memoir

Review: Doubting Faithfully

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Cover image of "Doubting Faithfully" by Keith Long

Doubting Faithfully, Keith Long. Independently published (ISBN: 9798553814663) 2020.

Summary: A memoir by a pastor who came to doubt Christianity and how he has proceeded from there.

I will be candid upfront. Of late, it has become heroic to question, doubt, and abandon Christian faith for a variety of reasons, write books about it, and be valorized for one’s ‘courage,” “authenticity,” and “vulnerability.” Doubting Faithfully is one such book, although as I will conclude, I take issue with this title and what it reflects of the author’s approach.

The writer is a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America who came to faith through an evangelical ministry, and later attended a denominational seminary before becoming a pastor. He describes the experience that shook his faith. It was the death of his atheist friend Carl from ALS. Carl’s motto had been think strong, be strong. His death made Keith “think strong” about what he believed about God.

This led to a process of questioning. He became an atheist for Lent and doubted much of the creed. He came to deny that Christ died for our sins or bodily rose. Long grew skeptical of the trustworthiness of the gospel accounts. From what I can tell, he read skeptical authors. But it doesn’t appear he read Gary Habermas or Richard Bauckham. Respectively, they give rigorous defenses of the resurrection and the gospels.

Then his own questioning transformed his vision of pastoral work. Long determined to lead a questioning church. He delighted in the questions youth in his church would bring. He likens life to an experience of bungee jumping off the bridge above the New River gorge, a step into the unknown, mysterious and exhilarating.

I am no stranger to questioning, either in my own life or with the graduate students I worked with over a couple decades. We struggled together over the core of Christian beliefs, the shortcomings of the church, cultural challenges to the faith, and those of other faiths, including atheism. We fostered a community where it was safe both to believe and to question. And we kept doing the faith, praying, and caring while being honest about our questions, waiting for God in his own time to give further light.

What I question is the author’s use of “doubting faithfully.” This implies to me a person who remains open to how God has revealed God’s self while honestly confessing one’s questions, struggles, and doubts. On a number of questions, it seems to me Long doesn’t doubt, but has chosen on the basis of his own “thinking strong” to no longer believe. This is neither doubt, which, as Os Guinness has described it, is being “between two minds,” nor faithfulness, in the sense of seeking like Job for God to address him.

I think the most honest and courageous thing Long could do is resign his pastorate. Instead of embracing the creeds and catechisms, he shepherds people in questioning them. Rather than dependence on God, he models a kind of autonomous intellectual self-sufficiency. I believe in a church where people may question and doubt. But doubting faithfully is something very different than what Long describes. I cannot commend his approach.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Speakeasy for review.

Finally, thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: Why I’m Still a Christian

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Cover image for "Why I'm Still a Christian" by Justin Brierly

Why I’m Still a Christian, Justin Brierly. Tyndale | Elevate (ISBN: 9781496466938) 2025.

Summary: After two decades of interviews with atheists and skeptics, the author explains why he still follows Christ.

Justin Brierly hosted a podcast called Unbelievable? for nearly two decades. During this time he interviewed numerous atheists, skeptics, and believers from other religions. Among his guests were Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, and Philip Pullman. They had spirited, no-holds-barred but civil conversations. Sometimes Brierly hosted dialogues between Christians and skeptics. Despite a steady diet of atheist and skeptic challenges to Christian belief, Brierly remains a Christian. In this book, he offers his reasons why, often elaborating these in the context of those conversations.

However, Brierly begins by explaining why he pursued these conversations. In short, he was tired of Christians talking to themselves in their own echo chambers. He wanted better conversations–ones that weren’t scripted but rather open-ended. He sought real dialogue between thoughtful skeptics and Christian believers. It wasn’t “safe.” He confesses that it caused him to struggle afresh with questions about his faith. But he created a space for honest discussion, something many seekers appreciated.

