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The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.

M ARK 4:26-27

When I was in my early twenties, I discovered the joy of studying theology. I found myself aligning with a large number of other people like me who were discovering a theological framework for understanding God and the world that seemed watertight.

As a young man interested in ministry and theology, I marveled at the way the doctrines I was learning made God, the world, and my place in it fit together like a puzzle. Putting the puzzle together took work, but the promise was that if I kept at it, I would come to see the things of God with a kind of crystal clarity that would make my faith, and my calling, unassailable.

That was half my life ago. I still love studying theology, and I have not abandoned the doctrines that took hold of my heart and mind when I was younger. But many of the ideas about God I assumed would have become crystal clear to me at this point in my life seem to have withdrawn more into the shadows of mystery—remaining ever-present while managing to evade capture. The older I get, the more I discover that certainty can be elusive.

I want to be clear here. I believe in certainty, but I do not believe in comprehensive certainty. Anyone who says they do is either a liar or a fool. We don’t know what we don’t know. The apostle Paul wrote, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12).

We know in part.

In terms of the essentials of saving faith, God’s word is clear. He gave us Scripture “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn 20:31). God’s word is “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 ...

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About Surprised by Paradox: The Promise of "And" in an Either-Or World

Word Guild Awards Shortlist — Apologetics/Evangelism

Word Guild Award — Best Book Cover Award

Christianity Today's Book of the Year Award of Merit - The Beautiful Orthodoxy

What if certainty isn't the goal?

In a world filled with ambiguity, many of us long for a belief system that provides straightforward answers to complex questions and clarity in the face of confusion. We want faith to act like an orderly set of truth-claims designed to solve the problems and pain that life throws at us.

With signature candor and depth, Jen Pollock Michel helps readers imagine a Christian faith open to mystery. While there are certainties in Christian faith, at the heart of the Christian story is also paradox. Jesus invites us to abandon the polarities of either and or in order to embrace the difficult, wondrous dissonance of and.

The incarnation—the paradox of God made human—teaches us to look for God in the and of body and spirit, heaven and earth. In the kingdom, God often hides in plain sight and announces his triumph on the back of a donkey. In the paradox of grace, we receive life eternal by actively participating in death. And lament, with its clear-eyed appraisal of suffering alongside its commitment to finding audience with God, is a paradoxical practice of faith. Each of these themes give us certainty about God while also leading us into greater curiosity about his nature and activity in the world.

As Michel writes, "As soon as we think we have God figured out, we will have ceased to worship him as he is." With personal stories and reflection on Scripture, literature, and culture, Michel takes us deeper into mystery and into worship of the One who is Mystery and Love.

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