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Room for Doubt: How Uncertainty Can Deepen Your Faith
Many people have questions about faith. Ben Young knows what it’s like to feel as if you’re alone in your doubts. In Room for Doubt , Ben Ben invites you to let doubt become your ally, rather than your enemy. Discover how your questions can lead to a deeper, richer faith.
- GenresChristian
240 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2017
About the author
Ben Young
14 books4 followersDr. Ben Young is the senior pastor at Second Baptist Church, a diverse, multi-ethnic church with over 20,000 people attending weekly services online and on six campuses throughout the city of Houston. The author of several books, including Room for Doubt, Devotions for Dating Couples and Survive the Day, Dr. Young is also an adjunct professor at Houston Theological Seminary where he teaches homiletics, apologetics and practical theology.
Born and raised in the Carolinas before moving to Texas in 1978, Young was educated at Baylor University, Southwestern Theological Seminary and Bethel Theological Seminary in San Diego. Having hosted a nationally syndicated radio talk show for years and serving as chaplain for the Houston Astros, Dr. Young also enjoys surfing and practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Born and raised in the Carolinas before moving to Texas in 1978, Young was educated at Baylor University, Southwestern Theological Seminary and Bethel Theological Seminary in San Diego. Having hosted a nationally syndicated radio talk show for years and serving as chaplain for the Houston Astros, Dr. Young also enjoys surfing and practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 25, 2018
I think I can’t find the right words to express how amazing this book is.
Sometimes, I just had to stop and breathe as I processed the way it was impacting me.
In this book, Ben Young is not a pastor or a leader or a mentor, he’s a friend you can trust, somebody that went through the same despair many of us have faced while dealing with doubts and say: “I can’t offer you a way out, but I can walk through this valley with you.” It’s a safe place for us to be who we are, doubts and all.
Of course, it’s always painful to read this kind of things, because it’s a reality we would like deny. Nobody wants to write or read about doubts, because, by doing so, we acknowledge something that is uncomfortable and unsettling. However, I’m glad this author found the courage to do it, because I needed his honesty so much.
Even though the author was real and very sincere about his own battles, he didn’t give me the impression of being defeated by them. On the contrary, it seems he understands better than ever the nature of his struggles and he’s teaching others that it is OK not to have answers for everything.
Doubts don’t disqualify you for Christian service, and they don’t mean you’re not following Christ at the best of your ability. They might be present in your journey and sometimes they’ll scream louder than your beliefs, but frequently those are the very tools God uses to develop our faith and make it more real.
I’m thankful beyond words for every quote, story, and insight I read these past few days. I didn’t rush. I took the time to let every word sink in. It was powerful, beautiful, and everything else a brilliant book should be. One of the best I’ve read on this topic.
**I received a copy of this book from David C Cook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own**
Sometimes, I just had to stop and breathe as I processed the way it was impacting me.
In this book, Ben Young is not a pastor or a leader or a mentor, he’s a friend you can trust, somebody that went through the same despair many of us have faced while dealing with doubts and say: “I can’t offer you a way out, but I can walk through this valley with you.” It’s a safe place for us to be who we are, doubts and all.
Of course, it’s always painful to read this kind of things, because it’s a reality we would like deny. Nobody wants to write or read about doubts, because, by doing so, we acknowledge something that is uncomfortable and unsettling. However, I’m glad this author found the courage to do it, because I needed his honesty so much.
Even though the author was real and very sincere about his own battles, he didn’t give me the impression of being defeated by them. On the contrary, it seems he understands better than ever the nature of his struggles and he’s teaching others that it is OK not to have answers for everything.
Doubts don’t disqualify you for Christian service, and they don’t mean you’re not following Christ at the best of your ability. They might be present in your journey and sometimes they’ll scream louder than your beliefs, but frequently those are the very tools God uses to develop our faith and make it more real.
I’m thankful beyond words for every quote, story, and insight I read these past few days. I didn’t rush. I took the time to let every word sink in. It was powerful, beautiful, and everything else a brilliant book should be. One of the best I’ve read on this topic.
**I received a copy of this book from David C Cook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own**
March 2, 2019
4.5 stars, but definitely worth rounding up instead of down.
Ben Young is a pastor at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas and teaches homiletics, apologetics and practical theology at Houston Theological Seminary. To say this book spoke into the depths of my soul would be an understatement.
A little over a year ago, I was unexpectedly hurled into a season of intense doubt about my Christian faith - the kind of doubt that is often intellectual, but sometimes emotional, and results in crippling fear and anxiety that perhaps this life is all there is. I'm doing a little better today, and I'm still following Jesus, but I am nowhere close to "out of the woods".
