Westminster John Knox Press invited me to read and review an advance reader copy of this book. I wasn't sure this was the book for me, to be honest, because of the title. I am not post-God or post-Christian. It seemed like maybe the book was meant for those who don't believe in God anymore or who have abandoned the Christianity of their early life. And to be sure, the book offers a lot for those people to think about. But Pastor Feldmeir quickly makes it known that his real audience is those who find it hard to believe in the traditional understanding of God that much of Christianity holds: you know, the angry old man in the sky who sets up traps for the unwary human race and then ends up condemning 99.999999% of them to eternal torture because they didn't appease him just the right way and have just the right ideas about him.

That sounds like a caricature, but it is the God that many Christians do believe in. And it is a God that I used to believe in. But I don't anymore. Ah, ok, so I am living my "life after [this horrible yet very mainstream version of] God." Ok, I could get into this.

The writing style in this book might seem somewhat different for a religious book. But I think it's because Feldmeir is a pastor who's not worried about impressing or appealing to the religious crowd. He wants all people to know about what God is really like. How God truly works. What salvation actually means. What being a Christian really means. What Jesus actually taught. What Jesus really asks of us. Which is so much more and much more meaningful than praying a prayer and singing hymns and getting saved. Yet we also can't earn our way into heaven. Oh, and is going to heaven even the real goal? Or is the kingdom of God something else entirely?

I devoured this book—finished within two days. I was extremely intrigued as Feldmeir built his case for how we've had God all wrong, how we lost the plot somewhere between Jesus and today, and how much damage these misunderstandings have caused.

It's no secret that western society is becoming less religious. Europe is already essentially a post-Christian society. Many thousands of disused churches dot the landscape, empty or converted into thrift shops, flats, pubs, or any other random use. After Covid, many American churches lost half or more of their attendees. And this is happening across denominational lines. God just isn't connecting with so many people these days. Or at least not the false god that's not really the creator of the universe, but is instead a creature made in our own image by us to make us feel better. We've created a good of winners (us!) versus losers (them!, whoever they are). (A god that conveniently hates the same people we hate. So good to have God on our side, right? Sucks to be those guys who are [fill-in-the=blank] and going to hell though!)

The people that used to worship have decided they don't need the angry old man throwing lighting bolts in their lives. But that doesn't mean they have become less Christian in their ways. No, in fact the moral arc of the universe continues to bend toward justice, often thanks to the contributions of these post-Christians. You’ve probably observed, as have I, that many of the most Christian people you know actually don’t even claim to be Christian. They often see themselves as spiritual but not religious. But they are kind, loving, working for social justice, peace, acceptance, and all the things Jesus wants us to do, that many mainstream Christians actually preach against. Ever hear anyone in your evangelical or conservative Christian circles say how loving your enemies is just not possible?; how the golden rule is weak?; how nations must be overtly Christian and project power?; how Jesus didn’t really mean his teachings literally? So many Christian people don't realize the true character and nature of God. They choose a Jesus that wants America to run the world like a Christorepublican theocracy rather than the Jesus that actually existed and wants us to feed and clothe the orphans, rescue those in need, love and support the outcasts, and generally spend our efforts in support of the “least of these”. Jesus didn’t say “build me megachurches and there will I be”, he said when we ministered to the least of our brethren, we ministered to Him.

We are asked, “Have you ever searched for God?” and asked to consider:

“If you made a list of all our imaginative answers to the question of where God can be found, you’d quickly discover that our beliefs are all over the map—or, more precisely, that God is all over the map. God, we are told, is up there, down here, out there, in here, over there, everywhere, elsewhere, nowhere. So we search for God by turning our gaze inward and exploring the spiritual landscape of our lives through a variety of spiritual practices like prayer, meditation and breathing exercises, journaling, yoga and tai chi, spiritual direction, fasting, or contemplative reading. Or we search for God by turning our gaze outward and exploring those places where others have claimed to have found Godthe ancient sites of the Holy Land, the medieval cathedrals of Europe, the Buddhist temples of Kathmandu, the pilgrimage trails of Spain and Italy, the silent monasteries of Greece, the deserts of New Mexico or the casinos of Las Vegas. Some people claim to have found God in the strangest places. Like church. But finding God in church, it seems, is becoming increasingly rare. For a growing number of people, their search for God has led them as far away from the church as they can get. Maybe that’s because the God they met when they went to church was nothing like the loving, luminous, numinous, life-giving God they had hoped to find. In their search for God, maybe they found religion instead of a relationship. A lot of people do not know the difference between religion and relationship. There’s an old joke that says religion is a guy in church thinking about fishing and relationship is a guy out fishing thinking about God. Churches are often filled with people thinking about fishing. But the world is full of people out fishing thinking about God.”

