The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment [Paperback]

Daniel Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 1999

Do you feel equally uncomfortable with closed-minded skepticism and closed-minded Christianity? If so, then The Myth of Certainty is the book for you. Daniel Taylor suggests a path to committed faith that is both consistent with the tradition of Christian orthodoxy and sensitive to the pluralism, relativism and complexity of our time. Taylor makes the case for the reflective, questioning Christian with both incisive analysis and lively storytelling. His brief fictional interludes provide an alternative way to explore key issues of belief and vividly depict the real-life dilemmas Christians often face. Taylor affirms a call to throw off the paralysis of uncertainty and to risk commitment to God without forfeiting the God-given gift of an inquiring mind. Throughout he demonstrates clearly how much the world and the church need people--maybe people like you--who are willing to ask tough questions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An important book... especially those who harbor secret doubts about some of what they've been led to believe is Truth. -- Today's Christian Woman

This is a splendid book. -- Publishers Weekly

Wonderfull . . . you'll find the aha! of recognition on nearly every page of Taylor's fine book. -- Prism, July/August 2000

From the Back Cover

The Myth of Certainty is a book for reflective Christians -- those caught in the tension between secular thought and Christian faith. The author, Daniel Taylor, focuses his attention on the special problems confronting the person with an inquiring mind. He suggests a path of commitment that is both consistent with the tradition of Christian orthodoxy and sensitive to the complexity of our age. Professor Taylor has written this book because he wants to help people whose minds are awakening, and who do not yet know how to resolve all the questions and struggles they are experiencing. "Some of these people abandon their intellect and some just muddle along in life. I want to help them with reassurance that there is a way to put things together." Taylor's success at doing so can be seen in some of the reactions from people who have read The Myth of Certainty. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 158 pages
• Publisher: IVP Books (December 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830822372
• ISBN-13: 978-0830822379
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel Taylor (Ph.D., Emory University) is the author of ten books, including The Myth of Certainty, Letters to My Children, Tell Me A Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Stories, In Search of Sacred Places, and, most recently, Creating a Spiritual Legacy. He has also worked on a number of Bible translations. He speaks frequently at conferences, colleges, retreats, and churches on a variety of topics. Dr. Taylor is also co-founder of The Legacy Center, an organization devoted to helping individuals and organizations identify and preserve the values and stories that have shaped their lives. He is a contributing editor of Books and Culture. Dr. Taylor is married and the father of four adult children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honestly Overcoming Uncertainty as a Barrier to Faith, February 27, 2000

By 

Paul M. Dubuc (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment (Paperback)

I'm very happy to see that InterVarsity Press has brought this book back into print. When I first read it in 1987, I had the eerie feeling that the author had had a peek into my head at the concerns that were most affecting my commitment to Christianity at the time.

This book is for Christians who can't help inquiring about their own beliefs and who wrestle with doubt and uncertainty, but who also see their need for a strong personal commitment to the Faith. It's for those who see closed-minded skepticism and unexamined belief as equally undesirable alternatives. (Not that there is any interest in finding a balance between these two extremes, but rather a desire to transcend them.) One of the most helpful insights in the book is the idea that commitment (in faith) need not depend on certainty in knowledge. The demand for absolute certainty where belief in God is concerned is not only unreasonable, it undermines the valuable meaning in life that we find in risk and commitment in our life with God.

The book is sprinkled with fictional interludes that dramatize familiar situations which illustrate the author's points.

This is and excellent, well written little book that will challenge and inspire the thoughtful reader.

"We must know where to doubt, where to feel certain, where to submit." --Pascal

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Balancing Intellectual Honesty with Christian Commitment, December 5, 2000

By 

david peale (Cuenca, Ecuador) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment (Paperback)

A fascinating, thought-provoking, intellectually honest apologetic for the Christian faith. While clearly elucidating the finitude of the human being and the subsequent impossibility of obtaining certainty, it nevertheless does not epouse the paraylsis of inaction. Probably the best written and interesting explaination that I have read, of the truism that for belief to be belief, it cannot contain absolute knowledge (i.e. certainty). It is comforting to find other Christians who realize that this lack of certainty does not impair or prevent faith in God, but is instead a fundamental part of faith, and even vital and strengthening to it.

