Doubting Christianity: The Church and Doubt

‘Doubting Christianity; the Church and Doubt’ is the theme of the fifty-second volume of Studies in Church History. Under the presidency of Professor Frances Andrews, historians explored the myriad ways in which doubt has tested and informed Christianity and the life of individual Christians. Men and women have always had doubts about ideas, or individual doctrines, if not faith itself; they have also doubted how truth can be authenticated. The means and the implications of expressing either kind of doubt are shaped by historical circumstance. Led by scholars including Kirstie Blair (Stirling), Matteo Duni (Syracuse University at Florence), Ian Forrest (Oxford), Janet Nelson (King’s College, London), Charles Stang (Harvard), and Rowan Williams (Cambridge), the papers in this volume explore doubt from the Early Church to the contemporary world. They investigate a whole range of questions, from the familiar ‘doubting Thomas’, and the more surprising ‘doubting John’, through the pressing concerns of the Middle Ages (were relics authentic? how did bishops ensure that the information reaching them was not to be doubted?), to the competing ideological and confessional perspectives of the modern world. After the Enlightenment, scientific discoveries and the emphasis on rationalism further encouraged the academic scrutiny of the Bible and its providential message, while doubts about authority and truth grew louder. These questions persist into our own age. Can doubt and certainty co-exist? What is the place of scepticism? This fascinating collection of essays offers an introduction to the complex relationship between doubt, faith and the Christian churches