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Exploring Faith

A 5-Week Formation Journey for Seekers, Sceptics & Believers

Devised & written by: Revd Simon Tillotson

Course Details

• When: Wednesdays, 7:30pm – 9:15pm

• Dates: 29th July – 26th August 2026

• Where: All Saints Church Hall, CT5 1PG

• Cost: Free of charge

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29th July

Week 1

Faith Reborn: Deconstructing Caricatures & Coming Home

God of Surprises (Hughes)

Return of the Prodigal Son (Nouwen)

 

5 Aug 2026

Week 2

Blind Faith? Reason, Doubt, & Intellectual Integrity

Story of Philosophy (Magee)

Case for God (Williams)

 

12 Aug 2026

Week 3

Faith in Whom or What? The Cosmic & Universal Christ

Following Celtic Way (Bradley)

Universal Christ (Rohr)

 

19 Aug 2026

Week 4

Stepping Out in Faith: Cost & Radical Risk of Discipleship

Discipleship (Watson)

Discipleship (Arnold)

 

26 Aug 2026

Week 5

Growing in Faith: Furnace of Suffering & Problem of Evil

The Thorn (Kendall)

The Shack (Young)

 

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Welcome to Exploring Faith: Course Introduction

Welcome to Exploring Faith, led by Revd Simon Tillotson. This course offers a comprehensive, honest, and transformative journey designed for seekers, sceptics, and long-time believers alike. Whether your faith has grown predictable or cold, or you have spent years keeping God at arm's length, this programme offers an opportunity to hit the "factory reset" button on our spiritual assumptions. Across five distinct thematic areas, we will explore who God truly is, evaluate the intellectual foundations of belief, discover an expansive vision of Christ, count the practical costs of discipleship, and navigate the furnace of human suffering.

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1. Faith Reborn: Clearing False Caricatures

We begin by hitting the spiritual reset button and deconstructing the religious baggage many of us carry. Drawing from Gerard W. Hughes’s God of Surprises, we confront the false "caricatures" of God that paralyse our spirits:

• The Celestial Policeman: A hidden figure waiting to issue cosmic fines for our mistakes.

• The Meticulous Examiner: A cold academic headteacher grading doctrinal purity.

• The Grandfather in the Attic: An outdated historical relic irrelevant to modern life.

• The Cosmic Insurance Agent: A transactional figure where premiums of good behaviour protect us from tragedy.

Rejecting these caricatures removes the need for a protective "Religious Mask," allowing us to bring our "Real Self"—including deep doubts, anger, and messy longings—before the living God of Surprises. Through Henri Nouwen’s insights in The Return of the Prodigal Son, we trace our spiritual postures as the exhausted Younger Son wandering in self-reliance, the bitter Elder Son trapped in dutiful rule-following, and ultimately the Father, whose "mismatched hands" offer both strong protection and gentle, unconditional comfort.

 

2. Reason, Doubt, and Intellectual Integrity

Next, we address the cultural myth that faith requires a "blind leap in the dark" or intellectual suicide. Guided by Bryan Magee’s The Story of Philosophy, we map the Western landscape of doubt through David Hume’s critique of design, Immanuel Kant’s distinction between the physical (phenomenal) world and spiritual (noumenal) reality, and Friedrich Nietzsche’s warning regarding the existential void left by discarding God.

Complementing this narrative, Peter S. Williams’s The Case for God demonstrates that faith is a rational inference to the best explanation. We examine three compelling clues pointing toward the Divine:

• The Cosmological Clue: Modern physics confirms the universe had an absolute beginning, pointing logically to a timeless, spaceless, and powerful Cause.

• The Teleological Clue: The breathtaking fine-tuning of fundamental cosmic constants necessary for biological life.

• The Moral Clue: The objective reality of right and wrong, which requires a personal moral Lawgiver.

 

3. Christology as a Mirror of the Divine

Shifting from the existence of a Creator to the character of the Divine, we examine how Jesus Christ reveals the face of God. Drawing from Ian Bradley’s Following the Celtic Way, we move away from Mediterranean legalism to recover the ancient Celtic Christ—experienced as the Anam Cara (Soul Friend), the "True Arch-Druid," and the Lord of Creation who affirms original goodness rather than total depravity.

We broaden this perspective through Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ, exploring how "Christ" is not merely Jesus' last name, but the eternal mystery of God infused into physical matter since the beginning of time. We discuss the shift from fear-based "sin-management" to an abundance-based framework of original blessing, recognising Jesus as the personal microcosm of a vast, inclusive cosmic reality.

 

4. The Radical Risk of Discipleship

Faith is not merely intellectual agreement; it demands active allegiance. Drawing from David Watson’s classic Discipleship, we challenge consumerist church culture and "cheap grace," evaluating what it means to step out of our safe "boats" of financial security, ambition, and comfort.

We balance this with J. Heinrich Arnold’s Anabaptist vision of discipleship, introducing the spiritual concept of Gelassenheit—utter yieldedness, surrender of the ego, and abandonment of self-protection. We consider how true faith manifests in shared community life, radical non-resistance, and unconditional forgiveness.

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5. The Furnace of Suffering and the Problem of Evil

Finally, we confront the greatest obstacle to human faith: suffering and unanswered prayer. Using R.T. Kendall’s The Thorn, we examine Paul’s unremoved affliction in 2 Corinthians 12, exploring how God permits persistent "thorns" to break our self-reliance and perfect His power in our weakness.

We pair this with Wm. Paul Young’s The Shack, which addresses "The Great Sadness" of trauma and loss. Rather than viewing God as a distant observer, we encounter a relational Trinity who climbs directly into the shack of our grief, offering emotional healing and the liberating risk of radical forgiveness.

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