Nouwen writes, in Intimacy:
"The man who never has any religious doubts… probably walks around blindfolded; he who has never experimented with his traditional values and ideas has probably been more afraid than free; he who has never put to a test any of dad's and mom's advice probably has never developed a critical mind and he who has never become irritated by the many ambiguities, ambivalences, and hypocrisies in his religious milieu probably has never been satisfied with anything either. But he who does, takes a risk. The risk of embarrassing not only his parents but also his friends, the risk of feeling alienated from his past and of becoming irritated by everything religious, even the word 'God.' The risk even of the searing loneliness which Jesus Christ suffered when he cried, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'…
We can often discover, with pain and frustration, that a mature religious man is very close to the agnostic, and often we have difficulty in deciding which name expresses better our state of mind: agnostic or searching believer. Perhaps they are closer than we tend to think."
I love this.
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