cover image A Curious Faith: The Questions God Asks, We Ask, and We Wish Someone Would Ask Us

A Curious Faith: The Questions God Asks, We Ask, and We Wish Someone Would Ask Us

Lore Ferguson Wilbert. Brazos, $18.99 trade paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-58743-569-0

Blogger Wilbert (Handle with Care) offers rambling reflections on how she’s reconciled doubts about Christianity. “Asking questions is a part of the Christian life,” she contends, and to that end she uses personal anecdotes and biblical exegesis to illustrate how she’s wrestled with such queries as “Why was I born?” “How long, Lord?” and “Why have you forsaken me?” She recounts how she struggled to find a partner while watching her friends get married, and asked God, “Where are you?” before she accepted that God will deliver, but not on the timeline or in the way that one expects. The author wonders how to get right with God and wishes there were something she could do to feel like a better Christian, but she concludes that “nothing can make us right with God” because Jesus’s sacrifice has already done so. Though some moments inspire (“Despite all the good in the world happening every day... there’s still something deeper to be done, to be healed, to be made whole”), vague and wordy prose hamper their impact: “A more local life is a life in which we can protect ourselves from the hype if we’ll submit to it.” Meandering and muddled, this comes up short. Agent: John Blase, Bindery Agency. (Aug.)