The Myth of Certainty also does an excellent job of showing how the questioning intellectual Christian often finds himself or herself at odds, both with the conservative church for the very act of questioning, and with the secular, intellectual world of ideas for trying to incorporate into itself, a personal faith (which it incorrectly and illogically presumes to be contradictory); the reflective Christian, a starling with no place to call home.

Perhaps its most encouraging element, however, is a balm for the many Christians out there who have been attacked and deeply wounded by the Church or fellow Christians (often, all the more deep a wound because it came from the one place you would not expect it, however naive this may be). The author, clearly having been wounded himself, as have many of us, myself included (especially?), offers a compassionate empathy, while humbly and clear-sightedly reminding us that the Church is comprised merely of humans, with the same struggles, short-comings, and blindspots that each of us undeniably has. In light of this, he urges us not to give up on the Church, but to strive to contribute to it, to help improve it, to make it more of a source of healing and less of a cause for hurt.

I deeply enjoyed this book because it helped ease the sense of isolation that I think many reflective Christians feel ("Does anyone in this world understand me?"). While appealing to my sense of intellectual honesty (and perhaps intellectual elitism) on the one hand, it simultaneously humbles me and reminds me that I am just as much a fallen and wretched creature as anyone is, and that inaction is simply not a viable choice. I would suggest this book to anyone that is serious about reflecting deeply and honestly on his or her faith. Attempting to understand that one can believe faith to be absolutely true, without incorrectly claiming to possess this knowledge with certainty.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Facing our limitations, May 5, 2006

By 

Jack Pyle (Cabot, AR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment (Paperback)

I read this book resulting from a reference to it by Scott Peck in one of his books. I found similarities in my past experiences in life with Taylor's. I grew up in the "one and only true church of God" on this earth. All others were excluded. As one of my early seminary teachers taught me, "you have to know and know that you know the truths of God." Taylor points out that is myth, or a total misconception of our mental and spiritual capabilities in life as individuals struggling to know God.

If you are a maturing Christian with a several years of life under your belt you will find his book very thought provoking. I don't think one in his or her early Christian development will be able to identify with a lot of what he writes. It is not for those who are not from time to time faint of heart in their endeavors to find and worship God. There are some things difficult to accept for a young Christian. One ripe in his or her "first love" would not understand his saying-"It is painfully clear to me that I do not have absolute certainty that anything I believe is true. My reason is inadequate in these things to guide me to a sure conclusion; my emotions often fail me (not infrequently by their absence). "

If you are to the point in your Christian life where you find yourself doubting exactly what you know and just exactly how much you understand what is contained inside the pages of the Bible, you will find this book reassuring and supportive. You of course have to evaluate as I did when I read the book that I too was doing exactly what Taylor describes in the book we all do in building our own worldviews and "take" on God.
"All ways of explaining the world tend to be self-verifying and self-sustaining." We through our own thought out or imagined belief system create God in our own mental imagings of Him. It can be no other way. We are products of our teachers and we must accept the responsibility we alone make those cognitive decisions in life which builds our faith, outlook toward God, and personal beliefs in what kind of God He is.

Any thinking and reflective person will recognize the wisdom in what he says. If we take the Bible stories we have which are have been recorded for our perusal, Jesus himself doubted and struggled with faith before his life ended. Matthew records Jesus last words as being, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Any way you slice this verse, the son of God is portrayed as confused at that point in his relationship with his heavenly father. How much more will we who never see or hear the invisible God struggle with our relationship with him. Taylor points out--that's okay. You're ordinary.

You will find it a good book to which you can return again and again and be reminded of its contents. Faith is probably framed on the skeleton of doubt. As Taylor says. Why would we need faith, if we had absolute understanding of reality. He has great quotes from Pascal and others on faith. One he doesn't have is that of Malcolm Muggeridge's wherein he said in his Christian experience that Christians seek "faith to bridge those chasms of doubt" in their lives. If you don't find a need for it now, come back on a rainy day in your life.