SOURCE: “Right Recusant,” in Times Literary Supplement, June 21, 1996, p. 30.

In the following review of The Quest for God, Symondson concludes that Johnson's idiosyncratic book will irritate many, while offering illumination and inspiration for like-minded Catholics.

This book will cause annoyance. Paul Johnson delights in being a gadfly and he will not disappoint his critics. In this case, he irritates for God. The Quest for God is provocative and flies in the face of received liberal, humanist values, but it should not be dismissed therefore. Johnson believes that the existence or non-existence of God is the most important question man is ever called to answer. He has written this investigation to help himself and others to clarify their belief, and to share the conviction and consolation of his Catholic faith. Inevitably he runs the risk of thinking aloud and of rehearsing his own prejudices, some of which are contradictory...