Does God heal? Where do I turn when my faith is fragile? How can I face my own death? Is there a gospel for the rich? In brief, to-the-point chapters, respected preacher and ethicist Samuel Wells lucidly and compassionately explores topics Christians are often reluctant to face–death, weakness, power, difference, faith, and living life to the full–and offers down-to-earth help in overcoming common fears in the life of faith.

“The heart of the gospel speaks into the most numbing and terrifying moments of our lives with words of hope and joy amid fear and bewilderment,” writes Wells. This book provides an intellectually rigorous but scripturally rooted and theologically accessible engagement with questions of faith.

Baroness Warnock said that Christian moralists might have something to offer public ethics, but only on the same terms as non-Christian moralists. I find that foolishly superficial. This book demonstrates the point. Jesus, God, and faith are not “shoehorned in”, as I heard someone complain about the BBC “Thought for the Day” slot. They are integral here. What Wells gives his readers is wisdom drawn from the Bible and theological tradition (he is a man of learning, capable of an apt citation of John Milbank). It may well be embraced, after a fashion, by non-Christians as also their own, but they could never have arrived at it without the grace of that tradition. Church Times