Enter "Room For Doubt" by Ben Young. Unfortunately, since I listened to this on audiobook, I can't refer back to dog-eared pages and underlined paragraphs. But I would have had a lot of them if I had actually read the hardcopy. Regardless, Ben does a great job of telling his story, about how he got thrust into a long, dark season of doubt after not seeing God deliver on him and his college friends' prayers for miracles, healings, and transformed lives for the Gospel across their college campus. Most of his friends were not affected by this and kept strong faith in God - but Ben's faith began to unravel. The worst part about it is that Ben was too afraid to talk to ANYONE about it, making him spiral further and further into despair. He described himself as being an "outward Christian, but inner agnostic" for a long time. He often felt as if his faith was deficient, defunct, and simply not good enough for God. He carried these doubts to seminary and tried to squash them by doing things like plunging into apologetics and learning the original Greek language of the New Testament so he could be more confident in the original/early manuscripts. However, it didn't take him long to realize none of that was helping.
What really started the process of Ben's doubts turning around was not more knowledge, information, or witnessing of miracles/healings - it was his realization that it's actually OK to "doubt out loud". This didn't initially come from Ben expressing his doubt to friends; it actually came from him examining how the Bible itself approaches doubt, and what doubters were like in the Biblical storyline and how God responded to them. Ben focused on how God the Father and Jesus Christ responded to some of the most famous doubters in the Bible, including Job, John the Baptist, and Thomas the Apostle, aka "Doubting Thomas". All of these doubters were met with correction, of course, but also with ridiculous compassion, not with smiting or punishment. Not to mention other characters, chapters and entire books of the Bible that give voice to doubting believers - Abraham, Sarah, Moses, many of the Psalms (especially Psalm 73), and the book of Ecclesiastes. Even Paul admits that we "see through a glass dimly" in the present age. Ben also took a look at the doubts and depression experienced by some huge figures in Christianity - Martin Luther, Mother Teresa, and C.S. Lewis - and how those doubts were dealt with.
Ben eventually DID start talking to others about his doubts, and also just pouring his heart out to God about them, and this is where the healing really began to take place. He still struggles with doubt today, but feels much more free in Christ to admit where he's at. He has a much deeper TRUST relationship with his Heavenly Father that everything is going to be OK, and that Jesus really did live, die, and rise again purely out of his unfailing love and compassion for His creation.
Ben also demonstrates remarkable knowledge of the history of many intellectual movements that have passed through the Western world in the last several hundred years - pre-enlightenment, enlightenment, modernism, and post-modernism to name the main ones. He is impressively familiar with the works of several thinkers in that time frame - like Blaise Pascal, Soren Kierkegaard, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche - as well as the works of more recent writers like Frederick Buechner, Lesslie Newbigin, and Tim Keller.
The only real reason I would take away half a star on this review if I could is for the way he consistently framed doubt as something "neutral" within a Christian worldview. Yes, I certainly believe God (as both the Father and the Son) responded compassionately to doubters throughout the Biblical storyline. Yes, I believe that doubts can often be a sign of someone taking their faith seriously and wanting to go beyond surface level "church-ianity" (although no one is required to have doubts about their faith to take it seriously). Yes, sometimes doubt is simply due to our personalities and feels unavoidable, like something that just attaches itself to you constantly without you asking for it; that's what we get for living in a broken world. BUT, doubt can also very much be rebellion against God. Doubt can be a result of intentionally distrusting that God has spoken through the Old and New Testament, and through Jesus Christ himself. Doubt can be used as an excuse to sin. Doubt can become an idol - something that you want to hold onto just to appear more "authentic" and offend less people about the radical claims of the Gospel. Doubt can be used to intentionally overturn clear Biblical teachings on things like human sexuality. All in all, doubt can be used in some harmful ways, and has the potential to consume us to the point of unbelief. Doubt need not always be sinful, but it can easily become sinful if we don't deal with it properly.
Regardless of that one reservation, please pick up this book or listen to it on audiobook. If you are a doubting soul, it will be a great comfort to you as it was to me.
Ben Young is a pastor at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas and teaches homiletics, apologetics and practical theology at Houston Theological Seminary. To say this book spoke into the depths of my soul would be an understatement.
A little over a year ago, I was unexpectedly hurled into a season of intense doubt about my Christian faith - the kind of doubt that is often intellectual, but sometimes emotional, and results in crippling fear and anxiety that perhaps this life is all there is. I'm doing a little better today, and I'm still following Jesus, but I am nowhere close to "out of the woods".
