The basements of the churches I've loved reveal the foundation of the spiritual life to be not belief so much as engagement with the mystery lurking at the root of all things. We build a framework on top of mystery because we need someplace to live, some manner of surviving nature's fury and our mundane, daily needs. The structures that support our growth and exploration and insight are the ones that encompass the known as well as unknown. I was fortunate that the faith of my upbringing included both the unexpected in gloomy basements and the inexplicable in twists of narrative; without these I might today be confined to a static, stifled doctrine of unyielding answers and a self-righteous God. Or I might have rejected faith entirely for the clarity of science, with its propensity to trust explanations. But even Albert Einstein felt imagination to be more valuable than knowledge. Whatever framework we choose to make our home, room for the imagination is what allows us to reach forward into possibility. The unknown keeps us lively, growing, and in love.
— Elizabeth J. Andrew, On the Threshold