“The essence of the question is the opening up and keeping open, of possibilities.” ~Hans-Georg Gadamer
There are several ways in which we can perceive questioning: a question can be a challenge or invitation, an expression of doubt or an optimistic curiosity. Our questions might arise out of tension seeking resolve, or they might be birthed from the continual desire to escape that same resolution; the question is what arouses the scholar to seek, and it is the multiplication of questions that keeps him seeking. The objective of the question will shape the reception of the answer received—which is why a cold skepticism will yield different results than the one truly seeking to learn: the latter is willing to hear out many perspectives while the former resists anything presented.
Jesus said that the one who seeks finds and to the one that knocks it will be opened to them. In this way, before we ask a question of external to us we must first begin with the internal question, “Am I asking with the openness to be changed by what I find, or is my ‘keeping open of possibilities,’ a means of escaping such a commitment? Because we see through a mirror dimly our questions are a means to continually search out more of what we will only ever see in part in this life; however, we must not ever use our questions as an excuse to remain paralyzed by infinite possibility.
In a Mirror Dimly 