The Flight of Peter Fromm [Paperback]

Martin Gardner (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 1, 1994

The Flight of Peter Fromm is a novel of ideas disguised as the biography of a young man from a Pentecostal fundamentalist background in Oklahoma, who loses his faith while a student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His spiritual odyssey is narrated by his mentor, a professor at the divinity school - who is actually a humanist who believes neither in God nor in an afterlife. Although Peter never abandons his theism or his admiration for Jesus, he reaches a point where he feels it would be hypocritical to remain within the church and to become the evangelist he had hoped to be.

The counterpoint between Peter and the narrator reflects the eternal conflict between theism and atheism. In following the changes of Peter's beliefs, almost every aspect of Protestant theology and ethics is explored. The evolution of Peter's faith parallels the evolution of Christian theology, from the day of Pentecost to contemporary liberal theology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...a fascinating portrait of how an intelligent and fundamentally honest person can hold assumptions that he is absolutely incapable of questioning. -Letters From a Broad,blog, September 14, 2008

About the Author

Martin Gardner, the creator of Scientific American’s "Mathematical Games" column, which he wrote for more than twenty-five years, is the author of almost one hundred books, including The Annotated Ancient Mariner, Martin Gardner’s Favorite Poetic Parodies, From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley Jr., and Science: Good, Bad and Bogus. For many years he was also a contributing editor to the Skeptical Inquirer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; Reprint edition (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879759119
• ISBN-13: 978-0879759117
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #990,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For 25 of his 95 years, Martin Gardner wrote 'Mathematical Games and Recreations', a monthly column for Scientific American magazine. These columns have inspired hundreds of thousands of readers to delve more deeply into the large world of mathematics. He has also made significant contributions to magic, philosophy, debunking pseudoscience, and children's literature. He has produced more than 60 books, including many best sellers, most of which are still in print. His Annotated Alice has sold more than a million copies. He continues to write a regular column for the Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Humorous, Eye-Opening Intellectual and Historical Fiction April 16, 2003

By David Mitchel

Format:Paperback

This is one heck of an entertaining book. The main reason is this: Gardner's narrator, Homer Wilson, is downright hilarious. Both his telling of Peter's story and his asides remind me of Uncle Screwtape in C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Throughout the book, Homer subtly spins every story he recounts and every subject he addresses. His descriptions of certain real-life people are especially funny. For example, Homer describes C. S. Lewis, whose works were broadly Christian, as an "Anglican apologist." He describes J. Gresham Machen, who hated to be called a fundamentalist, as "the last of the scholarly fundamentalists." And those are just two little examples of Homer's spinning. It is strangely exciting to read a story narrated by someone you know you can't trust.

_The Flight of Peter Fromm_ is poignant in that Peter is ultimately ruined by Homer's spinning. Reason does not demand the loss of faith that Peter experiences, but the constant influence of the culture in which he lives, which subjects all things Christian to radical doubt while accepting the bases and consequences of agnosticism unquestioningly, eventually wears him down. Fortunately, Peter's end is hardly the necessary one for those committed to the life of the mind.

Finally, this story is eye-opening in that it reveals what can happen to those who are too brash and self-assured. Peter just knew he would convert the University of Chicago; instead the University toppled him. If Peter had been a little more humble he may have emerged from divinity school with his faith alive and enriched and refined.

I would recommend _The Flight of Peter Fromm_ to both agnostics and Christians. Agnostics, as they enjoy the outcome of Peter's story and conclude that that outcome was inevitable, should take a moment to notice the subtle deceptions of Homer Wilson, and at least consider the possibility that they should test their own thinking more rigorously than they usually do. Christians should take a good hard look at the road that leads, step by tiny step, to unbelief, and ask whether reason demands each step taken down that road. Hopefully all readers will appreciate the meticulous research, wonderful details, and humor that combine to make _The Flight of Peter Fromm_ a truly remarkable work of intellectual and historical fiction.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding - a must read for believers and unbelievers July 26, 2000

By John Rummel

Format:Paperback

Gardner's only fiction as far as I know, and what a beauty! Gardner follows the young Fromm on his journey from religious fundamentalism to skeptical enlightenment. Fromm is a student in a liberal Chicago seminary who discovers for the first time in his life that alternative explanations exist for much of the dogma he's accepted since his youth. This story is phenomenal and should be read by anyone having a religious background, regardless of where you are in your spiritual journey now.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Flight of Peter Fromm September 16, 2009

By not4prophet

Format:Paperback

Most novels are dumbed-down, even the good ones. That may be a unexpected statement, but I think it's true. We traditionally say that the characters in a cliched novel are "two dimensional", while a more fully realized cast of characters is "three-dimensional". Real people, however, are neither two-dimensional nor three-dimensional. They are many-dimensional. Every person is pulled in so many different directions by so many different forces that most authors would despair of capturing the essence of humanity in a novel.

Martin Gardner does not, and we are the beneficiaries of it. "The Flight of Peter Fromm" is a remarkable coming-of-age tale, the story of a young man struggling through the tumultuous intellectual climate of the middle twentieth century. Peter Fromm grows up in rural Idaho and as a teenager gives sermons at outdoor revival meetings. Determined to fight for the Lord, he travels to Chicago University and enrolls in the seminary, with a long-term plan of tearing down modernist thinking and restoring the old religion. Not surprisingly, the task proves tougher than he initially thought. Within a few months, Peter himself starts changing.

What makes this book special, besides the stunning character development, is Gardner's tremendous knowledge of nearly everything and his ability to weave this into the story. He displays an encyclopedic knowledge of philosophy and theology from medieval times up to the twentieth century. Beyond that, however, he sneaks in comments on everything from south-side Chicago restaurants to the navy in WWII. Real people from the faculty at the University of Chicago to famous minds like Karl Barth appear as characters in the story, and it will take an alert reader indeed to fully separate fact from fiction.

Most people who know Martin Gardner knows him as the brain behind the "Mathematical Games" column that formerly appeared in Scientific American. Far fewer people know about his short stories and poetry, and fewer still are familiar with "The Flight of Peter Fromm". I'd never heard a word about it until I found it among my grandfather's book collection. Yet those who miss it are missing out on a true gem of twentieth century literature.