If you believe the canard that to be intellectual requires rejection of the supernatural, then Molly Worthen’s story will be destabilizing to you. She recently appeared in a Veritas Forum in an episode titled, “Questioning Christianity: A Professor’s Journey from Skepticism to Faith.”
She thought of religion as a curious object of study, perhaps because she was not raised in a religious family. She was the standard academic agnostic whose university is a substitute for church. She earned a Ph.D. in American religious history from Yale. She is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina.
As she interviewed Christians and wrote about their faith, she began to envy them. They had a sense of purpose and were contented with their answers to the ultimate questions of the universe. She made what she called “pathetic false starts” in trying to imitate them. In her defense, it is not uncommon to think that participating in church gatherings is the totality of Christianity. She remained dissatisfied.
In 2022, she interviewed a pastor for a magazine article. He faithfully shared the basic Christian message, centered on Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Despite the cultural mood that says you cannot suggest someone’s view of the universe is wrong, she welcomed his explanation. She counts herself as one of many “who have this inchoate desire for someone to poke a little bit at the emergent cracks in their worldview.”
As a history professor she realized, “Christianity stands or falls on one thing that either did or did not happen in history. And that’s the resurrection of Jesus.” As she looked into the historical evidence of this singular event in human history, she was also investigating scientific evidence from cosmology and questions about the foundations of morality. She felt compelled to suspend disbelief in order to be intellectually honest about her findings.
She resumed attending church and began having conversations with Christian friends. They explained that faith means moving beyond intellectual pursuits and entering a relationship with Jesus. One evening at home she pondered, “Is Jesus who He says He is?” For the first time she prayed, “OK, I submit. Jesus, you are Lord and Savior!”
Her conversion was gradual – then sudden. She said, “I didn’t realize it was possible to change my mind about something that was really important at midlife. I became a Christian when I was 41. It was invigorating!” Six days later, that faithful pastor baptized her. Whatever your path to considering faith and the ultimate questions of the universe, it leads to this: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:9,13).