The next seven chapters offer Brierly’s reasons for believing in the context of issues raised in his discussions. These include:

  • God makes sense of human existence. He explores why there is something rather than nothing, the fine-tuning of the universe, and multiverse explanations.
  • God makes sense of human value. Why do we believe in human rights and dignity? Why are some things just wrong? While skeptics often concur with these judgments and live moral lives, Brierly argues Christianity provides the best explanation for why we value human beings.
  • God makes sense of human purpose. Humans are purpose-oriented creatures. But why is this so? Is it just biology? Should we worry about this or just enjoy life? The fact of our longings, as Lewis pointed out, may be best explained by the idea that we were made for another world.
  • The evidence for Jesus. Some, including Richard Dawkins, propose that the very existence of Jesus is a fiction. Others reinvent him into a guru, a zealot, or even a husband. He points to an interview with skeptic Bart Ehrman, who dismantles these claims, as well as pointing to Richard Bauckham’s work on the gospel as credible eyewitness accounts of Jesus.
  • Facts that only fit the resurrection. Perhaps the clearest evidence for the life of Jesus is the evidence of his death and his followers claims that he rose from the dead. But how is this plausible? Brierly discusses the “minimal facts” approach of Michael Licona and Gary Habermas including five facts best explained by the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He also considers objections to this approach.
  • The atheist’s greatest objection: suffering. He takes on board the serious challenge this poses and the limits of any explanation. He notes that the objection implies a moral basis to the universe and that doing away with God doesn’t do away with trying to explain suffering. He also notes the realities of human free will–that we are responsible for much of the world’s evil–and that we are in a spiritual war zone.
  • Atheism 2.0. Brierly addresses five “atheist memes” that have been raised by Richard Dawkins. One of these concerns a God who would send one to hell not being worth worshipping. We learn that Brierly is among those who would endorse an annihilationist rather than eternal conscious torment understanding of hell (as did John Stott).

In the final two chapters Brierly addresses those “deconstructing” their faith and those investigating Christianity. First, Brierly notes the reasons people “deconstruct” and then draws on a dialogue between Jon Steingard, a former Christian, and Sean McDowell. pointing the way toward reconstruction. Finally, Brierly talks about choosing to live in the Christian story, including “atheist prayer experiments,” the question of what evidence will convince someone to believe, and that above all, God seeks not belief but relationship. Ultimately, quoting Os Guinness, he asserts “The Christian faith is not true because it works; it works because it is true.”

What sets this book apart from other apologetic texts is that it roots reasons in real conversations rather than hypothetical topics. For many of us, it was conversations with skeptical friends that drove us to clarify our reasons for believing. Or it was our own investigation of Christianity, asking our own hard questions and honestly seeking answers. That’s what makes this such a helpful resource whether you are the Christian engaging a friend’s skepticism or a skeptic giving the faith an honest look.

There are no “silver bullets” or ‘lead pipe cinch” arguments here. What you have are reasons to believe that have proven sufficiently credible to sustain Brierly through two decades of conversations with skeptics. They’ve helped remove obstacles on the way to faith for some. That’s not everything. But it’s something to be reckoned with.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Finally, thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran

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Cover image of "And There Was Light" by Jacques Lusseyran

And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Jacques Lusseyran, translated by Elizabeth R. Cameron. New World Library (ISBN: 9781608682690) 2014 (first published in 1963).

Summary: A memoir of a blind hero of the French resistance and Buchenwald survivor.

Jacques Lusseyran lived the life of a normal, active French boy until age 8, when he became blind, due to an accident. Yet, all did not go dark for him. He writes,

“Immediately, the substance of the universe drew together, redefined and peopled itself anew. I was aware of a radiance emanating from a place which might as well have been outside me as within. But radiance was there, or to put it more precisely, light. It was a fact, for light was there” (pp. 16-17).

In this memoir, Lusseyran recounts the years between that experience and his liberation from Buchenwald by the Allies at the end of World War 2. The first part of the book recounts his adjustment to being blind, from learning Braille to enjoying the assistance of friends to live a more or less normal life. Among those was Jean, who becomes his closest friend and protector. They went through school for seven years and were deeply bound together. They were friends in heart and mind.

He became aware of the rising German threat, and learned German so that he could listen to German broadcasts. He tells the story of young men with all the hopes of advanced school students under the looming cloud that broke upon France in 1940. The following year, at age 17, he organized a resistance group, the Volunteers of Liberty, which later merged with another group, Defense de la France. He recounts the care they took to avoid betrayal. Lusseyran had an ability, by listening to determine whether someone could be trust. Sadly, in the end one of whom he had doubts betrayed them. He coordinated publication of an underground paper, eventually circulating 100,000 copies an issue. They also coordinated efforts with other groups to get downed fliers out of France. Until his arrest in 1943.

After six months at Fresnes, he was taken to Buchenwald. He avoided the hard labor of most due to his blindness and the tip of another prisoner to play up his ability to translate. Nevertheless he nearly died and recounts how the light came to him at deaths door. He spoke a song within with the words “Providence, the Guardian Angel, Jesus Christ, God.” He survived, but only to watch Jean die. Yet joy and light sustained him. He describes the decision to remain at Buchenwald when the Germans offered to take them away. Those who left were shot…and he was liberated.

