Words of hope: Seeking a path of faith in a divided world
Stephen D. Reese (Smyth & Helwys, 2024)
In this, my second book of what I call “faith self-ethnography,” I try to articulate an intellectually honest but heartfelt understanding of the deeper questions that everyone has thought about at some level—those rooted in the experiences of everyday life. Taking a larger perspective I consider how, even though deeply personal, the life of faith cannot be separated from where it’s practiced in community and society, now so deeply polarized and damaged by the forces of extremism. I then share, as in the previous volume, a number of more deeply personal reflections on specific life challenges, guided by my own search for the “path of faith.”
Hope for the thinking Christian: Seeking a path of faith through everyday life
Stephen D. Reese (Smyth & Helwys, 2010)
In this book I reflect on my own spiritual life and wrap it within a broader conversation about the role of religion and faith in modern society. In that respect, it is a form of journalism, as I take these highly personal reflections, developed over the course of several years, and express them publicly in a way I hope others will find accessible. Although distinguished from my other writing, I consider this project an extension of my scholarly imagination. For reasons I describe in the book, it's the most difficult kind of writing I've ever done but, in some ways perhaps, the most important and rewarding.
Stephen Reese, “Power made perfect in weakness,” in The Truth That Makes Them Free: Spiritual Journeys of Texas Faculty Members. Donald G. Davis, Jr., Editor. Austin: Hill House, 2011.
Not long after the publication of Hope for the thinking Christian I was approached by a retired colleague at UT-Austin, who wanted to publish a book modeled after Finding God at Harvard. He found 12 faculty at UT willing to reflect on their spiritual journeys in what became The truth that makes them free, and this was my contribution. It contains thoughts I’ve expressed elsewhere, but I include it here as the way I described them at the time.