Faith and begorrah

Shorter David Brooks, "Alone, Yet Not Alone", New York Times, January 27, 2014:

Have I told you about my religious ecstasy side? Well, I haven't actually tried it out yet, but I read a book about it. Kind of like Rabbi Heschel, only humble. Think some of that weary white Christian contemporary piano pop.

Gianlorenzo Bernini, L'Estasi di Santa Teresa, ca. 1652, via.

Bonus: Look first upon this picture, then on this:

Vague, uplifting, nondoctrinal religiosity doesn’t actually last. The religions that grow, succor and motivate people to perform heroic acts of service are usually theologically rigorous, arduous in practice and definite in their convictions about what is True and False. (April 22, 2011)

There must be something legalistic in the human makeup, because cold, rigid, unambiguous, unparadoxical belief is common, especially considering how fervently the Scriptures oppose it. And yet there is a silent majority who experience a faith that is attractively marked by combinations of fervor and doubt, clarity and confusion, empathy and moral demand. (January 27, 2014)

Brooks contains multitudes. Incidentally, how fervently do the Scriptures oppose it, exactly? And which Scriptures? Also,

 When secular or mostly secular people are asked by researchers to give their impression of the devoutly faithful, whether Jewish, Christian or other, the words that come up commonly include “judgmental,” “hypocritical,” “old-fashioned” and “out of touch.”

Dr. Google is pretty certain these researchers belong to exactly one study carried out by the "Barna Group"—

a privately held, for-profit corporation that conducts primary research, produces audio, visual and print media, and facilitates the healthy development of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries

—in 2007, and making the conservative rounds ever since. I can't find any discussion of the research methodology but I'm guessing it was conducted by combinations of fervor and doubt, clarity and confusion, sampling error and selection bias. In any case what Brooks says happens "commonly" in fact has happened only once.

Susanna and the Elders, Artemisia Gentileschi, 1610.  Via Wikipedia.

For an alternative view, see speculation by the Blessed Driftglass that the column is Brooks's Christian dating profile.