Lusseyran ends the story here, although he went on to teach in the United States and receive several awards from the French government for his work in the resistance. The publisher indicates that this story was part of the inspiration for Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. In some ways, while I think Doerr writes more beautifully, this may be a more powerful story. While not preachy, it is a story of “life, light and joy by the grace of God.” Indeed, there is a luminosity that radiates from this work, even in the darkest hours of Vichy France and over a year and a half in transports and prisons. One senses Lusseyran knows that his life is not his own in a way that frees him from anxiety and despair.

Review: The Backyard Bird Chronicles

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Cover image of "The Backyard Bird Chronicles" written and illustrated by Amy Tan

The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan (text and illustrations). Alfred A. Knopf (ISBN: 9780593536131) 2024.

Summary: Four years of journals on the birds visiting Amy Tan’s backyard, with sketches and detailed drawings.

At age 64, Amy Tan took art lessons from Jack Muir Laws, a nature illustrator. This led to walks viewing birds, sketchbook and drawing pencils in hand. She learned to make quick, rough sketches capturing essential features of the birds that she saw. Then she realized that her own backyard was a haven for birds, and her house, with extensive windows looking out on that yard, the ideal ‘blind” {except for the birds trying to fly through the windows, remedied with various decals).

She filled journal after journal with her observations, accompanied by sketches with captions, and sometimes the imagined thoughts or conversations of the birds. Her observations range from elation and love when a hummingbird feeds from a feeder in her hand and she can feel the brush of its wings, to profound sadness when she sees a bird that looks puffed up and realizes it is ill and probably dying. That leads to the practical action of emptying and cleaning her feeders so that she doesn’t spread the infection to other birds.

The book offers a selection of her entries, each accompanied with her sketches. She identifies species, telling us distinguishing marks. She makes detailed observations of their behavior, often accompanied by questions. For example, on May 22,2020, she watches baby titmice feeding. She identifies the leader, notes how the birds eat, sometimes attempting to eat things too big for them, sometimes taking and rejecting items like sun chips. All this is captured in a drawing on the facing page.

Along the way, Tan unashamedly displays her obsession with backyard bird, describing at length various types of feeders, efforts to discourage squirrels, and the variety and prodigious amounts of bird food she buys, including the mealworms she stores in their refrigerator. Needless to say, she has a supportive husband!

In addition to the journal sketches, Tan includes detailed drawings of various birds in fine detail. These approach the quality of an Audubon work. Tan’s skills of observation and description are evident in these drawings and throughout the text.

Tan’s enthusiasm about birds makes one think differently about the birds in one’s own backyard and surroundings. While not heavy-handed, we sense her awareness of these precious lives to be preserved. She sees the effects of nearby wildfires. She rescues injured birds, and grieves when they don’t make it. And if she has inspired you, she offers a list of the books, apps, and other resources she found helpful. All in all, this book is a delight to the eyes and food for the spirit.

Don’t be surprised if this book makes at least a backyard birder out of you!

Review: Why I Am Roman Catholic

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Cover image of "Why I Am Roman Catholic" by Matthew Levering

Why I Am Catholic, Matthew Levering. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514003145) 2024.

Summary: A Catholic theologian explains why he is Christian and Catholic and what it means to embrace this tradition.

At a time when many people are fleeing any organized religious tradition, theologian Matthew Levering unabashedly asserts “I love being Catholic”. In this book Levering explains how he came to faith and why he entered the Catholic Church. He describes the book as “an unfinished meditation on my Catholic life.” Throughout he weaves in his reading of Catholic saints and theologians with his own experience.

He begins by explaining how he came to Christian faith. For him, it was his sense of his own frailty and the reality of death that prompted his search. He was drawn by the cross of Christ, aware that he desperately needed it. Third, he was drawn by the awesomeness of the Triune God, a theme running through the book. Fourthly, the coherence and harmony of the two testaments was convincing.

He read himself into the Catholic Church, devouring works of John Paul II, von Balthasar, and Ratzinger. The unifying authority of the Petrine office drew him, Mary as Mother of the Lord Incarnate who intercedes, the beauty of the Eucharist, and Catholic teaching on marriage. The Church’s teaching on marriage is also one of the things he considers most beneficial as a context to nurture love and teach us the self-giving of Christ. In addition, he finds the Church’s teaching on humility and the providence of God beneficial.

However, being Catholic is not without its difficulties, which Levering admits with candor. He would be on the side of those troubled by accommodations to the secular world post-Vatican II. Yet he is even harder on himself, and the temptations to worldliness with which he struggles. Likewise, he finds the scandals of clerical sexual abuse disheartening. He forthrightly advocate support for victims, transparency, and believes turning to Christ’s saving power can bring real holiness out of the ruins.

While Levering warmly embraces Catholicism, he also speaks warmly of his ecumenical relationships. He acknowledges the polemics of the past. Likewise, he remains firm in his conviction that the Catholic Church is the one church founded by Christ. Thus, he opposes any ecumenism seeking to restore a lost unity. Rather, he sees ecumenism as an exchange of gifts, a means to foster warm relationships, and as a way to anticipate the unity of the church in the eschaton.

Finally, he concludes the book by offering an example of Catholic theological exegesis. He focuses on Genesis 1:1-3, weaving in all of scripture and drawing on theologians from Athanasius to his contemporaries. He concludes personally, speaking about how it is this God who has shown his light into Levering’s heart.

I spent one of the most remarkable hours of my life several years ago in an interview with Matthew Levering. I have rarely met someone who combined such theological learning with such passionate love for the Triune God. As he spoke of his faith, I was in awe and wonder, not of Levering, but of the Triune God of whom he spoke. And this is what I encountered afresh in this book. He did not persuade me to become Roman Catholic. But he clearly bore witness to how the Catholic Church is the place where he has encountered the living God, enriching all of his life.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: A Quilted Life

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Cover image of "A Quilted Life" by Catherine Meeks

A Quilted Life, Catherine Meeks (foreword by Michelle Miller). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802882899) 2024.

Summary: The story of a sharecropper’s daughter who overcame racism and health issues to teach and to lead racial healing efforts.

Catherine Meeks has led an amazing life by all accounts. Born the daughter of a hardworking sharecropper, raised in substandard educational conditions, raising two sons on her own, facing racism, and struggling with rheumatoid arthritis, life wasn’t easy. Yet eventually she completed a doctorate, held a number of academic positions, traveled in West Africa, preached in the National Cathedral, and led a ministry of racial healing.

She likens her life to the rag quilts her mother made from seemingly useless scraps of fabric. But nothing in her life, even her poverty, marginalization, and denigration, proved useless. Love and faith were the threads that wove the pieces together, beginning with the love in her home, the determination of her mother, and the faith she discovered as a teenager through a Church of Christ. She was able to attend Pepperdine, where she was mentored in racial healing by Ruby Holland.

Returning to the South, she briefly worked in a difficult mental health position before taking a job as assistant dean of women at Mercer College in Macon. Eventually, she pursued an MSW while directing Mercer’s African-American studies program, in addition to her student life work. Realizing her lack of a doctorate meant other faculty looked down on her, despite her efforts. As a result, she pursued a doctorate. This came with an opportunity to take a group of students to West Africa, where she met her future husband. Children followed, then rheumatoid arthritis, an affliction she continues to deal with. Then her husband divorced her, leaving her to raise her two boys on her own.

Despite all this, she continued to pursue her academic work. She crafted an innovative program, Standing on Their Shoulders. It recognized outstanding Black women in the Macon community, eventually numbering one hundred. Then the mayor, a Mercer law professor, recruited her to work out of his office to address gang violence. One of her first acts was to raise her voice to be assigned a real office, not a broom closet. But this was followed by community murals, gun buybacks, marches, a quilt of remembrance, working with religious leaders and meeting Colin Powell.

Instead of returning to Mercer, she accepted appointment to a chair at Wesleyan College. Subsequently, she launched the Lane Center for Community Service, for which she raised millions of dollars. During all this time, she learned to use her voice to advocate not only for herself but for the marginalized. In one of the book’s chapters she describes three practices that sustained her and helped her know when to use her voice: silence, journaling, and dream work. In retirement, she became involved in anti-racism work with her Episcopal Diocese. This led to creation of the Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing. This last brought her to the attention of David Brooks, who interviewed her, a speaking invitation at the National Cathedral, and to receiving the Joseph R. Biden Lifetime Achievement Award for Service, all in 2022.

Along the way, we witness the transformation of a woman who once lived under the fear of God. She describes the deep work of the Creator in her to affirm her as beloved. This plainspoken, honest memoir offers a stirring account of a life well-lived. Quilt pieces of suffering and denigration intermix with gritty achievements. This quilted life portrays a “long obedience” in the pursuit of racial healing sustained by a tenacious faith in a good and beautiful Creator.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.