The Cost of Certainty [Paperback]

The prose is dignified and polished, enriched by interesting examples, quotations, and historical notes. There is, behind the book, an obvious, clear, and measured reflective process that gives it spiritual depth, and more weight than scholarship alone. The structure is immaculate.This book critically explores the Christian teaching of God's unconditional love. The author argues for the recovery of a spirituality of uncertainty and unconditional love as a basis for a renewal of contemporary Christian faith and practice.The Cost of Certainty explores a fundamental ambiguity in mainstream Christian teaching: although the church claims that Gods love is unconditional, he only accepts those who believe in Jesus Christ and have repented of their sins. This gospel of conditional love breeds anxiety and polarization. Young shows how this demeans the true message of the gospels. He argues for the recovery of a spirituality of uncertainty and unconditional love as a basis for a renewal of contemporary Christian faith and practice.Jeremy Young has served as a parish priest and theological educator. He now works as a family therapist.