This is not to say that there are not real Biblical and theological answers for the meaning of life, only to say that they may not be as easily learned as we have been led to believe. My concern is that in making the easy critique of the therapeutic, we miss the ways that quick appeals to Biblical and theological categories of meaning may also provide young people “answers” that skip over the necessity of holiness and the trembling of mystery. The speed of spiritual formation in the church should be shockingly longer than the time it takes to diagnose yourself on TikTok.
In order to receive the truth of God, we must first tremble before the mystery of God. In order to help bring young men and women back to the mystery of humanness, we have to ground all our knowledge and explanations in faith, which grounds us as we seek understanding. We have to help the next generation embrace the mystery of faith. Understanding is a worthy aim, but not an ultimate one: it bows to faith.
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