And so it is that Feldmeir wants Christians and non-Christians alike to consider WHERE God is; HOW God really is; WHAT God is, and WHY God is how he is. He wants us to think of sin not as the things we do that we feel guilty about and think are disappointing to God, but know that sin as the scriptures teach it really means separation from God, as he writes:

“For Jesus, sin was far more than personal disobedience. Sin was the system that kept people in poverty, slavery, fear, and misery—the inevitable outcomes of missing the mark, the culpable disturbance of shalom. In his first sermon, Jesus asksHow can we be saved if there are whole parts of our lives, our relationships, our communities, our world, that are impoverished and diminished? How can we be saved when we are surrounded by un-peace? The word salvation comes from the Latin, salvus. It means well-being, wholeness. It implies there is no salvation apart from the whole. Just as our bodies can’t be healthy or whole if our spirits are unwell, neither can our society be healthy or whole if some of the people within it are unwell, or hungry, or hurting, or oppressed. Salvation is never purely personal. The way Jesus understood it, people are not saved until the whole universe is restored to wholeness.”

When Jesus heals people in the Bible, he says to them “your sins are forgiven.” Without the knowledge that the word salvation means wholeness or healing, we might read those accounts and wonder what Jesus is talking about. Feldmeir says, “Your sins are forgiven. Jesus isn’t talking about the man’s personal transgressions. He’s pronouncing release and liberation from all those labels and limitations placed upon him by his community, all the conventions that have marked him as other than, less than, different than, all the dogmas that have robbed him of spirit. This is the real nature of sin. Sin is the impoverishment or diminishment or impairment of our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others, and with creation. Sin, from the Greek, hamartia, has its origins not in any theological or spiritual context, but in the ancient Greek sport of archery. Hamartia means to miss the mark or bullseye. Sometimes you draw the bowstring, set your aim, release the arrow, and you miss the mark. Individuals can miss the mark. So, too, can whole communities and societies. Sin is the word we use to describe how our beliefs and patterns of behavior, or those of others or even of systems acting upon us, miss the mark and perpetuate relational impoverishment or diminishment that leads to un-peace—what theologian Cornelius Plantinga calls the “culpable disturbance of shalom.” Your sin is forgiven, says Jesus to the man who fell through the roof. You’re free now to be fully alive.”

And what is this “shalom”? It’s the ultimate goal of the universe, where that very long moral arc is taking us, eventually, but maybe faster if we try to heed the call.

“The Hebrew word shalom means peace. But peace is an inadequate translation. We think of peace as the absence of conflict. But shalom is far more than the absence of conflict because we can be conflict-free and still lack a sense of peace. We might still be unsettled. We might still feel as if something is missing in our lives.

“Shalom means to make something whole. Shalom is an experience of fullness, completeness, contentment. Perhaps the closest word to shalom in the English language is something like well-being. But even that’s inadequate, because well-being doesn’t come close to capturing the radical and counterintuitive nature of shalom.

“In the Hebraic way of thinking, this fullness, completeness, contentment, well-being called shalom is the result of the joining together of opposites or ostensibly opposing forces. There’s a popular vision of this joining together of opposites in the Hebrew Bible. It’s found in the teachings of the ancient prophets that speak of what the world will be like when the messiah comes—like this one from Isaiah:

“The wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

“Things we’d consider complete opposites—all in one place, at peace in each other’s presence? We’d say, ‘There’s no way these opposites can coexist.’ Wolves and lambs? Leopards and goats? Toddlers and snakes? Liberals and conservatives? Oath Keepers and pacifists? Even Coke and Pepsi drinkers?

“We’d call it a pipe dream. But the prophets said it would happen—wholeness, wellbeing, shalom—when the messiah comes. This is where the universe is headed. This is the aim or intention for all of creation. This is the thought God has in mind for us. The moral arc of the universe bends toward this ultimate purpose. But it does not bend on its own. God gives to each of us the task of bending it. Shalom begins with us. But before it begins with us, it must happen in us. God has this thought in mind for us: that the opposites within us would be joined together.”

