Reason, doubt and grace in Why I Am Not an Atheist

Part memoir and part intellectual history, Christopher Beha explores how honest scepticism can ultimately make belief possible again

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Why I Am Not an Atheist: The Confessions of a Skeptical Believer Christopher Beha (Penguin Press)

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‘When I was fifteen years old, an angel of God came to me at night, pinned me to my bed, and demanded that I put my trust in the Lord.’ The first sentence of Why I Am Not an Atheist by Christopher Beha, former editor of the august Harper’s magazine, is stunning. Beha claims that these nocturnal ‘visitations continued for years, varying in power and vividness, though each was terrifying and unmistakably real’.

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