Faith and History--thoughts in process

The following is an unfinished rumination on the intersection of faith and intellectual inquiry.

Can I, in my quest to find historical and theological truth, end up finding a truth that destroys my faith? And if I DID find a truth that destroyed my faith, what the heck was my faith worth in the first place?

Where do faith and history, faith and intellectual inquiry, intersect? Should I, as a Christian and person of faith who is also a historian and scholar, worry that my research will lead me into areas that will damage my faith?

An illustration: I've been shocking my students over the last few days, I suppose.

I teach at a Christian university in eastern Kentucky (named "Kentucky Christian University," go figure.) Most of my students are from church backgrounds that are very conservative--which I don't regard as a bad thing, I'm very conservative myself.

Many of my students have a fair understanding of the Bible and its content, at about a Sunday School level--again, not a bad thing. But these are academic Bible classes, and our university's central purpose is the preparation of Christian leaders for the Church and the world. We have to call students to go deeper than the Sunday School level.

Anyway: in two of my classes this week, I've been talking about how authorship in ancient texts doesn't necessarily work the same way authorship works in our day and time. For example: ancient Israel regarded king David as the author of the book of Psalms, even though everyone knew that he didn't write all of them. He was the one who commissioned and motivated the publication of the Psalter, so the people associated the book with him and regarded him as the author.

Some of my students were disturbed by this assertion. Because they're projecting modern standards and practices back onto ancient literature--we historians call that "anachronism"--they conclude that there's something deceptive or underhanded going on, something that threatens the reliability of the Bible, if David didn't write every word of a book that is traditionally attributed to him. (Incidentally: here's a case where people are protective of their traditions rather than trying to really determine what the Bible actually says.)

Alright then, the question: can I, in my quest to find historical and theological truth, end up finding a truth that destroys my faith? And if I DID find a truth that destroyed my faith, what the heck was my faith worth in the first place?

I'm a scholar. God gave me a mind and a deep curiousity about the truths in his word. He called me to investigate those truths, and then to try to communicate the results of that investigation to his people, to prepare them for the work and ministry they would do in the world.