Feldmeir is very personal and explains how a seminary teacher confronted him early on and caused him to un-believe almost everything he thought he knew about God. So he knows what he’s talking about when he writes, “Life after the God we can no longer believe in can be one of the most fertile seasons for claiming a life in pursuit of the God we have never met, a God who loves us too much to coerce or control us, a God who lures, beckons, persuades, and woos us toward the divine dream, calling us to becoming, to goodness, to beauty.”

This is good stuff. It’s the sort of stuff that helps us see we don’t have an angry God waiting to trip us up and cast us into hell, but a loving fatherly and motherly God, ever trying to win us over with pure love.

Walt Whitman wrote, as the author quotes, “Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul.” Ok. Try it, Feldmeir says. Then,

“...before you dismiss everything or even anything you already believe, attend first to that which you know, through your lived experience, has gladdened your soul and added beauty and wonder and joy to your life. Consider the very real possibility that such experiences might be hints of the transcendent, holy epiphanies, divine encounters, the quiet, hidden work of God.

“Behold them with kindness and reverence and astonishment. Protect them fiercely, even if they do not conform to what tradition or convention or orthodoxy calls authoritative or even real. Love them for what they are, for their courage to have shown up, for their companionship, for their generosity. Hold them closely, tenderly. Give thanks.

“Then, consider all that which simply does not add up or stack up or measure up to your lived experience, and hold these delicately, toothe questions and doubts and the myths and stories and the rituals and practices and traditions and the creeds and doctrines and even the dogmas and all the things about God that you’ve been taught but never understood or believed.

“Before you dismiss or discard any of these, give them permission to exist, to sit beside you, to just be. Sometimes we need to live alongside the tension of what we do not believe to finally and fully embrace what we might believe. Sometimes what we never could believe or even what we cannot believe today will, given enough time, become something like a friend or mentor or muse or generous antagonist that stretches and challenges and keeps us from getting too cozy or complacent with what we are comfortably willing to believe now.

“But if, while sitting beside you, any of these happen to get too noisy or needy or accusatory or manipulative or judge-y or shame-y—or, worse, if they start to show their teeth or become aggressive or intrusive or hurtful to the point of insulting your soul, carefully pick up each of them by the tail, one at a time.

“Casually listen to them scream and whine helplessly. Remain calm. Tell them thanks for sharing, but it’s time for them to move on now.

“Take one last look at them for what they are and what they can no longer be for you or do to you.

“Then, one by one, take them to the nearest doorway that leads from your heart to the outside world, and let them go. Set them free. If at first they refuse to leave on their own, call for the dogs, reach for a shoe, turn the hose on them. Do whatever is necessary to make them go away.

“Watch them scamper off. Love them for what they used to be or might have been. Say a prayer. Breathe deeply. Give thanks.

“And then close the door and return to your self—to that part of your soul that’s been held hostage for far too long—and consider how, after all the brave work you’ve just done, your very flesh might finally be free enough to become more like a great poem and less like a tortured lament.

“Because only then are we able to comprehend how doubt can become the purest form of belief, and disbelief can become the surest path to salvation, and life after God can become the most honest and beautiful expression of life in pursuit of a God who has been here all along.

“Only then will you be able to hear the Psst! of God over the Shh! of the world.

“And the Psst! is everywhere.

“Can you hear the Psst! of God?”

It’s ok that I had wrong beliefs before. It’s ok that it took me a lot of learning to get where I am now. It’s ok. It’s all ok. Sit with it, sit with God, be thankful for those things, and then claim the right to be free from it all, to be fully alive in Christ.

And what does it mean to be human, to be fully alive? “It starts with understanding that we are neither bodies nor souls but embodied souls, ensouled bodies, who are only as well as the relationships we share with all the embodied souls and ensouled bodies around us.” Salvation is not an individual affair; it’s why Jesus calls people to go into all the world. We are all His. He wants us all to share in all that the father has.

All in all, Feldmeir makes a very strong case for a new understanding of God. He wants us to repent (have a change of mind), go from a life of trying to appease the grumpy angry God we grew up with, and mature into a better appreciation for the God that
“we were never told about—
a God who persuades out of love
rather than coerces out of power,
who feels what we feel and responds accordingly,
who is both unchanging yet ever-changing, and
who is too busy offering new possibilities
in the unfolding present
to confine our futures to a predetermined plan.”

He asks us,
“What if the real God of the Bible is working for us
and with us,
experiencing and responding to us,
wooing us and waiting for us
on the other side of life after the only God
we’ve ever known?”

What if? There’s no question anymore for me. I know this God. I have felt this God at work in my life—both my life after, and even during my belief in, the old god. God’s patient and loving that way. Find this God and your life will never be the same. That’s what repentance is: a change of purpose. My purpose has changed. I want everyone to know about the real God and how life after the fake God can be so much more than we ever thought.

