With or Without God: Why the Way We Live Is More Important Than What We Believe

Writing as if she has been in exile for the past 20 years, United Church of Canada pastor Vosper gazes wide-eyed at the splendors of progressive Christianity as she offers her own idealistic manifesto on the future of the faith. She blunders her way through the history of contemporary Christianity with such gaffes as “For Christians with evangelical roots, the uprising of liberal biblical scholarship that took place in the 1950s and 1960s... needed to be utterly denied,” seemingly unaware this scholarly approach has been with us since the 19th century. She then marches superficially through every area of the Christian tradition—scripture, belief in the afterlife, assent to creedal statements—in her quest to liberate Christianity from its past and present and to humanize the religion. In the end, she proclaims: “we believe there are no supernatural beings, forces, or energies necessary for or even mindful of our survival,” and closes with a Woodstock-like benediction: “May we each believe in and hallow the inherent beauty of the other, the earth, and ourselves, and... may the love we learn to share enrich us all.” Previously published in Canada. (Apr.)