Reviews

Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do about It by Brian D. McLaren

bhnmt61's review against another edition

4.0

We read this in our church’s Wednesday book group. I didn’t agree with everything he said, but it was a great book for discussion—one of the best we’ve done. McLaren is a former evangelical pastor, and even though he is long-gone from evangelical theology, he still has an annoying way of speaking/writing that makes him sound like he’s in the pulpit. But every time I would get so annoyed at his writing that I was about to put it aside, he would say something that was, well, brilliant.

His basic premise is that there are four stages of faith—simplicity, complexity, perplexity, and harmony—and the way you move from one stage to the next is through doubt. So doubt is not something to be avoided, but something that serves as a gateway to a deeper faith. I hadn’t ever put that into words, but it has been true in my own life, so it was reassuring to have it spelled out in a way that made sense.

The book is less and less interesting as it goes along, but the beginning is thought-provoking enough to make it worth reading. If you are content with your current beliefs, you probably will not find this book helpful, but for skeptics, it is an interesting take on spiritual growth.

caoimhe12's review against another edition

Shallow 

qtcarolyn's review against another edition

challenging inspiring reflective

5.0

meredith_mccaskey's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

heidihaverkamp's review against another edition

4.0

Although it's written primarily for evangelicals, I found McLaren's book helpful as I notice my own beliefs changing and shifting, especially in terms of the institution, scripture, and many traditions mean and no longer mean to me.

grifsgirl's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

allisonh59's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

annieltaylor31's review against another edition

5.0

You can tell McLaren put a ton of heart and effort into this piece. I appreciated every footnote, every discussion question, every appendix. A great addition to this niche of conversation.

katie_chandler's review against another edition

4.0

I listened to this audiobook a little more slowly and distracted than I normally would but I still learned a lot. The first two sections I was nodding my head and thinking of lots of examples. Each chapter ends with great introspective/journaling/discussion questions. The third section was a little more challenging for me. I’m fully on board for stage 4 faith, and felt like after the author had introduced it I wanted to know how to be more on stage 4. At the end of section 2 he says something like, this may sound a little kum ba yah, but I hope it makes more sense now that we’ve built up to it, and it’s what I’ve wanted to write from the beginning. Section 3 feels more like that, like a parable I’m not quite ready to fully understand because I don’t have enough life experience for it to make sense. I felt like the suggestions he had in section 3 would need to be adapted differently for my chosen faith and I’m not sure what that would look like.

I don’t feel like I’ve experienced a full or paralyzing faith crisis but I have experienced enough doubt to understand the stages of faith he describes. Highly recommend if any of this sounds like your own experience or you’re just wanting to understand more where others are coming from who transition faith or religions. It’s something I plan to read again to discuss with others.

jdneusch18's review against another edition

5.0

Easily the most influential book I have read in the past five years. I read it twice within a week.