Faith

Traveling Mercies

Anne Lamott · 1999

Lamott’s funny, raw, luminous account of finding faith through addiction, grief and ordinary human mess is beloved for good reason. She never pretends belief is tidy or doubt-free, which is exactly what makes her so trustworthy. A warm, honest companion for anyone stumbling towards, or clinging to, faith in a complicated life.

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Harold S. Kushner · 1981

Written by a rabbi after the loss of his son, this wise, compassionate book faces the hardest question faith must answer: why the innocent suffer. Kushner offers no glib comfort, only honest, humane reflection that has steadied countless readers of every background. Essential reading for anyone whose faith has been tested by grief or injustice.

The Varieties of Religious Experience

William James · 1902

The great psychologist’s classic study takes faith seriously as human experience, examining belief, conversion and the mystical across many traditions with rare open-mindedness. More than a century on, it remains astonishingly rich and fair. A profound read for anyone who wants to think deeply, and broadly, about what faith actually is.

A History of God

Karen Armstrong · 1993

Armstrong traces four thousand years of how humans have imagined the divine, across Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Learned, generous and wonderfully readable, it widens the whole conversation about faith beyond any single creed. For anyone whose belief or doubt would benefit from the long, human view, it is illuminating and freeing.

Tattoos on the Heart

Gregory Boyle · 2010

A Jesuit priest’s luminous account of decades working with gang members in Los Angeles, and what they taught him about faith, mercy and the boundlessness of compassion. Funny, heartbreaking and full of grace, it shows faith not as doctrine but as love in action. A deeply moving book that restores your faith in faith itself.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

John Irving · 1989

Irving’s unforgettable novel follows a boy who believes himself an instrument of God, and the friend whose doubt his conviction slowly transforms. Funny, strange and ultimately profound, it is one of the great modern novels about belief, doubt and destiny. A rich, absorbing read for anyone drawn to faith wrestled with in story.

“I am doomed to remember a boy… the reason I believe in God.”

The Power and the Glory

Graham Greene · 1940

Greene’s great novel follows a flawed, frightened ‘whisky priest’ on the run in a land that has outlawed faith, and finds unexpected grace in his very weakness. It is a profound meditation on belief that survives doubt, fear and failure. Unforgettable for anyone whose faith is real precisely because it is hard-won.

Cry, the Beloved Country

Alan Paton · 1948

Paton’s luminous novel of a country parson searching for his son in a broken South Africa is a hymn to faith, forgiveness and endurance amid injustice. Its sorrow is matched by an unshakeable, hard-earned hope. A beautiful, humane book about holding on to belief when the world gives every reason to despair.