= =

This is my honest review after reading the advance reader copy of "Life After God" I received from the publisher via NetGalley. I received nothing in consideration for the contents of this review.

Very deep read.

The author provides a lot on the topic of faith, or the lack of it in times. He shared very person stories in this book and in all, this book reminded me to live every day for that day. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not yet arrived so live in the present.

This book was as I said is a deep book and made me sit and think about God, Life, Faith and where I fit in to that.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Life After God: Finding Faith When You Can't Believe Anymore is a shorter book, but one that dives deep into the history of the thought processes of how and what we understand God to be, and helps us to go back and rethink how we got to where we are with God. He isn't trying to change your mind one way or the other, just really trying to get you to think of how you got to whatever understanding you have and question you on a different approach of 'what if...this...'. There are some interesting lines of thought processes that are worth exploring, and that really is the intention of this book, to help you get past your doubts and really look at your faith. Interesting read.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

My thanks to author Mark Feldmeir, Westminster John Knox Press, and @NetGalley for an arc of this book.

The book’s title, Life after God: Finding Faith When You Can't Believe Anymore, caught my attention right away because I have been in that situation for about 30 years. I was a staunch believer until several disturbing events combined to put me on the path to agnosticism. This wasn’t a choice I made willingly; I actually wanted to continue to believe, but circumstances pushed me to this point, so I was interested to see what the author had to say.

After addressing his own loss of faith and that of others, Feldmeir proposes to provide “a lifeboat for people who struggle with doubts and questions but still bravely wonder if there might be a God they haven’t yet met. A God they can honestly believe in.” This is the theme of the rest of the book. It isn’t about life after God; in fact, while reading the first few chapters I kept thinking a better title would have been, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” if that one hadn’t already been taken. He asks, “Could it be that it’s not actually God, but our interpretation of the Bible, that’s no longer believable?” This sets the stage for many explanations of biblical terms which have strayed from their original Hebrew meaning.

For example, discussing the original Hebrew meaning of El Shaddai as, not God Almighty, but The Breasted God, he asks, “Can you envision the divine as The Breasted God who desires to embrace and hold you like a mother or a father, to nourish and care for you with a deep and abiding love?”

My thought on this was, “In that context, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to say, “The Breasted Goddess?”

He posits that this God we haven’t met operates through relational rather than unilateral power, stating, “Relational power desires and works for the highest good for the other without forcing or imposing one’s own needs, feelings, conditions, or values on the other.”

In discussing the Hebrew word “Shalom,” he explains that it means “an experience of fullness, completeness, contentment.” This, then, is where the universe is headed; God is thinking of a shalom for each of us and all of us together. Then follows a thorough discussion of the nature of this unknown or unmet God.

In chapter 6 under the subheading, “Let’s Get Metaphysical,” the book really took off for me. We go on a metaphysical odyssey from Plato, to Aristotle, to Descartes, to de Chardin, to Whitehead; and then we plunge down from molecules, to atoms, to quarks, to discover that the space in molecules isn’t empty; it’s energy—divine entanglement, in what will be a revelation for many: “There are no bodies and souls. There are only ensouled bodies, embodied souls. Spirit and matter are entangled.”

Next, we learn about salvation, which turns out to be far different from what we’ve been told. But I’ll let you find that out when you read the book.

The final chapter fittingly deals with “the end”—the apocalypse, and discusses activities having a purpose and goal (reading a book, mowing the yard), versus activities which are ongoing endeavors with no definitive endpoint (meditation, yoga, visiting friends). There follows an enlightening section addressing what happens when we die, the future of the Earth, and the great Shalom of God.

At the book’s end there is a “Small Group Study Guide” containing questions on each chapter for consideration and/or discussion.

My thoughts on the book: it didn’t turn me from agnosticism to belief, but it was an educational and entertaining read, and I intend to read it again, more slowly. There’s a lot to be grasped in these eight chapters.

Life After God was an enlightening read. Although I’m not in total agreement with all of his points, I found the author's view of faith in light of our suffering compelling. I especially enjoyed the historical context provided for each chapter. It helped illustrate how the church has progressed and what factors have helped shape (or in some cases misshape) our view of God.

This book was hard to get started to read.
This book is about people who believe and has moved away from God. It makes you think.

I received this book free from the publisher, Westminster John Knox Press for my honest review, through Netgalley.

