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wcsheffer's review against another edition
3.0
Chris Stedman's memoir is a lovely story about Stedman's life through his journey with his faith. I enjoyed that I had an opportunity to read about his life and he's certainly talented with words. I sometimes found the pacing of the book to be heavy handed. Always fascinating to read about someone's journey with their faith!
savaging's review against another edition
2.0
Chris Stedman has the right ideas. He just hasn't written a great memoir. I understand why he did it: he strongly affirms the value of personal stories to build connections between people. Unfortunately, a heartfelt story doesn't make you a good writer -- a dull story sours into unbearable with Stedman's attempt at a charmingly self-disparaging tone. All the same, I hope book sales have helped support his work.
Stedman's main point is that instead of fighting religion, atheists should partner with religious people and organizations to make the world a better place. This includes fighting religious extremism -- which is more effectively done when you have religious moderates on your side than when you're trying to paint an entire faith as violent and ignorant (a tactic which, instead, just tends to lead to more extremism). An additional benefit from this approach is that more people will come to accept atheist humanism as a valid moral stance, leading to less discrimination against the godless.
Lovely, great ideas. Read his blog! http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/.
Stedman's main point is that instead of fighting religion, atheists should partner with religious people and organizations to make the world a better place. This includes fighting religious extremism -- which is more effectively done when you have religious moderates on your side than when you're trying to paint an entire faith as violent and ignorant (a tactic which, instead, just tends to lead to more extremism). An additional benefit from this approach is that more people will come to accept atheist humanism as a valid moral stance, leading to less discrimination against the godless.
Lovely, great ideas. Read his blog! http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/.
qualitypretzels's review against another edition
5.0
Spectacular - I want everyone to read this, and it's a nice and easy read, just do it!
caramm's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I really like the idea of this book, and think that atheist perspectives are absolutely needed and productive in interreligious/interfaith/interethic dialogue and community work. As a memoir of a very young man, this piece delivers in an earnest and unabashed way that's often delightful. But this is also a book that is very clearly the product of a cis white man who has benefited from an incredible degree of community and institutional support, and the memoir format with such emphasis on the "I" does exist in some friction with the author's proclaimed goal of community justice and service work.
My biggest criticism of this book is what I felt was a huge missed opportunity - there is a lack of interethic dialogue on the page, as in, the author does not ever dig into how his humanist beliefs engage with any religious beliefs or tenets. In most other interfaith books I've read or conversations I've had, there is a significant leaning into the actual beliefs, especially in the context of overlap or reflection or paralleling. To some extent, the absence of this kind of engagement does make it difficult to "see" atheism in an interethic context because it's not clear what the basis of theoretical engagement is. And so as someone who really wants more interethic exchange between religious and nonreligious peoples, I was left feeling a bit untapped by this book, like the meat of the author's life's work was alluded to but not actually explicit. (Which, I would contrast with Eboo Patel's Acts of Faith in which Patel does pull in examples of how his Muslim faith evolved and refined through his interactions with others sharing his faith and those with different faith traditions.)
Overall, a good read. And I would be very interested in reading more work in this vein from Stedman in a decade or two.
My biggest criticism of this book is what I felt was a huge missed opportunity - there is a lack of interethic dialogue on the page, as in, the author does not ever dig into how his humanist beliefs engage with any religious beliefs or tenets. In most other interfaith books I've read or conversations I've had, there is a significant leaning into the actual beliefs, especially in the context of overlap or reflection or paralleling. To some extent, the absence of this kind of engagement does make it difficult to "see" atheism in an interethic context because it's not clear what the basis of theoretical engagement is. And so as someone who really wants more interethic exchange between religious and nonreligious peoples, I was left feeling a bit untapped by this book, like the meat of the author's life's work was alluded to but not actually explicit. (Which, I would contrast with Eboo Patel's Acts of Faith in which Patel does pull in examples of how his Muslim faith evolved and refined through his interactions with others sharing his faith and those with different faith traditions.)
Overall, a good read. And I would be very interested in reading more work in this vein from Stedman in a decade or two.
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