Abstract: This paper explores the role of doubt in forming desire for God – and, more particularly, the ways in which social relations can be part of practicing a fruitful kind of doubt. The relationship between doubt and desire for God is well-established in the Christian apophatic tradition, particularly with regards to doubting the adequacy of our language to properly frame knowledge and love of God. This kind of doubting is understood to train the Christian to better attend to God, opening up the possibility of encountering the divine in new and surprising ways. There has been a tendency in the apophatic tradition to focus on individual contemplative prayer as the practice through which this kind of loving attention to God can be developed. However, I propose that corporate, worded contexts can also be places in which the Christian can learn to resist their tendency to attempt to know God…