Reasonable Belief: A Survey of the Christian Faith Book

This book is an attempt to survey the main areas of Christian thought and doctrine. The authors are convinced that many thoughtful Christians or would-be Christians are puzzled and even alarmed by the difference between the Christian faith as it is usually presented in pulpits, Sunday Schools, and popular Christian literature on the one hand, and on the other realities of contemporary scientific, philosophical, and historical thought. Many are repelled from Christianity by the inadequacy of the way in which it is conventionally presented. This book sets out to preserve the great central constitutive truths of Christianity (in opposition to many contemporary reductionist tendancies in theology), while presenting these truths in such a way as to suggest that they are relevant to twentieth-century society and not irretrievably involved with an obsolete world-view. The doctrines of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit, of the Trinity, of the relation of Christianity to history are surveyed, and of the Church, ministry, and sacraments. The authors endeavour to do justice to the views of the significant thinkers both of the past and of the present, while suggesting their own interpretation on several points. Both authors are Anglicans and on several issues write as Anglicans, but they believe that their point of view is a comprehensive and inclusive one which should be of interest and concern to Christians of all traditions.