Charles Shingledecker
Charles Shingledecker knows all about the difficulty of doubt. For years, he suffered with the feeling of being alone when long-standing doctrines and traditions raised uncomfortable questions in the silence of his private thoughts. Generally, the Church has done its utmost to enforce that feeling of isolation. That’s certainly what Chuck discovered when he first tried sharing his doubts with other Christians.
The various institutions of Christianity would rather not deal with the stumbling blocks that challenge believers to remain on the path of faith. Chuck’s inquisitive nature left him with no choice but to do so. Now, in this book, he illuminates the dark places with candor, compassion, and a good dose of irreverent humor. He describes archaeological and scientific discoveries that discredit biblical literalism, the illogical aspects of Christian dogmas like the Trinity and Virgin Birth, the moral consequences of the doctrine of hell, and the failures and sins of institutional Christianity. Even the existence of God is not exempt from his honest inquiry.
All the while, Chuck remains a person of faith, a faith that enables him to look beyond the cold, hard edges of a purely material world and contemplate the holy and transcendent.
A self-proclaimed Doubting Thomas, Chuck was baptized Roman Catholic and raised in a religiously tolerant home. He was "born again" at the age of nineteen and spent most of his twenties trying to silence a "still small voice" of doubt that pointed out all of the contradictory claims found within the Bible and the various Christian traditions. His love and respect for history, mixed with a desire to discover which of the Christian denominations was most true, took him on an unexpected journey.
He got introduced to the writings of Biblical scholars, archaeologists, historians, theologians, and eventually the Church fathers. A decade after his quest began, he joined the Eastern Orthodox Church, and was tonsured (ordained to the lower order) of Church Reader in 2004. Several personal tragedies and a sudden onset of multiple health complications challenged his faith in new ways, forcing him into his own personal dark night of the soul--a reality he's come to embrace as a Christian and a writer.
Chuck's first book The Crazy Side of Orthodoxy was published in 2011 by Regina Orthodox Press. In addition to his book publications, Chuck has had editorials published in various newspapers as well as opinion pieces addressing the current state of his own Eastern Orthodox tradition.
He's dedicated a significant portion of the last twenty years to familiarizing himself intimately with the historical-critical method. As a young Christian, Chuck didn't just want to know what the bible said, but why it said it. To do that, he had to immerse himself in the lives of the people who wrote the Bible, to understand the cultures and worlds in which they lived. He engaged deeply with the biblical texts and theological writings, applying the historical method in a quest to get a glimpse of an ancient mindset that is otherwise lost.
This dedication to taking seriously both his faith and doubt immersed him in the field of Biblical studies and Christian origins. His thousands of hours of reading include a spectrum of theological authors including NT Wright, Walter Bauer, the Dutch Radicals, John Dominic Crossan, and Rudolph Bultmann. His home library includes the entire Church Father's collection in hardcover and books by Bauer that have been out of print for decades.
In the Fall of 2013, Chuck joined the ELCA Lutheran Church after several years of struggling with the Orthodox Church's silence in the growing "Traditionalist" and "Nationalist" movements within the Church, and its silence on the persecution of homosexuals in Orthodox Russia.
In 2016 Chuck finally, after years of running from a call, decided to attend seminary. After a two year evaluation process he began serving as a Vicar to a three-point Lutheran parish near Colfax Wisconsin while he also attended Seminary at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque Iowa. In 2022 he graduated with a Masters of Divinity degree, was ordained on July 9th 2022, and currently serves as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Hendricks, Minnesota.
He and his wife, who is also an ordained Lutheran pastor, live outside of Balaton, Minnesota.
