Faithful Doubt

Guy Collins is the Rector of St. Thomas Church, Hanover and the Episcopal Chaplain to Dartmouth College.

"From Star Trek and The Hunger Games to Zizek, Agamben, and Derrida, and from the theology of Saint Thomas to Kierkegaard and Honest to God, Faithful Doubt presents a powerful body of evidence in favor of the view that believers and atheists alike are ill-served by the 'God wars' of the last decade. Guy Collins persuades us that there is indeed a wisdom in uncertainty and that faith itself is helped by the admission of doubt."George Pattison, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK"Guy Collins takes us on some ride. Theological traditions, cutting-edge philosophy, and popular fiction are skillfully woven together. The result is a refreshingly clear and contemporary argument for why doubt belongs at the heart of faith. If you are tired of the sterile clash of religious and atheist fundamentalisms, read this book."Steven Shakespeare, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK"Ranging from Star Wars to Derrida, from contemporary novels to Zizek, Guy Collins engages with the whole gamut of philosophy and popular culture in order to question certainties and fundamentalisms of all kinds, whether religious or secular. Written in a lively and accessible style, he shows how doubt is the necessary counterpart to faith, rather than its avowed enemy. Highly recommended for all thoughtful readers, of any faith or none."Gavin Hyman, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK"Guy Collins weaves a fascinating portrait of the ways that doubt and faith nourish one another. Collins shows that a faithless quest for certainty manifests itself across a variety of seemingly opposing forms of modern thought, whether in religious fundamentalisms, in the dogmatic scientism of secular atheists like Christopher Hitchens, in angry rejections of God in the face of evil, or in smug theological 'explanations' of human suffering. 'Faithful Doubt' makes a compelling case that doubt does not diminish faith but ensures that it remains faith."Ronald M. Green, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH"The text is accessible, and goes a long way to explain the often intricate and obscure complexities of postmodern thought in a way that is simplifying but never simplistic or insensitive to the depth of the debates. ... The text is also enriched with many examples from popular entertainment, including Battlestar Galactica and Hunger Games, references both informative and certain to appeal to a general readership."-Declan Lawell, Theological Book Review, Vol. 26 No. 2, 2016

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction 1 Uncertain Truths 2 After Reason 3 The Impossible 4 Diabolical Deities 5 Holy Agnosis 6 True Fiction 7 Redeeming Atheism 8 Breach Bibliography Index