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A review by sarahbringhurstfamilia
Project Conversion: One Man, 12 Faiths, One Year by Andrew Bowen
3.0
First of all, I hate to rain on the feel-good parade, but this guy is in serious need of a copy editor. As in, besides the obvious typos, he's never even heard of the past perfect tense. Also, I wonder when the year-long personal quest/book deal fad will finally run its course.
That said, this book did have some redeeming qualities. So even though it's really only a two or 2.5 star book, I'm going to go ahead and cut Andrew Bowen some slack and give him three stars, just for the significant personal achievement of going from closed-minded bigot to advocate for everyone he used to hate in one short year.
This book chronicles how Bowen, a self-described bitter atheist (and former intolerant Christian), lived a different faith every month for a year. In many ways, it's similar to [b:Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor|11524633|Flunking Sainthood A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor|Jana Riess|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328757142s/11524633.jpg|16462131], except that Bowen goes well beyond Christianity, devoting months to faiths as diverse as Buddhism, Wicca, and Zoroastrianism. He even spends a memorable month meeting with the Mormon missionaries.
I enjoyed reading about his plunge into each faith and don't doubt his sincerity, but I remain skeptical that a month inside a faith with no plans for long-term commitment is long enough to really understand it. There's always some hubris involved in these sorts of projects, and Bowen is no exception. He even considers going off and starting his own religion.
Still, if the goal was getting to know some members of each faith and trying to listen and learn respect for other religions, then Bowen has ably accomplished it. There are better introductions to each particular faith than this book, but for an interesting and sincerely-written testimonial of the virtues and unexpected joys of religious toleration, it does quite well.
That said, this book did have some redeeming qualities. So even though it's really only a two or 2.5 star book, I'm going to go ahead and cut Andrew Bowen some slack and give him three stars, just for the significant personal achievement of going from closed-minded bigot to advocate for everyone he used to hate in one short year.
This book chronicles how Bowen, a self-described bitter atheist (and former intolerant Christian), lived a different faith every month for a year. In many ways, it's similar to [b:Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor|11524633|Flunking Sainthood A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor|Jana Riess|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328757142s/11524633.jpg|16462131], except that Bowen goes well beyond Christianity, devoting months to faiths as diverse as Buddhism, Wicca, and Zoroastrianism. He even spends a memorable month meeting with the Mormon missionaries.
I enjoyed reading about his plunge into each faith and don't doubt his sincerity, but I remain skeptical that a month inside a faith with no plans for long-term commitment is long enough to really understand it. There's always some hubris involved in these sorts of projects, and Bowen is no exception. He even considers going off and starting his own religion.
Still, if the goal was getting to know some members of each faith and trying to listen and learn respect for other religions, then Bowen has ably accomplished it. There are better introductions to each particular faith than this book, but for an interesting and sincerely-written testimonial of the virtues and unexpected joys of religious toleration, it does quite well.