Being Wrong

 I'm grateful for Kathryn Schulz's book Being Word:Adventures in the Margin of Error. In her own words the book "[...] is staked on the soundness of that observation: that however disorienting, difficult, or humbling our mistakes might be, it is ultimately wrongness, not rightness, that can teach us who we are."

She shows this by taking us on a journey through philosophy, psychology, science and art. through anecdotes, case studies, experiments and examples. She interweaves many examples from each of the 4 disciplines above in her book. She presents the relationship between science, art and error:

'Scientists , like poets, could fairly claim that , “ what we are engaged in … is error."  In other words, error is central to both the why and the how of science and art: it gives us a reason as well as a means to pursue them.'

In chapter 1 she examines two models of wrongness: the optimistic and the pessimistic models of wrongness. She promotes the optimistic model of wrongness throughout the book, because its hallmark is the idea that from error springs insight.

 In part 2 of the book, she looks at the categories of knowledge and belief. She concludes that the category of "knowledge" is unreliable.  It is "belief" that is by far the broader, more complex, and more interesting category. She also states that if we want to understand how we err, we need to look to how we believe.

 In the chapter on "The Allure of Certainty" Kathryn assesses the quality of certainty: 

"This is one of the most defining and dangerous characteristics of certainty: it is toxic to a shift in a perspective. If imagination is what enables us to conceive of and enjoy stories other than our own, and if empathy is the act of taking other people’s stories seriously, certainty deadens or destroys both qualities."

She gives the clear example of King Lear from Shakespeare's King Lear.

This is my favourite quote from Part 3, the Experience of Error:

"This is the thing about fully experiencing wrongness. It strips us of all our theories, including our theories about ourselves. This isn’t fun while it’s happening — it leaves us feeling flayed, laid bare to the bone and the world — but it does make possible that rarest of occurrences:real change."

 In Chapter 13, the author discusses how we could be transformed by error:

 "Ultimately, then, we are transformed by error through accepting it. To be judgmental, we must feel sure that we know right from wrong, and that we ourselves would never confuse the two. But the experience of erring shows us otherwise. It reminds us that, having been wrong in the past, we could easily be wrong again — and not just in the abstract but right now, here in the middle of this argument about pickles or constellations or crumb cake . At the same time, it reminds us to treat other people with compassion, to honor them in their possible rightness as well as their inevitable, occasional wrongness."

 Lastly, in Part 4, she discusses the paradox of error, summarized in her assertion that the only way to safeguard against error is to embrace it.

This book is very relevant to the church because it can contribute to a theology of failure.  Some writers have pointed out the need for such a theology. See for example, Leonard Sweet's Rings of Fire chapter 17 or Fail: Finding Hope and Grace in the Midst of Ministry Failure by J. R. Briggs.