The Crisis of Doubt and Faith

The Captain and Ann Barbara

The intellectual conflict between inherited religion and modern knowledge, resolved through nature and science.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Rebbe's Empty Answers The Rebbe's Empty Answers from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Rebbe's Empty Answers The Three Questions Mary asked when the beginning was, what God made the world out of, and who made God.

The Rebbe's Empty Answers from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Rebbe's Empty Answers The Three Questions Mary asked when the beginning was, what God made the world out of, and who made God.

The Rebbe's Empty Answers The Three Questions Mary asked when the beginning was, what God made the world out of, and who made God. Reb' Lebe dropped his pointer and fled. The Student Adrift Her teacher having failed her, she tested the answers of all her acquaintances. She learned that her oracles sometimes gave false answers. The Motto of Experiment What you would know, find out for yourself became her rule. Doubt was her first tool of intellect.

The Experiment with God The Experiment with God from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Experiment with God The Purposive Sin The girl carried a handkerchief beyond the house limits on Sabbath to test divine punishment. Nothing happened.

The Experiment with God from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Experiment with God The Purposive Sin The girl carried a handkerchief beyond the house limits on Sabbath to test divine punishment. Nothing happened.

The Experiment with God The Purposive Sin The girl carried a handkerchief beyond the house limits on Sabbath to test divine punishment. Nothing happened. The Unclear Result Either the act was no sin and her teachers were deceivers, or God refrained for reasons of His own. The experiment was not searching. The Expanding Doubt She tied the handkerchief around her wrist, accepting the world's mystery. Her consciousness had suddenly expanded.

The Blizzard Interview The Blizzard Interview from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Blizzard Interview The Storm and the Quest Mary struggled through a blizzard to meet a distinguished man of letters at the railroad station.

The Blizzard Interview from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Blizzard Interview The Storm and the Quest Mary struggled through a blizzard to meet a distinguished man of letters at the railroad station.

The Blizzard Interview The Storm and the Quest Mary struggled through a blizzard to meet a distinguished man of letters at the railroad station. She was desperate to know why she was born and whether she would live forever. The Honest Answer He heard her out and answered as honestly as a thinking man could. She left with the impression that it was possible to live without knowing everything. The Brief Truce It was only a truce. The old questions returned until science arrived.

The Spider Lecture's Answer The Spider Lecture's Answer from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Spider Lecture's Answer The Reluctant Listener Mary feared spiders and wanted to flee the talk. But Mr.

The Spider Lecture's Answer from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Spider Lecture's Answer The Reluctant Listener Mary feared spiders and wanted to flee the talk. But Mr.

The Spider Lecture's Answer The Reluctant Listener Mary feared spiders and wanted to flee the talk. But Mr. Emerson's twine web and his story of the spider's life held her. The Laws of Life The spider's struggle, traps, and instincts revealed a world under definite laws. Awe replaced repugnance. The Cosmic Shift Book learning took a secondary place as natural history opened her mind. Darwinism scattered her blue devils.

The Evolutionary Worldview The Evolutionary Worldview from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Evolutionary Worldview The Inclusive Cosmos Mary learned to think in aeons and races instead of years and individuals.

The Evolutionary Worldview from "The Captain and Ann Barbara". The Evolutionary Worldview The Inclusive Cosmos Mary learned to think in aeons and races instead of years and individuals.

The Evolutionary Worldview The Inclusive Cosmos Mary learned to think in aeons and races instead of years and individuals. Life and death became parts of the process of being. The Impersonal Heights Her personal doubts were carried up to the heights of the impersonal and ceased to torment her. The universe was remade on a grander scale. The New Faith She did not become a finished philosopher, but she found a faith large enough for a child of the twentieth century.

during Hebrew lessons in Polotzk

a Sabbath afternoon in Polotzk

during Mary's adolescent crisis of doubt

a Friday evening at Hale House

the years with the Natural History Club