Customer Reviews

Walking Away from Faith: Unraveling the Mystery of Belief & Unbelief

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is disturbing, because it doesn't take the typical "doubt can be good for you, and if you truly believe you'll come back to the faith" route often taken by works on this subject. By the time you finish, you are humbled, as you realize that despite how strong you feel now, you don't know what the future will bring, or what it could do to you. Tucker takes us through three levels of the subject. The first third of the book compares stories of faith and doubt, focusing on the mystery of faith and the anxiety of facing God's silence and hiddeness. The second third surveys the standard problems people encounter in their trials of belief and how they damage faith. I can see some being disappointed with this section, as it does not challenge the issues to the extent they could be, but then Tucker is clear that she's not writing an apologetic work. The final third attempts to clarify common myths Christians have about the quality of life experienced by those who walk away, and attempts to understand the motives of those who've taken that route. It also gives some examples of those who have returned to the faith, and includes a chapter entitled "Answering Doubt and Unbelief," which is actually about the care needed in dealing with those experiencing doubt, rather than answers to what raises those doubts. Due to Tucker's personal encounters with her own doubt and unbelief, she is very sensitive to the mental state and emotions of those going through hard times. Unfortunately, it is this same sesitiveness that will likely leave some readers feeling the work ends on an uncertain tone, caught between the vagueness of faith and doubt, but I think that, for pastoral reasons, that is exactly what she wants the reader to appreciate.

Ruth A. Tucker's WALKING AWAY FROM FAITH doesn't pull any punches. Whether we in the church like to admit it or not people do fall away from their faith, and not necessarily due to ignorant reasons. WALKING AWAY FROM FAITH presents their side of the story. It is a personal and sometimes painful read, full of emotion and transparent revelations. Drawing strongly on individual stories, this is a case study on the why's and the how's of the loss of faith. It is not an apologetic work, so when the "why's" are explored a lengthy rebuttal is not given. Rather, WALKING AWAY FROM FAITH focuses on the human side of the equation. It challenges a lot of pre-conceived notions regarding doubt and even presents a surprising picture of life on the other side of the decision to walk away - something that might not want to be heard but in an honest work such as this it is welcome and enlightening. Overall, Tucker does a fine job of exploring the issue from all sides.

The reason this book is so important is that is shines a bright light on an aspect of the Christian life that is too often ignored. Doubt. The reality is that most Christians at one time or another experience doubt of some sort. Usually it will not lead to a loss of faith but even in those instances it can be a very lonely experience. WALKING AWAY FROM FAITH challenges us to be a church that is more honest about these feelings. Tucker repeatedly wonders aloud if the people she interviewed would have chosen differently if the church would've better responded to their doubts and fears. This book will not solve the problems related to loss of faith, but it does graphically demonstrate the need for the church to re-examine its methods when it comes to handling these situations. It should also be a wake up call to Christians on an individual basis, to be more sensitive to instances of doubt in the lives of each other and, more importantly, to be Jesus to the person experiencing those doubts - not to condemn, shun, or spout pat answers. More than likely, at some point in life, we're going to be on the opposite end of that situation. Hopefully when that happens someone will be there for us to walk us through those shadows, and to help us pray, "Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief." FOUR 1/2 STARS.

I came across this book at just the right time in my life. For years, I have anguished over my faith (or lack thereof), which put incredible stress on my relationship with my family. They could not conceive how it was possible for me to doubt my faith since I grew up in a committed, Bible-believing family. The relationship grew so hostile and strained that I thought we were finished. Ruth Tucker's book helped bridge the gap. It expressed my struggles with faith in just the right tone and manner. After not speaking to my family for several months, I sent my mother a copy of the book. I think the title scared her at first, but she eventually she picked it up. Ruth Tucker explains the struggle of faith in a way that I couldn't.

I highly recommend this book to Christian families trying to understand the sincere struggles of their black sheep family members.

I bought this book because I am a former minister who is struggling mightily with issues of faith and doubt. I found it to be refreshing and--in some ways--astounding. Too often, anyone who harbors intellectual doubts or leaves the faith is said to be putting up a "smoke screen" to cover some kind of moral failure or rebelliousness. Tucker, however, is exceedingly sympathetic to the doubter and refuses such easy dismissals. Her idea of "doubting your doubts" as well as your faith was thought-provoking. However, I would add that I was dismayed by her repeated assertions that she could never leave the faith herself. How could anyone write this book and make such a claim? If there is no possible evidence that would cause one to change their mind, then an honest search seems to be hamstrung at the get-go.

Ruth Tucker was teaching an adult Sunday School class on this topic of doubt shortly after writing this book. She was well received, but after the class one older man came to her and asked, "I really appreciated all that you taught. But one thing you never addressed: how did you finally overcome all your doubts?" Tuckers was floored. He missed her whole point: she has never completely overcome all her doubts. Nor will she ever this side of glory. She teaches theology at a solidly orthodox seminary. She is involved ijn proclaiming and defending the faith. But she is not free of all doubt.

