Not God's Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith [Paperback]

Holly Ordway (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 21, 2010

What happens when an atheist college professor at spiritual ground zero asks herself: "What if God is real?" In this memoir of her conversion, Holly Ordway turns her analytical mind toward the path that leads from darkness to light-from death to life. Simultaneously encouraging and bracing, she offers a bold testimony to the ongoing power of the Gospel-a Gospel that can humble and transform even self-assured, accomplished, and secular-minded young professionals like herself.

Editorial Reviews

Review

 "Some topics in Apologetics are not often given the serious treatment they deserve. Ordway is a careful thinker who has, to her credit, found a pastorally sensitive but interesting approach to a pivotal topic. Though this kind of personal topic is often underserved, Ordway has dealt with it in a rigorous way."

Dr. John Mark Reynolds, Director of the Torrey Honors Institute and Professor of Philosophy, Biola University. Author of When Athens Met Jerusalem: An Introduction to Classical and Christian Thought.

"The writing is lucid and engaging, as is the narrative itself - it is a great affirmation to believers to witness in the pages of the book the timeless truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the continuing work of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the saints.

- Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, Chair, Department of English and Modern Languages, Liberty University

 

Review

"Some topics in Apologetics are not often given the serious treatment they deserve. Ordway is a careful thinker who has, to her credit, found a pastorally sensitive but interesting approach to a pivotal topic. Though this kind of personal topic is often underserved, Ordway has dealt with it in a rigorous way."

Dr. John Mark Reynolds, Director of the Torrey Honors Institute and Professor of Philosophy, Biola University. Author of When Athens Met Jerusalem: An Introduction to Classical and Christian Thought.


"An honest fencing with faith effecting an applicable defense of Christianity...a radical journey from atheism to orthodoxy."

Rev. Fr. Neal Moquin, S.S.C., Adjunct Professor of Anglican History, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Moody Publishers; New Edition edition (April 21, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802431941
• ISBN-13: 978-0802431943
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #738,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Holly Ordway is a poet, academic, and Christian apologist on the faculty of Houston Baptist University, where she is chair of the Department of Apologetics and director of the Master of Arts in Apologetics. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an MA in English from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MA in apologetics from Biola University. She writes and speaks on imaginative and literary apologetics, with special attention to the work of C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. Her favorite authors are C.S. Lewis and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and she considers a really good cup of coffee to be one of life's great pleasures.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Look at an Atheist's Journey to Faith August 5, 2010

By Trevin Wax

Format:Paperback

I often hear people discount the power of apologetic reasoning by saying, "No amount of debate will bring people into the kingdom of God." That statement is true, of course. You can't argue a person into the kingdom. Apologetic reasoning is never quite apologetic proof.

But I worry that some Christians use that statement as an excuse for not engaging in the apologetic task - which, at its best, provides space for intellectuals to consider the claims of Christ.

Holly Ordway's journey from atheism to Christianity is fascinating on a number of levels. First, the book demonstrates the kind of robust intellectual reasoning we need more of.

Second, the importance of apologetics training becomes clear as we witness the Christians who shared Christ with her and were well equipped to present a robust defense of Christianity's truth or at least point her in the right direction.

Third, Holly's story makes a case for Christianity in a way that is both personal (it is her story after all) and intellectually robust (she takes us through the apologetic arguments). Those who love apologetics and personal evangelism will love this book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable Faith... September 2, 2010

By K. L. Haschke

Format:Paperback

I thoroughly enjoyed Not God's Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith. This new title traces the journey of Dr. Holly Ordway, a professor of English literature, from devout atheism to orthodox Christianity.

She begins by recounting her background and how her initial indifference to Christianity turned to hostility during college. Her opinion was that "faith was at best a delusion and at worst total hypocrisy." (p. 17) Years later, her background in English literature and love of poetry, whose greatest works spring from Christian roots, began to affect her, preparing her to investigate matters of faith more deeply.

Eventually she became good friends with her fencing coach and his wife, who also happened to be Christians. Josh and Heidi intrigued Dr. Ordway because they didn't fit her mental stereotype of Christians as ignorant and intolerant at all. They proved to be intelligent, well-educated, and thoughtful...people she admired and wanted to spend more time with!

She became more and more curious and was amazed as she probed further to find that it is actually possible to have a faith that is based on reason! As she entered into further dialogue on the subject of their faith, she says that,

"At the time, I just knew that I felt safe. I knew that I was respected, that neither Josh nor Heidi would try to convert me, so I could let my guard down like I'd never dared to before.

