Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism)

by Frank Schaeffer

Hardcover, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

261.21

Collection

Publication

Da Capo Press (2009), Hardcover, 256 pages

Description

Frank Schaeffer has a problem with Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, and the rest of the New Atheists--the self-anointed "Brights." He also has a problem with the Rick Warrens and Tim LaHayes of the world. The problem is that he doesn't see much of a difference between the two camps. As Schaeffer puts it, they "often share the same fallacy: truth claims that reek of false certainties. I believe that there is an alternative that actually matches the way life is lived rather than how we usually talk about belief." Sparing no one and nothing, including himself and his fiery evangelical past, and invoking subtleties too easily ignored by the pontificators, Schaeffer adds much-needed nuance to the conversation. "My writing has smoked out so many individuals who seem to be thinking about the same questions. I hope that this book will provide a meeting place for us, the scattered refugees of what I'll call The Church of Hopeful Uncertainty."… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member remikit
Interesting book - the last few chapters I could have missed.
LibraryThing member Othemts
You ever get the feeling that Fundamentalist Christians and the New Atheists are two sides of the same coin, both steeped in literalism and blind to any other point of view? That's the basic premise of this book where the author takes on both ends of the spectrum. Sometimes I feel like cheering on
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Schaeffer as he tears into his victims, but my more charitable side finds the book excessively snarky when Schaeffer critiques the Fundamentalists and the New Atheists. I think the premise is excellent but the book needs a more objective perspective to work. The better parts of the book are when Schaeffer talks about his own life (he grew up the son of a famed evangelist, left for a secular life, and returned to a more progressive religiosity in the Orthodox church) and the need to for transcendence and humility in human life.
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LibraryThing member jfe16
Presenting what he asserts to be a challenge to both atheists and fundamentalists, the author intertwines his personal philosophy of life with a smorgasbord of stories, putting forth what, in his opinion, might be realistic about a person’s faith in God.

The
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evangelical/fundamentalist/political-ranting infused throughout the narrative comes off as more of a diatribe than objective commentary and the undertone of anger permeating the text tends to dilute insights that may deserve greater contemplation.

Nevertheless, in the end, it’s difficult to argue with the author’s conclusion that the way people live . . . à la the Golden Rule . . . is what speaks to the best of humanity.
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Language

Physical description

230 p.; 8.9 inches

ISBN

030681854X / 9780306818547
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