Calvin said that just as sin is always mixed in with holines sin the Christain life, so is doubt always mixed in with faith. We are not fully rid of it until we are glorified.

Liberal churches tend to wrongly make a virtue of doubting -- you are not being honest and sophisticated unless you remain skeptically detached to every belief. But conservative churches (like Tucker's audience) can be guilty of teh other extreme: 'since doubting is bad, then doubters are not welcome here.' So when you have doubts (as all believers do) you can not voice them and seek others to help you answer them. We need to be honest about our doubts to the appropriate people (peers and those with headship over us). We know that doubts are generally more to do with heart problems than head problems.

Tucker does not say doubt is good. But she does show it is inevitable and we shouldn't panic and think we are losing faith when it bubbles up (any more than we should when we fall into sin).

Very nice packaging by the publisher also.

The antidote to doubt is faith in Christ, through his Word, administered in community (Church). Christ tunrs our skepticism back onto our skepticism -- doubt your doubts! Tucker's book is good medicine.

I read this book shortly after I walked away from the Christian faith. I appreciate Ruth Tucker's sensitivity towards those who have major doubts about their faith and have subsequently abandoned it. She also confesses to her readers that she also has had serious doubts. Other authors who have written on this subject have missed the point and have erroneously offered solutions for those experiencing doubt. Most experiencing doubt are not looking for solutions but understanding and sympathy.

Tucker outlines many of the reasons that people have for leaving the faith. These reasons tend to break down into objective (science, philosophy, biblical criticism) and subjective (psychology, social, emotional). For most there is no one reason for doubt and typically there is a combination of both of the objective and subjective.

I do think the author should pursue the reasons for her doubts and think through them in more detail.

This book grew on me, likely at the first from one or two stars to four. The reason: as one gets to know the author and her intent with the writing, one senses a person truly one would enjoy sitting and conversing with. And this is exactly what Tucker has done with those who have walked away from the faith. More with stories and not with Scripture, but meaningful and useful nonetheless.

She is honest and skilled in holding the reader's attention. Whether one agrees with all of her assesment or not, there is easily much to be gained from reading this familiarization with those who struggle to believe. That is salient point of this work: they truly do struggle to believe. Sometimes with differing results, but struggle they do. Tucker also provides helps on what the church can do to assist.

I commend the author, Ruth Tucker, for being brave enough to address this subject, something I have long been intrigued by. Doubting and abandoning faith, as she admits, is a very foul subject in evangelical circles (particularly groups that believe a Christian will not and cannot walk away). If it is brought up, it is usually dealt with only from the stand point of systematic theology. But there is also a human part of faith that gets often ignored in the discussion. She explore this aspect faith, including the emotional, psychological, and social factors that contribute to building up (or tearing down) the faith of individuals. This exploration is not exhaustive but is still worthwhile.

This book also reminds us of another aspect about walking away that is sometimes denied; that some of those who do fall away were once committed followers of Jesus Christ. It's commonly believed that those who do leave the faith were nothing more than church-goers prior to walking out. While that does happen a lot (Dr. Tucker affirms this too), it is not the whole story. The stories of Chuck Templeton, who preached alongside Billy Graham, and Dan Barker, a Pentecostal evangelist, are sobering examples of committed Christians who fell. I guess you could say men like this are the modern equivalents of Demas, who ministered with Paul the Apostle but eventually abandoned Paul because he fell in love with the present world (see 2 Tim 4:10).

I came away from this with a new understanding of faith. Faith is, in many ways, a complex entity, so much so that, as Dr. Tucker says, there really is no good answer for why Christians do lose faith in God. I find a helpful parallel is found in another mysterious problem: the suffering of `good' people. Job was faced with this question. He thought had the answer and so did his friends. God enters the discussion and confounds them all but never reveals the solution to the suffering issue. Perhaps the falling away question should be treated the same. We will never know this side of eternity why it happens. Let the mystery rest with God.


Darkhorse86

And I would have if I had halted my reading at page 98 before Tucker starts her chapter on science and philosophy.

But before I get into criticisms of the book, let me offer a summary of this book's contents and strengths. The author has put together a very worthwhile book on the issues surrounding religious belief. Instead of the usual polemic offered in the service of theism or atheism or the carefully crafted (or not) apologetic text in service of Christian certainty or a godless universe, Tucker delves into the nether land of doubt where belief and unbelief come in gradations of each other.

As someone who reads widely on this issue, it was refreshing to see the topic treated fairly and honestly. The author does a fantastic job in part one of the book that deals with many case studies of believers. Tucker personalizes many faces of belief and unbelief and dives into the issues that each individual struggled with. Her account of the spiritual life of Hannah Whitall Smith as well as others piqued my interest so much that I ordered two of her source materials: The Secret Life of Hannah Whitall and Pilgrim Souls: A Collection of Spiritual Autobiography. As I mentioned previously: had this comprised the full range of the book, I would rate it easily at five stars. However, when Tucker moves to science, she stumbles.

