Humbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a Story to Live By

by Samuel Wells

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2022

Overview

Finding a renewed Christian story in a time of skepticism and doubt 

Is Christianity just a fairy tale for the infantile? Or worse, a cruel fantasy—the perpetrator of terrible harm and the cause of endless conflict? At most, one path among many? Such questions reflect the skepticism of outsiders and the doubts of insiders—some perennial, some underscored by recent events and movements. 

The answer to these objections isn’t a louder faith to shout them down—it’s a humbler faith that points to a bigger God. Samuel Wells shows the way through his generous, respectful, and earnest engagement with ten difficult questions about Christianity. In each case he portrays the traditional position and the skepticism of the modern age as two rival stories. Transcending both, he then offers a revitalized Christian story that better renders the radical, courageous, and vulnerable nature of authentic faith. Wells is unwaveringly honest about the failures of the institutional church and acknowledges many people’s negative prior experiences of Christianity—making this a book for both Christians and non-Christians who have found the stories of their lives disrupted and now seek a fulfilling and truthful story to live by.

Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Crutch for the Deluded?
2. Catalogue of Betrayals?
3. Fairy Tale for the Infantile?
4. Drug for the Poor?
5. Intolerant Poison?
6. Perpetrator of Terrible Harm?
7. Cause of Endless Conflict?
8. One Path among Many?
9. Arrogant Narcissism?
10. Cruel Fantasy?
11. A Faith to Live By
Study Guide

Praise for Humbler Faith, Bigger God

“A book at once incisive, wise, compassionate, and deeply devout. Wells avoids with equal agility the traps of empty dogmatism and empty faddishness, never forgetting that it is the love of God and neighbor—on which depend all the Law and the Prophets—that provides the proper key to any interpretation of the Christian mystery.”
— David Bentley Hart
author of Tradition and Apocalypse: An Essay on the Future of Christian Belief

“I’m not sure who else alive could have written this book. Scholars are not usually this accessible. Pastors not usually this sharp-eyed. Critics not usually this devastating. Advocates not usually so beautiful. This unusual book calls to mind Augustine’s heart, Aquinas’s mind, Day’s activism, Temple’s leadership. You say I exaggerate? Take up and read before you tell me I’m wrong.”
— Jason Byassee
coauthor of Following: Embodied Discipleship in a Digital Age

“God has surely heard it all: the complaints, the objections, the silence of a back turned on faith. Samuel Wells asks us—those of us who still believe that God can be found in Christian faith and its expression—if we have taken seriously the protests of our disbelieving neighbors. Now is the time for humility, church. Now is the time to listen. Now is the time for us to put up or shut up. Humbler Faith, Bigger God is here to help.”
— Katie Hays
author of God Gets Everything God Wants

“Once again, Samuel Wells leads his readers into the puzzling space between belief and unbelief, a region as familiar to Christians as it is to secularists. That he does so with a combination of humility and a deep sense of the holy comes as no surprise to those familiar with his ministry or his many books. Humbler Faith, Bigger God is a profoundly honest and enriching conversation in which we are privileged to have a part.”
— Richard Lischer
author of Just Tell the Truth: A Call to Faith, Hope, and Courage

“Samuel Wells gets right to the heart of real questions people struggle with and the real challenges the church and the Bible raise for thinking people. He addresses all this with honesty, humility, intelligence, and love. This book is for seekers, doubters, questioners, and those who wonder what faith might mean in these days.”
— Heidi B. Neumark
author of Sanctuary: Being Christian in the Wake of Trump

Product Details

• Title: Humbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a Story to Live By
• Author: Samuel Wells
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2021
• Pages: 248
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781467462853, 9780802879318, 0802879314, 1467462853
• Resource ID: LLS:9781467462853
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T17:50:09Z

About Samuel Wells

Sam Wells graduated from Merton College, Oxford, with an MA in Modern History, from Edinburgh University with a BD in Systematic Theology, and from Durham University with a PhD in Christian Ethics. Before training for ordination, Sam was a community worker in inner-city Liverpool. From 1991–2005 he served in parish ministry in the Church of England. He was assistant curate in Wallsend, North Tyneside and in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, before being incumbent at St. Elizabeth’s, North Earlham, Norwich, and then St. Mark’s, Newnham, Cambridge. While in Norwich he helped to establish—and was for several years vice chair of—the North Earlham, Larkman and Marlpit Development Trust, the first organization in the East of England devoted to community-led urban regeneration. He also established a non-profit organization offering disadvantaged children opportunities to discover wonder and joy through creative play.

In the summer of 2005, Wells became dean of Duke University Chapel and research professor of Christian ethics at The Divinity School. Sam’s responsibilities include preaching at the majority of the 11 a.m. Sunday services, leading worship, interacting with and praying for all levels of the university—leaders, faculty, administrators, students and staff. His work also entails lifting up the connections between Christian faith and theology and the pressing issues of the day, and making the Chapel and the poorest neighborhoods of Durham visible to one another. He is married to Jo Bailey Wells, who is a former dean of Clare College, Cambridge and is now director of Anglican Studies at Duke Divinity School, and they have two children.