncements made by the Old Testament prophets (Isa. 64:6, Jer. 17:9, Amos 5:23) and Christ himself (Matt. 23:27, Mark 11:17).

Instrumental Religion. “There is an atheism,” Westphal contends, “that is closer to the truth than a certain kind of religion” (6). Atheism of suspicion has a prophetic word for a Christianity that frequently “reduces God to a means to the believer’s own ends” (8). This reappropriation of God is called instrumental religion: we turn God into an instrument, a tool, for our own purposes. Religion becomes idolatrous when it is “primarily motivated by the believing soul’s self-interest” (26). Too often, our acts of worship are offered to “a god we hope to domesticate” (15). Our preferences become God’s commands; our goals become God’s plan; our opponents become God’s enemies. It is probable that we are unaware of this in our own lives; however, suspicion (like a prophet) confronts the believer with his or her own underlying (and hidden) motives and self-deception.

Faith Purified. Paul Ricouer writes that “this ‘destruction’ of religion can be the counterpart of a faith purified of all idolatry….The question remains open for every [person] whether the destruction of idols is without remainder” (56). To clarify: If I remove all of the idolatrous (man-made) aspects of my religion, is there any God left? Again, this is not essentially an assault on the existence of God, but rather an interrogation of the structures we have built and acclaimed as God. Do we truly desire to know and follow the Living God enough to search out and destroy all idolatrous aspects (Ex. 20: 3-6) of our own religious belief and practice, no matter the cost, loss, or shock?

This is the first of 4 posts on Merold Westphal's Suspicion & Faith.