01:00 AM EDT on Monday, June 6, 2005

IN HER COLUMN on The Journal's April 30 Religion page ("Pope leads the charge against relativism"), Dale O'Leary writes: "In his homily before the Conclave, Pope Benedict XVI singled out 'a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest good one's own ego and one's own desires.' "

I would suggest that in this regard Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessor, John Paul II, is guilty of the fallacy of the excluded middle. That is to say, both Benedict XVI and John Paul II seem to hold that the only alternative to a truth that is not certified 100 percent objective is unbridled, unprincipled subjectivity.

On Sept. 14, 1998, Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical to the bishops of the Catholic Church entitled Fides et Ratio -- Faith and Reason. While I found the former pope's words on this subject challenging and provocative, I must confess that I was disappointed that he insisted that through a combination of faith and reason we can arrive at "The Truth." I am even more disappointed that John Paul II labeled as "nihilists" those of us who in the fullness of our faith are able to grasp only partial truths. According to John Paul II and, I suspect, his successor, Benedict XVI, it is nihilism, "a philosophy of nothingness," that asserts that "the search is an end in itself, without any hope or possibility of ever attaining the goal of truth" (Faith and Reason, section 46).

I am one of those who believe that "the search is an end in itself, without any hope or possibility of ever attaining the goal of truth" -- at least not "The Truth."

Nevertheless, I deny with every fiber of my being that I am a nihilist, that I subscribe to a philosophy of nothingness. Rather, I call myself a God-Wrestler. God-Wrestling is shorthand for my lifelong commitment to spiritual struggle, a struggle that transforms and liberates, a wrestling that renews and freshens and chastens. It is Jacob's wrestling to become Israel. It is what God demands of me day after day, even when I'd rather be fishing.

God-Wrestling is the joy and the pain of my yearning to become ever more awake and alive. It is the ongoing effort to incorporate new insights, new values, new human relationships into the fabric of my present life with others and with The Other. God-Wrestling transforms because it is the process of trying to bridge the gap between what is and what ought to be.

I know Jewish God-Wrestlers and Protestant God-Wrestlers and Catholic God-Wrestlers. Ours is the approach of seeking and asking, not of finding and learning the "correct" answers. We do not claim to know for certain what God requires of us, because for us Scripture is not "the Word of God" but rather the record of our ancestors' efforts to get close to God.

We understand our ancestors to be men and women who are every bit as gifted and every bit as flawed as we are. We listen respectfully to their words that have come down to us through Scripture, just as we listen respectfully to our parents and our grandparents. While there is much in our Bible to guide us on our journeys, there are some aspects of our sacred writings that we can no longer accept.

Why must we remain slaves to the misconceptions of our ancestors? Our task is not only to honor our past but also to honor our present and our future.

We read in the third chapter of Exodus that when Moses asks God at the burning bush to identify Himself, God replies, "Ehyeh Asher Ehych," which can be translated as "I Will Be Who I Will Be." I take this to mean that in this world of ambiguity there is always ambiguity, never certainty, never, not even once, though we should live a thousand lifetimes.

God-Wrestling is how we express our spiritual courage in the face of the relentless "I Will Be"; for Whatever or Whomever we might choose to call God, God remains the Holy One of Eternal Ambiguity.

When the pope speaks, people who care about religion listen; we listen respectfully, even if at times we must disagree. I applaud John Paul II for having chosen to address the issue of the complex relationship between faith and reason. In an age when vexing religious questions are often answered in sound bites by self-proclaimed gurus, it is heartening to note that the leader of Roman Catholics was willing to explore an age-old question in a serious, sustained and dignified way.

On the other hand, I am saddened that a man of such immense stature limited his notion of the faithful to those who can glory in the certainty of revealed truth. I would suggest that there are many paths that lead to God, many ways of walking in faith. It is not nothing to devote oneself to a life of God-Wrestling.

Rabbi James Rosenberg serves Temple Habonim, in Barrington.