Waiting with Brother Thomas

In this Essay, Christopher Sagers argues that those schools of thought that could be called "doubtful"—that is, those predicated on suspicion of belief to some degree—share a range of similarities and, more importantly, are attacked through a set of common criticisms. He argues that the fundamental criticism of these "doubtful" schools of thought—that doubt leads us to nihilism and therefore must be bad—is a non sequitur. Furthermore, he continues, we reject doubt not because it is bad, but because it is difficult. Ultimately, he suggests ways to face the problems of nihilism or, rather, ways of understanding them as other than problems.