Enter "Room For Doubt" by Ben Young. Unfortunately, since I listened to this on audiobook, I can't refer back to dog-eared pages and underlined paragraphs. But I would have had a lot of them if I had actually read the hardcopy. Regardless, Ben does a great job of telling his story, about how he got thrust into a long, dark season of doubt after not seeing God deliver on him and his college friends' prayers for miracles, healings, and transformed lives for the Gospel across their college campus. Most of his friends were not affected by this and kept strong faith in God - but Ben's faith began to unravel. The worst part about it is that Ben was too afraid to talk to ANYONE about it, making him spiral further and further into despair. He described himself as being an "outward Christian, but inner agnostic" for a long time. He often felt as if his faith was deficient, defunct, and simply not good enough for God. He carried these doubts to seminary and tried to squash them by doing things like plunging into apologetics and learning the original Greek language of the New Testament so he could be more confident in the original/early manuscripts. However, it didn't take him long to realize none of that was helping.
What really started the process of Ben's doubts turning around was not more knowledge, information, or witnessing of miracles/healings - it was his realization that it's actually OK to "doubt out loud". This didn't initially come from Ben expressing his doubt to friends; it actually came from him examining how the Bible itself approaches doubt, and what doubters were like in the Biblical storyline and how God responded to them. Ben focused on how God the Father and Jesus Christ responded to some of the most famous doubters in the Bible, including Job, John the Baptist, and Thomas the Apostle, aka "Doubting Thomas". All of these doubters were met with correction, of course, but also with ridiculous compassion, not with smiting or punishment. Not to mention other characters, chapters and entire books of the Bible that give voice to doubting believers - Abraham, Sarah, Moses, many of the Psalms (especially Psalm 73), and the book of Ecclesiastes. Even Paul admits that we "see through a glass dimly" in the present age. Ben also took a look at the doubts and depression experienced by some huge figures in Christianity - Martin Luther, Mother Teresa, and C.S. Lewis - and how those doubts were dealt with.
Ben eventually DID start talking to others about his doubts, and also just pouring his heart out to God about them, and this is where the healing really began to take place. He still struggles with doubt today, but feels much more free in Christ to admit where he's at. He has a much deeper TRUST relationship with his Heavenly Father that everything is going to be OK, and that Jesus really did live, die, and rise again purely out of his unfailing love and compassion for His creation.
Ben also demonstrates remarkable knowledge of the history of many intellectual movements that have passed through the Western world in the last several hundred years - pre-enlightenment, enlightenment, modernism, and post-modernism to name the main ones. He is impressively familiar with the works of several thinkers in that time frame - like Blaise Pascal, Soren Kierkegaard, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche - as well as the works of more recent writers like Frederick Buechner, Lesslie Newbigin, and Tim Keller.
The only real reason I would take away half a star on this review if I could is for the way he consistently framed doubt as something "neutral" within a Christian worldview. Yes, I certainly believe God (as both the Father and the Son) responded compassionately to doubters throughout the Biblical storyline. Yes, I believe that doubts can often be a sign of someone taking their faith seriously and wanting to go beyond surface level "church-ianity" (although no one is required to have doubts about their faith to take it seriously). Yes, sometimes doubt is simply due to our personalities and feels unavoidable, like something that just attaches itself to you constantly without you asking for it; that's what we get for living in a broken world. BUT, doubt can also very much be rebellion against God. Doubt can be a result of intentionally distrusting that God has spoken through the Old and New Testament, and through Jesus Christ himself. Doubt can be used as an excuse to sin. Doubt can become an idol - something that you want to hold onto just to appear more "authentic" and offend less people about the radical claims of the Gospel. Doubt can be used to intentionally overturn clear Biblical teachings on things like human sexuality. All in all, doubt can be used in some harmful ways, and has the potential to consume us to the point of unbelief. Doubt need not always be sinful, but it can easily become sinful if we don't deal with it properly.
Regardless of that one reservation, please pick up this book or listen to it on audiobook. If you are a doubting soul, it will be a great comfort to you as it was to me.
April 26, 2020
Provocative
A book that will make you think about what you are thinking. Doubts will make or break your world view. It will cause a change in your belief system by strengthen it, or weakening it. In the end doubt must be & will be dealt with because it is never a neutral or a stationary postion. It causes eventual change.
A book that will make you think about what you are thinking. Doubts will make or break your world view. It will cause a change in your belief system by strengthen it, or weakening it. In the end doubt must be & will be dealt with because it is never a neutral or a stationary postion. It causes eventual change.
January 26, 2023
There were a few good points in this book. The author explains how having doubts can strengthen your faith. He also talked about many famous doubters like Mother Theresa, and C.S. Lewis.
Loved the quote by Martin Luther King Jr. featured in this book, "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
Loved the quote by Martin Luther King Jr. featured in this book, "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
February 4, 2023
My review publishes on my blog on February 15, 2023 at this link: https://ultimatemetaphor.blogspot.com...
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October 20, 2017Not quite sure how I feel about this one. I was super psyched to read it, but as I'm thinking about, I'm seriously underwhelmed. I think it was too much memoir for what I actually wanted. We get it, you were a Super Christian until you got mad at God because he wasn't answering your prayers. He does, however, slyly knock Bart Ehrman a few times, which is nice.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews