Faith
Essays from Believers, Agnostics, and Atheists
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Delve into this thought-provoking collection of personal essays from award-winning and bestselling authors who explore the perennial question: What do I believe?
Whether believer, skeptic, agnostic, atheist, or something other, these twenty-four authors share a fascinating, daring, and multifaceted perspective on what faith means (or doesn’t mean). The collection of personal essays includes bestselling authors such as Anne Perry, who writes about a deeply spiritual faith that embraces and sustains her through every step of her life. Caroline Leavitt writes about tarot cards, mediums, and quantum physics to explain her concept of faith. Afghan-American author Tamim Ansary beautifully captures his childhood curiosity amidst his Islamic views. There is the irrepressible Malachy McCourt’s anti-religion rant, and then Pam Houston’s signature wit and sense of irony, which gives the question of faith a surprising twist.
Honest, provocative, and candid, Faith begins a larger conversation and invites the question: What do you believe?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Must we pray to express our faith?" asks author and editor Zackheim (The Bone Weaver) in the introduction to this collection of essays. "And must faith always be tied to God?" A diverse selection of writers offer an equally diverse set of views on those questions, with responses ranging from comedian David Misch's argument for reason and responsibility over spirituality, to Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith's case for interfaith collaboration as a humanitarian alternative to fascism and strife. Despite the wide variety of the writers' perspectives, some common ideas emerge. Many of the writings, especially those on the loss or rediscovery of faith, concern the difference between faith as it is taught by organized religions and as it is experienced in everyday life; believers and nonbelievers alike caution against the dehumanization that is a consequence of dogmatism. The strongest tests of faith recounted here come in the face of tragedy: incurable illness, brutality, and death leave no recourse but transformative grace, whether human or divine.
