The Cost of Certainty explores a fundamental ambiguity in mainstream Christian teaching: although the church claims that God's love is unconditional, he only accepts those who believe in Jesus Christ and have repented of their sins. This gospel of conditional love breeds anxiety and polarization.

Young shows how this demeans the true message of the gospels. He argues for the recovery of a spirituality of uncertainty and unconditional love as a basis for a renewal of contemporary Christian faith and practice.