Reviewing “Unapologetic” by Francis Spufford.
I read this book during a painful phase of deconstruction in which I was seriously considering throwing baby Jesus out with the bathwater. From the very first chapter, my spirit agreed wholeheartedly with Francis: I can’t embrace atheism because believing that God does not exist requires as much faith as believing that God does exist. And it is “absolutely human-normal” to tell stories about God’s existence. To imagine God and to sense God’s love: “There was mercy, and I felt it.”
This book is called Unapologetic, but it is, in fact, an excellent apologetic or argument for Christianity, the Christian God and religion. I think Francis is saying that he’s unapologetic about his apologetics and I love that. He is British and his culture has become quite atheistic in recent years. He shows the utmost respect for atheism as a belief system and is simply arguing that Christianity is just as legitimate. He bases his argument on emotion, conviction and imagination, which is profound because, when you think about it, beliefs generally are based on feelings, regardless of how rational they might be.
When I read the chapter about Jesus, I felt convicted. His understanding of who Jesus was and the claim that Jesus is God, that Jesus rose from the dead, that Jesus saves us from the guilt of our sin and reveals an impossible way to live (in light of the “human propensity to fuck things up”), while also providing endless grace for our mistakes, is a beautiful picture indeed. And I have heard the story of Jesus all my life, but something about his encounter with the divine, his interpretation of the gospel message, met me exactly where I was at, because I have been struggling to reconcile my understanding of grace with my judgment of “evil” systems in our world.
His articulation of the “problem of pain” and the various theological arguments that try, but fail, to address it, ultimately leading to a God that stoops to join us in our pain by becoming human and experiencing a vast array of suffering, reaching out to heal and especially to forgive, was also a timely reminder for me.
Francis taps into the emotions underlying belief in a God of love and grace, discarding the old doctrine of hell, and yet describing sin in ways we can all relate to, thereby propelling the argument that we believe in God because we need forgiveness and reform (not because we need eternal, afterlife punishment).
I loved this book. I read it at exactly the right time. I still have questions about my own religion, but I know that I am not done with God and God is not done with me yet. I really appreciated this unapologetic apologetic!