Hope after Faith: An Ex-Pastor’s Journey from Belief to Atheism

This story of a man fumbling with introspection and what amounts to mental masturbation prolonged over a quarter of a century is one of the most frustrating reads I have ever endured. The gloss Ethan Brown has lent to what has to be a far less polished voice is equally frustrating.

Beginning in the little churches of rural Louisiana, DeWitt was aimed at the revival meetings, the glossalalia (speaking in tongues), the “interpretations,” the self-induced epileptic fits, and overall indulgence in mob frenzy. He learned in short order that the preachers conducting such sessions were businessmen, universally reluctant to offer any support to upcoming competition. The recounting of sheer hunger, poverty, and desperation involved in trying to make a living from religion for himself and his wife is done well enough to be excruciating (no pun intended).

What is even more painful is trying to follow this fellow through bouts of tears and self-doubt as he flailed about in a brier patch of theologies and cults of personality. Moved as much by human compassion as by his insistence on being “called,” eventually he emerged, apparently, to rational atheism, but the book does not finalize, becoming vague and distant just when a properly done tale would crystallize. Check it out of the library.