Divine Doubt

Yesterday, Pete Rollins posted two photographs, inspired by the subtitle to his blog, "to believe is human; to doubt divine," by photographer Art Summers. The first, "to believe is human," shows a little girl (Art's daughter) approaching the altar of a church, intimating that belief is a structure of human experience. The second, "to doubt is divine," shows the little girl leaving the church.

I particularly like this second image, especially when it is placed in conversation with theo-philosophical reflections by Slavoj Zizek that link human doubt, abandonment, and atheism to God's own self-emptying (in the Incarnation) and self-abandonment (on the cross).

One of Pete's talks at the Subverting the Norm event in Missouri next month repeats this motif of human belief and divine doubt: "To believe is human; to doubt divine: Introducing Zizek's Christology." I'm really looking forward to this presentation and hope he uses Summers' artwork - it would be a powerful backdrop!