DOUBT IN PERSPECTIVE
God is bigger than you think
By Alister McGrath. IVP. 142 pages. £6.99
ISBN 1 84474 137 0
‘Have you ever had doubts?’ asked the interviewer in the morning service. Time did not permit a rounded answer so I risked telling the truth and said ‘No’. Mind you, I suspected he really meant ‘problems’. What a difference!
Problems? Yes. Doubts? No. Doubts question a person; problems arise from something mystifying that person (Person) has done. Faith is not ability to answer questions; it is trusting the God who has revealed himself in the Bible. Two readings have not convinced me that this distinction is as clear in Dr. McGrath’s book as I would wish — for all around I meet people who complain of ‘doubts’ when actually they mean inability to understand how the sovereign God runs his world. And neither do I find here the Bible prominent as a remedy against doubt, as I think it should be.
