With Donald Trump opening his new golf course in Scotland at tax payer’s expense, just another example of his moral corruption, I’m taking a break from talking about him.
Instead, I want to talk about my book, The Faithful Skeptic: In Search of a Humble Christianity, why I wrote it and what it is about.
I realize this is a bit self-serving, but I genuinely believe this is a book worth your time to read because its theme speaks directly to how we can cope with the information and disinformation overload of today.
So much so that at the end I will explain a special offer I want to make to show how much I believe in this book.
What prompted me to write the book in the first place is the church’s disingenuous claim that it speaks for God. It makes this claim indirectly by making statements about God and God’s ways in the form of creeds and doctrines as if they came from God when in fact they came from men and women, mostly men, and mostly old men at that.
That is how the church attached authority to its teachings. If God is who the church says God is, and if God acts in the ways the church says God acts, and if God’s will is what the church says it is, then to question what the church says is to question God.
What the church has never said, and doesn’t say today, is that what it says about God and God’s ways, who it says Jesus was, what the Holy Spirit is, what the Bible says, and everything else it says should be understood to be human statements about God, not revelations from God.
A simple and obvious truth is that all church teaching comes from human beings and not God, placing responsibility on Christians to take what the church teaches seriously, but not without question or challenge.
The Faithful Skeptic argues the human factor in church teaching make skepticism a critical tool in developing a faith worth having rather than a faith based on blind obedience to what the church says.
A skeptical mind is a searching mind, questioning mind, not for the sake of being a gad-fly or to create conflict, but to get as close to truth as is humanly possible.
Uncritical acceptance of what the church or what someone waving a Bible says (or presidents who say listen to them and no one else) is not the path to truth or freedom, but leads to servitude.
I believe a humble church that is not consumed by the need to protect its authority will see the indispensable role skepticism plays in building a strong faith.
My book explains all of this in detail. There are separate chapters on God, Jesus, the Spirit, the Bible, the necessity of hope, a reason to believe there is life after death, that explain how I understand each of them through the lens of skepticism. In all of them you will find new perspectives on being Christian without all the trappings the church has attached to it.
The book is also written for people who struggle with believing in God and/or who want to follow the teachings of Jesus without the need for him to have been divine (whatever that means).
I wrote The Faithful Skeptic to say that the humanness of the church, of Christians in general, is not a weakness, but a strength. We don’t need to hide the reality of the human condition that leads us to make mistakes, see things wrong, or believe stuff that’s not true, but which works in our favor when we are conscious of our humanness.
I believe so much in the value of this book that I want to make you an offer you can’t refuse. Actually, you can, but it’ll break my heart if you do.
With fall approaching this is the time to begin thinking about schedules, and a group study of the book would be an excellent addition to your calendar. This is especially the case with the book’s Reader’s Guide (written mostly by a colleague friend of mine) that offers excellent questions for each chapter.
My offer is to provide a free book to anyone willing to lead a group, regardless of size, and also a significant discount on books for each group member. In addition, if you are clergy and would like a free copy to review, I will be glad to send you one with the hope that if you like the book, you will find a way to tell your congregation and/or groups about it.
Why am I doing this? Certainly not to get rich. I gave up on that fifteen books ago. No, it’s simple really. I want as many people as possible to read the book. If you have already read The Faithful Skeptic, thank you! And please tell others about it.
I will provide additional details to anyone interested in this offer via email. My address is: janlinn45@gmail.com. I hope to hear from some of you.
I promise you won’t regret it.
linnposts.com 