Mark Feldmeir has written a powerfully honest and beautifully written invitation to faith despite doubts, questions, and personal pain. The book reads like you are having a conversation with a close friend. It’s appealing, authentic, and deeply moving.

The purpose of “Life After God” written by Pastor Mark Feldmeir is to provide a path for believing in God after the things that are held most dear are lost. To do this, Feldmeir urges us to reconcile our life’s experiences with God’s presence among us.

What this book is not is a rehash of the philosophy of religion, a conversion attempt, or an in-depth treatise of the Hebrew Bible.

Ultimately, he accepts the ontological interpretation of God, i.e., if we can conceive of a God, he must exist but Mark Feldmeir enlarges the everyday interpretation of what God is to present God as a big enough cohesive unit that allows people to 1. understand his different properties, 2. understand salvation as three births with an explanation from Jesus about how to inherit eternal life, and 3. how to fulfill God’s plan for us once we understand the significance of our lives and what it means to live in the hereafter.

This book describes a broader framework for understanding the meaning of life and explaining what God’s plan can be.

I gratefully received this ARC from the publisher, Westminster John Knox and NetGalley.

In Life After God, Mark Feldmeir explored the topic of a faith and our doubts. He first opens up about a personal story about being in his seminary professor’s office. He pulls out a gun and points it at his chest. He then proceeds to ask him an important question if he believed in God. He then explained that it’s a finger gun. He shared how he has always been a Christian and felt the call to ministry. He then asked if he believes that God is all powerful and that he could stop a bullet from entering his body. This leads to a discussion about omniscience and God’s loving nature. He later shared how his 48-year-old father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was very real in opening about faith and living with fear. He compared it to a sudden downpour and how he struggled with a river of doubt. He strongly suggested readers to give permission for our doubts to exist and he explained how this could lead us to embrace what we might believe.


One of my favorite stories was about the topic of what we are living for. His wife, Lori is a behavior interventionist for special needs children. She works with them to teach them how to communicate with children and express themselves in nonverbal ways. She was actively trying to assist with this one girl with her meltdowns. She was struggling with a way to connect with her. She would bang her head of the floor and she would refuse to engage. She one day heard her humming a song and she knew it was Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”. The girl would jump, dance, and spin when she heard Kelly’s music. He shared how we need to live with the mindset of the fullness of time and living like every moment matters.


I would recommend this splendid book about faith and our doubts in a God we may no longer believe in. I really enjoyed how he explained the powers at work in the creation of our future and he broke them down into three key areas. It was really beneficial in learning about the power of shalom and living in the presence. Peace will greatly help us to find contentment. I immensely love how he described the presence of God and how we seek Him. He did a wonderful job at looking at faith and how to have faith when we are having trouble believing. I liked how this book contained a book club discussion guide and a small group study guide.




"I received this book free from the publisher, Westminster John Knox Press for my honest review.”

As the spiritual climate in the West becomes more secular and anti-establishment, the Church at large is entering a Post-Christian era. With declining membership in churches and an ever-increasing number of people who call themselves NONES, it is becoming more difficult to see what faith and belief look like. Some Christians even doubt what they believe as they toggle between faith and doubt. Dealing with such situations can be tricky. How does one nuance the historic faith without sweeping contemporary doubts under the carpet? Here lies the challenge that author, pastor, and professor Mark Feldmeir boldly tackles. Starting with a professor using an imaginary gun to challenge a student's faith, he articulates the classic problem that pits the doctrine of God's love against the reality of human pain and suffering. Where does free will come in? If God already knows why certain events are bound to happen, why did He not intervene according to His Goodness? His musings about theodicy take us through history and contemporary times. In the former, he mentions the writings of CS Lewis, Pascal, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and the biblical book of Job. In the latter, he shows us the evil that is happening in this world, and points out the elephant in the room: The problem with faith is not faith per se, but conceptions of God formulated by Christianity or what many Christians make of God. Feldmeir then goes back to the fundamentals before assuming any such conceptions. Some of the basic questions include questions pertaining to our origins, our larger purposes, our destinations, how we will get there, and how all these have to do with God. Using historical symbols and various literary devices, he shows us that faith is not necessarily derived from our creeds or doctrines of the Church. Historic symbols like the boat in a storm where the disciples were caught between faith and doubt even in the presence of Jesus. He also highlights the origins of the names of God, to show us that God is more than simply a divine Name, but One who identifies with our everyday lives. Rather than disposing of the past as irrelevant, we learn about the need to see history and our past as important milestones to guide us in our spiritual thoughts.

