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Exploring Doubt discusses the rich and varied ways in which answers to ‘the big questions’ – questions about faith, belief, authenticity and the existence of ‘something else’ – have always been most effectively articulated through the language not of absolute conviction, but of the marvelously improbable and ultimately unknowable.
Alex Wright is Executive Editor for Classical Studies and Religion at I.B.Tauris, where he is also general editor of the I.B.Tauris Short Histories series. He has written two other books for DLT – Meanings of Life (2005) and Why Bother With Theology? (2002).
‘At a time when the public debate on religious faith seems to be more about conviction and ideology than about doubt and ambiguity, this book offers a personal and often moving account of the value of uncertainty. Alex Wright observes the beauty of the physical landscape and combines observation and reflection with memories of human turmoil. His unfolding narrative will take you gently inside yourself.’
-Mona Siddiqui, OBE, Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies, University of Edinburgh
‘Three braids of enquiry are woven together in this book: an evocative depiction of the north Norfolk landscape; a lingering reflection on the breakup of a marriage; and a theological enquiry into the importance of not being certain. What emerges is a profound study of the deep relations that bind place, people and Christian believing. It is as much a composition – the writing poetic, sinuous and subtle – as a study of the fragility, evanescence and spirituality of human belonging. The book is a wonderful and imaginative piece of work that lingers long after it has been put aside and resonates with the authenticity of a true writer’s voice.’
-Graham Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Oxford
‘This masterful, generous book, richly fed by the wellsprings of both natural and human history, tenderly invites us back to “the places where we have suffered the greatest losses and the most uncertainty”— to flux, doubt, and mystery: all the landscapes our distracted world urges that we avoid — and shows us the brilliant clarity that may paradoxically await us there. Exploring Doubt is a prayer for our time.’
-Kimberley C. Patton, Professor of the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion, Harvard University
