On Being Sure in Religion

If believers are right in the significance they claim for religion, how can they tolerate uncertainties, or preach a Gospel of good news if they are uncertain what they are to talk about? Is religious conviction something which no honest man can profess? Do believers in fact speak with one voice? These are some of the questions that prompted this book, which embodies the F.D. Maurice lectures delivered at King’s College London in 1961. It discusses topics that were causes of as much concern to Maurice as they are in our own day: ‘eternal’ punishment; Christian social duty; the problem of subscription ex animo to Articles. Professor Ramsay argues that it is reasonable to be sure in religion while being tentative in theology. In the course of his discussion he compares Maurice and Newman in relation to their views on theological certainty, and also considers the question whether the time has come for revision of the Thirty-nine Articles.