Introduction
Frances Andrews
Doubt is a promising subject of inquiry for historians. Its initial definition in the Oxford English Dictionary reads ‘[t]he (subjective) state uncertainty with regard to truth or reality anything; undecidedness belief opinion’, which might be advocated as necessary mindset any historically inclined investigator embarking on research. Although not always articulated, historians constantly face ‘state uncertainty’ knowledge past and continuous need, therefore, test evidence. The compilers OED then, perhaps unwittingly, underscore particular relevance ‘doubt’ ecclesiastical by further defining it ‘uncertainty Christianity some other religious doctrine’. prominent placing this second acknowledges that doubts about ideas individual doctrines, if faith itself, have long been conspicuous human language, just when speaking Christianity. Nonetheless, means consequences communicating doubt depend on, are intensely revealing of, changing historical circumstance.
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