‘God Wants You Dead’, exclaims the title of chapter 7 of Peter Enns’ latest book.

Many of us, says Enns, feel doubt creeping up on us, and then start to feel guilty about it.  So we fight it.  And then, when we find that the doubt won’t go away, we end up living lives of ‘quiet and wretched desperation’.

But doubt is not the enemy of faith, but only the enemy of certainty.  In fact, doubt is the friend of faith, because it takes us away from the security ‘knowing what we believe’ and towards trust.  …

OK, so Peter Enns anticipated the objection I raised in response to chapters 3 and 4 of his book.

In chapter 5, he acknowledges that some people might think that some of the psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Job are exceptions to the rule.  They express doubt, it might be argued, but the rest of the Bible promotes assurance.

Perhaps, responds Enns, but not assurance about what we believe, but whom we trust.

Enns pleads that he is not opposed to ‘knowing’, but, rather, he is opposed to ‘preoccupation with correct thinking’.…

In chapter 3 of his book, Peter Enns considers those parts of the Bible that give voice to doubt, rather than certainty.

He looks first at those psalms in which the writer complains that things have gone terribly wrong, and that God seems to have gone AWOL.  They express, in other words, a crisis of faith.  Psalm 88 is a notable example.  Enns feels that he and others have been shielded from such expressions of doubt, and even made to feel guilty for having such feelings themselves.…