It really does seem to me that there is something unconscious going on when probably the majority portion of evangelical authors (even excluding fundamentalists, which Tucker certainly is not) misunderstand science as an intellectual endeavor as well as a culture. Upon the subject of science and biology as it relates to religious belief and unbelief, she makes the following statements that border on egregiously erroneous:

"Scientism is the unquestioned philosophical position held by vast numbers of scientists today" (p. 111).

"But in recent years the field has gained more credibility and attention because good science is being done that supports intelligent design" (p. 113).

"Today it is easier to doubt evolution than it was in Emily Dickinson's day..." (p. 115).

The first statement makes one wonder if Tucker reads science books written by scientists rather than second hand accounts by Evangelical apologists. Scientism is continually derided by actual scientists. There is a huge difference between methodological naturalism and scientism which she seems to confuse.

The second statement makes one wonder: where? Exactly what science has been done under the I.D. paradigm? I've never seen it. I.D. is a philosophical proposition (and shaky one at that); it exists as a science only in the minds of its propagandists.

The third statement is just ignorant. I apologize to Tucker for such a harsh judgment because she really did endear herself to me as an author over the course of the book, but it is true. Genetics didn't exist as a science in Dickinson's day. We've discovered hundreds of transitional species since that time. As our knowledge of biogeography has become greater, evolution as a theory has only been supported. For anyone who knows anything about biology and the intersecting fields, the exact opposite is true. It has never been harder to doubt its veracity. Thus, Tucker's statement is indeed ridiculous.

I'll end this review without touching on many, many things in the book (both positive and negative) due to length (I haven't even mentioned things from the final third part of the text).

Do not let my critiquing dissuade any potential reader who wants to read about the personal and intellectual issues faced by individuals concerning belief and doubt (just don't read it if you want an accurate portrayal of certain scientific subjects).

In her area of expertise, Tucker is wonderful and offers a very unique perspective on this subject. Even the parts that were bad such as mentioned above are illuminating if for nothing else than showing the reader how science and in particular biology is viewed and misunderstood in the eyes of many Christians.

3 ½ stars.

I am not a believer myself. I read this because I often discuss with Christians their reasons for believing and I became curious about why some believers abandon their faith commitment. The author does an admirable job of discussing the issue and gives specific real life examples and vignettes. She is very fair to unbelievers and acknowledges the strength of their arguments.

However, the book struggles to be descriptive in keeping with its stated goal, but occassionally slips into apologetics which she claims is not her purpose. Given that, I am not sure who the target audience is. She does not offer much hope to a believer who is struggling with their faith. Ultimately, she seems to say that since life is ultimately a big mystery and since we have to believe in something, it may as well be the god of Christianity. In the end, she thinks postmodernism has weakened the authority of science and 'Intelligent Design' has weakened the credibility of evolution. This, she implies, has opened up breathing room for modern Christians who can now feel a modicum of intellectual respectability as believers.

However, I find this a weak point in her otherwise fine book. The author is not very well read in science or philosophy and relies heavily on secondary sources even secondary sources authored by conservative Christians. The book, however, was written before the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District and the thorough discrediting of I.D.. But she should have been familiar with the avalanche of scholarly work refuting I.D..

She never discusses postmodernism and why it supposedly undermines the authority of science. She just claims that it does. As an unbeliever, I would have liked to have read a discussion about why science is not the only way to acquire knowledge. A claim she calls 'scientism'. What other ways are there? How do these other ways establish what they claim to know? Certainty and doubt are psychological states and not truth conditions, so what are these other ways of knowing? Believing something does not make it true. Feeling certain about something doesn't make it true. At least that's what I disappointedly discovered about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy growing up.

There was one reason for unbelief she did not discuss. This is the claim that belief itself is unethical. It is not only my opinion but many others that believing something without sufficient warrant is unethical. If the act of faith itself is a virtue and not behavior, this allows the justification of just about any behavior in the name of faith. In the democracy of faith, all behaviors jusified in the name of faith become equivalent. The most beneficial acts of charity and the most heinous crimes become morally equivalent. Critical rationalism has shown a way out of the dilemma of thinking that everything is ideology that we all have to believe something.

The book is about why some Christians 'walk away' from their faith. She claims she wasn't writing a work or polemics or apologetics, but as a believer, she couldn't leave it at that, but had to interject some apologetics into the mix which is where is fell flat for me. Even though she says she trusts the claims of deconverts and unbelievers that they are living happy, fulfilling lives, she slips in remarks undermining her claim.

On a more human level, I must say that I felt sorrow for the people who lost their faith. As Giacomo Leopardi once wrote, a child's first loss of innocence occurs when he realizes that all living things die. This perhaps is their second.