In each chapter, the author gives us a page from the past to show us the origins of Christian thought. This is quickly followed by some contemporary events to help readers understand the changing contexts of culture and society. In all situations, Feldmeir asks some probing questions on our behalf. Just like the biblical "doubting Thomas" style of questions, he probes the depths of faith and doubt before pointing the way forward. Each chapter deals with a specific aspect of God. On "Call," we go back to the origins of life. In "Aim," we note how God had directed the Israelites of old. In "Nature," we compare the nature of God with the nature of the world. Which can we find hope in? In "Presence," we learn that God's presence can be experienced both inside and outside the Church. Gradually, we are challenged to experience God not just on the outside but on the inside. Looking at the "Glory of God," we move from the physical realm to marvel at things beyond us. Like it or not, we are often forced to reckon on things that are far bigger than ourselves.

My Thoughts
==============
This book begins in a strange way. I was startled to read about a professor threatening to shoot a student with a gun, only to realize eventually that it was an imaginary gun used in a story that I cannot verify whether it is real or not. For those who had negative experiences with shooting, it is admittedly an inappropriate illustration. Thankfully, the author is quick to highlight the actual reason why he uses the shooting metaphor. It is to bring in the discussion about the reality of God in a broken and painful world. If God is so loving and good, why didn't He stop any shootings? Is that proof of God's existence or is it merely a wrong question to ask in the first place? While one might argue about the implied violence, the bigger picture is about how our modern sensitivities are influencing our faith and how we believe. Apart from dealing with the famous David Hume's trilemma about God, Feldmeir draws in some modern scenarios like popular TV shows, TikTok videos, abortion rights, 9/11 terrorism, and of course, gun violence to show us that the problems of the world remain largely unresolved. Can we still believe in a loving God in the midst of a hateful world? What I appreciate in Feldmeir's approach is that he does not tell us what to believe. He simply points out that any move toward unbelief is not necessarily a better solution in itself. In other words, he reminds us that even when we are frustrated with the Church or the conventional Christian beliefs about God, flawed interpretations should not make us throw out the baby with the bathwater. Or just because we cannot comprehend the world according to our standards of goodness, we should not pull the plug on God altogether.

Feldmeir's approach is less direct compared to some of the conventional methods of apologetics. He realizes that the world has changed and new contexts require new approaches. At the same time, it would be wise not to jettison the lessons of old just because of the new fashions in thinking and expectations. By putting together the lessons in the Bible without losing the reality of present challenges, Feldmeir hopes to encourage the disillusioned to give God another chance, or more specifically, to give themselves another reason to reconsider the reality of God and the faith. One should not allow the excesses of certain quarters to waylay the majesty of God's grace. It is a challenging task to reach this new generation of people who are more cynical and skeptical of anything resembling traditional Christianity or the Christian establishment. If one honestly reflects on history and the present state of the world, one soon realizes that there are more similarities than differences. The same issues experienced by the writer of Ecclesiastes have not disappeared from the face of this earth. People still think they can serve two masters, the divine and the world. With the advancement of science and technology, individuals might even grow dizzy over the technological tower of Babel thinking that science can replace God. Seriously, this book is an effort to reach out and touch this new generation of people. My advice: For the disillusioned, distinguish between the reality of God and the ways people see God. Let God's Word be true. It is because God's Word is hope which is why there is life.

Do not let the title of the book fool you into thinking that it is about people who no longer believe. I think it is for people who still have a desire to want to believe. The main thing they need is a fresh dose of God's grace to see that vibrant spiritual life is still possible (including the Church) in a Post-Christian era.

Mark Feldmeir is the author of four books, including his latest work, A House Divided: Engaging the Issues through a Politics of Compassion. He has served on the Adjunct Faculty at Claremont School of Theology, where he has taught homiletics, and has spoken at various conferences throughout the country on topics ranging from preaching, politics, and pop culture. He serves as Lead Pastor at St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Mark received his B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Riverside (1990), and his M.Div. from Claremont School of Theology (1993).

Rating: 4.25 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Westminster John Knox Press via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

The flow was a little choppy. Some parts were hard to follow. I really enjoyed the content, but I found myself needing to re-read parts to connect certain dots. I would recommend another round of edits for polish. As such, I am refraining from leaving a public review on external websites. I believe this author has time to address the story flow before their publication date. As such, a public review now may not accurately reflect the final version that is published.

This book was ok, the writing style just wasn’t for me.

* Given to me for free by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.