They offered no Bible quotes. No sharing of how God had worked in their lives. No appeal to my happiness or peace of mind. What, then? Philosophy. Ideas. Dialogue." (p. 43)

As she began to investigate the claims of Christianity more deeply, she was determined to know the truth, no matter what. For her, truth came above happiness......she was determined to know the truth whether or not it was what she wanted to hear. And she was dead set on investigating rationally and intellectually, not emotionally.

"If it were true that I could pursue this journey as a rational endeavor, then why not do so with as much intellectual rigor as I could muster?" (p. 77)

I found reading as Dr. Ordway shared her journey, first coming to believe in a "First Cause" for the universe, then an "Ultimate Good" from which all virtues are derived, then an actual Person, and finally to belief in the resurrected Christ, very affirming to my faith. The philosophical arguments that she ultimately found convincing are a great encouragement and reminder that our faith is not just based on emotion but has an actual solid foundation in reason and intellect.

Dr. Ordway eventually made a profession of faith, was baptized, and became a member of the Anglican church. She blogs at Hieropraxis and speaks on faith and reason around the country.

The book is fairly short, quick read but packs a punch, providing much food for thought. I found it enjoyable, encouraging, and intellectually stimulating.

Thank you to Moody Publishers for providing my review copy.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good story, but light on apologetics November 30, 2010

By Brad Haskett

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As others have said, this is an easy read, and an interesting story about how a staunch atheist eventually converted to Christianity. But, don't expect to convert any atheist friends with the arguments in this book. The rational arguments that convinced the author are not presented in any great detail, and the counter-arguments don't seem to be considered at all. The focus of the book is really on the personal adventure of how she moved step by step from atheism to Christianity.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful and Candid--A Must-Read!! July 13, 2010

By Truth, Undiluted

Format:Paperback

Not God's Type is a stunningly beautiful account of an atheist intellectual coming to faith in Christ through a rational approach to the truth-claims of Christianity.

Dr. Ordway tells her conversion story with an utter mastery of language and appropriately-used, moving quotations from great literature. It is a highly-pleasurable, captivating read.

Before beginning the book, I had the expectation that Ordway would do a quick recounting of how she went from atheism to Christian faith followed by many more pages of why she's glad of her decision. This is not at all what she does in Not God's Type. Instead, she spends the majority of her book explaining the depth and strength of her life-long atheism, its roots and its effects on her life. She speaks of her agonizing struggle with the big questions of life, the "seductive despair" she clung to for so long, and then the beautiful, gradual work God did on her heart through an important figure in her life. Her sabre-fencing coach gently and lovingly presented her with the intellectual challenges she needed to take the claims of Christianity seriously, and this spurred her on to a journey that finally culminated in the discovery of a loving, merciful creator and Father.

This book should be taken for exactly what it is: a beautiful, intensely thoughtful and deeply personal coming-to-faith account.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Could An Atheist Intellectual Believe In Jesus...Really? March 8, 2011

By Daniel L. Marler

Format:Paperback

Holly Ordway does a very effective job of explaining what she thought and felt as she gradually and even cautiously moved from her life and worldview as an atheist to her life and worldview as a fully committed follower of Jesus Christ.

Because I was raised in an evangelical Christian home and have spent my whole life deeply involved in what might be called the culture of Christianity, it was interesting and helpful for me to read Holly's description of her thinking and her point of view as an atheist intellectual. Her writing struck me as very authentic.

There was a sort of disdain for religion that she explains in an understandable way. [Some atheists might be surprised to know that occasionally Christians find themselves a bit put off by what is done in the name of religion, too.]

And, yet, there was a despair that she experienced as an atheist that she is able to put into words, eloquently. For example, she writes, "When I look back now on my life before I knew Christ, I see it in shades of gray. At the time, never having experienced anything more, I thought that my emptiness was fullness, that my shadows were light. I desperately needed God's presence in my life, but I would have flatly denied any such need."

As an older teen and into my young adult years, I was secretly concerned that perhaps this Christian faith that I had accepted could not withstand serious intellectual scrutiny. At that time, I was unfamiliar with the impressive intellectual tradition that is a part of the Christian faith. So, I find that even still, many years later [let's not even bother saying how many years, alright?...] I am attracted to the stories of deep thinkers and intellectuals who are drawn to faith in Christ and discover that they do not have to abandon sound, careful reasoning in the process.

It's interesting to me that, in a certain sense, Holly's story is not particularly dramatic and yet I found it to be absorbing and compelling and even entertaining. I guess that's how good writers do it.

I loved this book and will be recommending it to many, even as I'm recommending it to you, right now.

Dan Marler
Oak Lawn, IL Read more ›