What am I to believe?' is perhaps the fundamental question of human existence. It is unlikely that most people reach the end of their lives without wondering what it has all been for and what happens next. But the question of belief is more than just academic, since what people believe is now more a more critical issue than ever. As G R Evans shows, an ignorance of the history of beliefs can leave individuals susceptible to the influence of extreme ideas, and unsure how to put them into context and judge their validity. In all religions, not just Islam and Christianity, that is precisely how sects and cults get a grip. As the author demonstrates, religious debate has a way of repeating itself. The historian of theology discovers that certain moral and ethical topics are perennial; they are no sooner given a position in the scheme of belief than they are back again, as the same questions occur to the next generation. But history also teaches that the context of contemporary cultural assumptions needs to be taken into account in identifying the questions that are really being asked. Concentrating especially on the Christian tradition, Evans shows how the history of religious discussion can help us to understand the nature of current misunderstandings and divisons over belief, a crucial step for people of all faiths in the new century. When questions and disagreements about belief reappear, they can be shattering all over again, for not everyone is or can be aware of the history of the debate in question. This book offers, in manageable compass, a reference manual to how debates of great current urgency have been addressed in the past, and in the process sheds light on some of the most pressing moral challenges facing the religions today. 'G R Evans is widely respected especially for her work on patristic and medieval theology, but she has never been afraid to wrestle too with fundamental theological questions such as evil, or to explore issues of great ecumenical importance. While deploying the remarkable range of her scholarship, Belief offers a very substantial essay in apologetics, exploring the topic with great imagination and philosophical skill. This is a book that deserves to be read again and again.'- Fergus Kerr, OP, Regent of Blackfriars, Oxford, and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Theology & Religious Studies, University of Edinburgh