How to Believe by Jon Spayde

     In these days of religious polemics, I find it really refreshing to read about spiritual seekers who forge their own beliefs, unswayed by the rigors of church strictures or dogma.  It's people such as these that Spayde interviews in How to Believe.

     Each short chapter highlights a specific individual or individuals in a likeably readable style.  These are people from everywhere USA and Canada, not the televangelists that make the media's average gossip page.  You will meet Kosuke Koyama, a Japanese theologian who regularly uses Buddhist teachings to emphasize his own Christian faith, Mary Forsythe, an evangelical self-professed "train wreck for Jesus", John Shelby Spong, an Episcopalian priest whose long career began pre-civil rights era and also played its part in that movement, and a host of other congenial souls who come across as far more down to earth and genuine than others that would rather shove their belief systems down people's throats.   

     I don't think you even have to be a Christian to feel the quiet fervor of most of these folks, and want to get to know them all a little better.  The writing style adds much to Spayde's credit; each chapter is almost a meditation in itself.

(William Hicks, Information Services)