“So I had started to wonder. Perhaps God was just an idea people made up? Maybe that’s enough for there to be some kind of meaning? But I was stuck. I still loved the scriptures with their teachings and narratives, but I didn’t know how to square them with the physicalist assumptions I had silently taken on board.”

“It's tempting to crave certainty and steadfastness in our faith, but that is not faith. God is steadfast, that is what we can be certain of. He demonstrates his certainty and steadfastness in his unrelenting, and pursuing love. The steadfast thing that we can cling to is being known and loved by God. That is what we can rest on.”

“Faith is risk. If I rely on God and he doesn’t come through, I lose everything. This is what Paul meant when he said that if there’s no resurrection of the dead then we’re to be pitied more than anyone – we are absolutely depending on God to fulfill his promise. So faith is not just risk. There’s a deep emotional element as well. Faith is willingly allowing ourselves to be vulnerable.”