One Priest's Wondering Beliefs

This book is aimed at those Christians who have begun to question the conventional understandings of Jesus, and Christianity, and even of what we mean by ""God,"" and have become discomforted by the dissonance between their own thinking and the church's stance. A critical thinker by inclination and education, Jack Bowers explored Celtic Christian spirituality for a decade. That taught him there are other ways to live out the Christian faith than what we have been told by Rome and Protestantism. Upon retirement in 1998, no longer professionally required to reflect conventional theology, his belief structure began to wander, seriously re-examining all he had taught and believed. Having heard whispered rumors in younger years of priests ""losing their faith,"" instead he felt he was not losing his theology but growing it. This volume leads you through the evolution of his beliefs to what he can speak out with confidence right now, understanding that as he continues to grow and experience this world, and hopefully get a little wiser, his beliefs will evolve yet farther. He invites you into this challenging spiritual pilgrimage to discover what you can confidently believe in 2016 AD. ""Jack Bowers is an important voice for those of us who have outgrown our childhood faith in God as an old man in the sky dispensing favors like Santa Claus. He speaks to, and for, Progressive Christians who no longer want or need rules, rubric, confessions, and creeds in order to worship, but have matured to redefine what faith/religion means to us now."" --Diane H. Berger, United Church of Christ ""This book offers a stringent guide to anyone seriously exploring the possibilities of a post-Christian, faithful world. Written in a spirit of acute honesty, it gives the reader a step-by-step intellectual adventure in which reader and author work toward a hard-won, hopeful vision of redemptive human possibility."" --Barry L. Cotter, Episcopal priest, retired ""Bowers' book critically questions, deeply probes, and re-creates. All who are questioning, or have left, Christianity because they cannot accept literal or outdated 'me first' interpretations of its alleged doctrines, need to read and ponder this book. --Ronald E. Santoni, Maria Theresa Barney Chair and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Denison University; Author of Sartre on Violence: Curiously Ambivalent ""Bowers invites us to listen in as he thinks out loud about how his faith has changed and grown over the years. He's been a faithful priest all his adult life, but his faith is not static. Bowers refuses to stop asking questions, to stop growing. If you accept his invitation, you'll be challenged. You may find yourself agreeing--and disagreeing the very next paragraph. Your faith will be the better for the exercise."" --Richard L. Ullman, Episcopal Priest, retired The Rev. John E. (Jack) Bowers, a son of Ohio and graduate of Walnut Hills in Cincinnati, of Kenyon College, and of Bexley Hall Seminary (now Bexley Seabury), served a short stint as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Wilhoite DER-397. After ordination he pastored several small Episcopal congregations in the Diocese of Southern Ohio for over thirty-four years, preaching and teaching very conventional theology before his retirement in 1998.