Richard Beck writes about two ways of viewing lament in the Christian faith: Specifically, when people examine the faith/lament relationship they tend to work with a polar model with faith and lament placed on two ends of a continuum. That is, as faith increases lament/anger/complaint toward God is believed to decrease. In this view, faith is the absence of doubt or complaint. Conversely, as doubt, lament, anger, and complaint increase faith is believed to decrease. These experiences are symptoms of a failure or lack of faith. In a variety of articles I’ve argued that social scientists (and churches) need to replace the polar model of lament/faith with a circumplex model where faith and lament are seen as separate, orthogonal dimensions. In this model I’ve labeled the vertical dimension “communion,” as it reflects engagement with God. The horizontal dimension is labeled “complaint” as it captures the experience of doubt, lament, anger and disappointment with God…The value of the circumplex model is that it allows communion with God to exist independently of lament. That is, one can be passionately engaged with God (i.e., have “faith”) while being in the middle of spiritual distress and turmoil. Complaint doesn’t imply a lack of faith.
Beck’s diagram helps us make sense of the sometimes shocking lament we read in the Psalms and in the prayers of Jesus. It suggests that we actually become more faithful, more Christian, as we learn to lament appropropriately.
I recently had a run in with a Christian who had a problem with me saying that John the Baptist was doubting while he was in prison. (Hard to read that section and NOT see that, but still.) It arose from the fundamental misunderstanding that doubt is not the lack of faith, but rather the wrestling with our presuppositions.
We don’t lament enough. In fact, most churches have a culture that makes communal (or even personal) lament a negative. We put on good faces and pretend everything is fine when, on the inside, people are hurting, or doubting, or failing. In essence, we need to create a space where people can feel free to lament.
But… how do you think we can do that?
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