A Thoughtful Faith for the 21st Century

by Philip Barlow

A Thoughtful Faith for the 21st Century is a collection of personal essays by Latter-day Saint thinkers who give reason for the spiritual hope that is in them. Some are household names in educated circles; others are fresh voices. These are authors from diverse lands and various disciplines. They include historians and scientists, philosophers and psychologists, political scientists and poets.

Religion (“to bind together,” as by a ligament) is about shared beliefs and relationships as much as it is anything else. It is thus natural that churches work to systematize these beliefs and relationships into a disciplined and official whole, lest they become inefficient, incoherent, or self-contradictory. One might call this organizing process “correlation.”

Individual human experience, however, is not readily correlated. Thoughtful people come to their faith commitments variously, reflecting the diverse tenor of human probing and the rich variety of God’s response. The disciples in this volume have given voice to the hope that is in them. Their voices are not homogenous. They are instead a genuine choir, singing with candor of struggle and grace.

Nonetheless, the collection is held together by several strands. Among them is the proposition that a devout life of heart and spirit need not be blind. A second is that a life of the mind need not be spiritually arid. One cannot be too inspired, but neither can one think too well—for embodied intelligence and spirit is what we are. These twin elements are what tethers us to Divinity.

Contributors include Astrid S. Tuminez, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Richard L. Bushman, Thomas McConkie, David F. Holland, Terryl Givens, Fiona Givens, Richard D. Poll, Bonnie Young, Samuel Morris Brown, Ben Schilaty, J. Spencer Fluhman, Eugene England, Kristine Haglund, Emma Lou Thayne, Michelle Louise Toxværd Graabek, Melanie Riwai-Couch, Jenny Pulsipher, Ugo A. Perego, Steven L. Peck, Deidre Nicole Green, Joseph M. Spencer, Francine Bennion, Leonard Arrington, and Philip Barlow.

Genres: Religion

Kindle Edition

Published May 6, 2025

Reviews

[Lowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The original "Thoughtful Faith" volume was published in 1986. I did not know about it, have never heard it discussed or mentioned anywhere, and accidently stumbled across it earlier this year shortly after completing Terryl Given's recent Eugene England biography. I felt as though I found a personal treasure, and loved it.

Lo and behold, to my surprise and delight, an updated volume was released 5 weeks later. Only a portion of the original essays are here included; everything else is new, similar to Fantasia 2000. Fresh and brilliant.

Immeasurably happy with this volume. A handful of contributors... I'm sure I would not enjoy spending time with them personally... but that's besides the point.

How sad to see that it's not advertised / sold / promoted / published by Deseret Book. Shortly after finishing this book, I entered one of Deseret Book's flagship stores, hoping to see this on display and available for the masses.

Nope.

That seems wrong, especially in 2025. Consequently, a significant portion of the audience that would most benefit from these essays will likely never come across it.

I'm genuinely grateful for this collection. Thank you, Philip Barlow.

[Garrett Maxwell]

Best (new) contributions for me were from Joseph Spencer, Thomas McConkie, Phil Barlow, and Stephen Peck.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of thought-provoking essays on faith by some of my favorite LDS writers, such as Terryl and Fiona Givens, Richard Bushman, Eugene England, Laurel Ulrich, and Samuel Brown. While each essay was a worthwhile read, my personal favorites were “A Church That is Real” (Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye), “Through a Glass Darkly” (Ben Schilaty), and “On Finding Truth and God: From Hope to Knowledge to Faith” (Eugene England). I’m grateful for these faithful intellectuals who are able to touch my mind and heart through their thoughtful words.

Some Favorite Quotes

Lusterware – Laurel Ulrich
-“The Church is a good place to practice the Christian virtues of forgiveness, mercy, and love unfeigned.” p. 4

A Church That is Real – Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye
-“I am thankful that Jesus included ‘mind’ and ‘strength’ as ways to love God.” p. 18
-“For me, being a Latter-day Saint and participating in the mission of the Chruch is an opportunity to be more: to develop greater capacity to love; to know and serve; to enlist help. It is an opportunity to do something difficult but worthwhile.” p. 19

Life Abundant – Thomas McConkie
-“I believe that if we remain open and humble, we come to learn that there are realities far beyond what the rational mind can comprehend. We learn that there are different ways to know what we know. Sometimes unknowing is the only way we can know. An anonymous fourteenth-century Christian mystic invited us into the ‘cloud of unknowing,’ where no belief can stand between us and full communion with God. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the very beliefs that helped scaffold our life of faith now stand between us and a deeper intimacy with the Divine. Jehovah speak thunderously to Isaiah: ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways…” Paraphrased for a new generation of spiritual seekers: Don’t be so sure you know what you think you know.” p. 81

Through a Glass Darkly – Ben Schilaty
-His bishop asked him when they first met and Ben told him he was gay: “What do I need to know and understand so I can serve you better?”; “The foremost though in his mind was how to minister to me.”
-“Compassion means ‘to suffer with.’ Christ has suffered with us and because of His experiences with us He sees us completely clearly. Perhaps for me to see others like He does I will need to spend more time suffering with them and join with them in their experiences.” p. 132
-“I don’t know why I, representing the minority, need to offer grace and kindness to the uncomfortable majority. It doesn’t feel fair that I have to constantly be the bigger person who extends grace and patience to those who hate and attack me. It feels out of balance. But when I extend grace, hearts change—including mine.” p. 136

I’m a Pilgrim, I’m a Stranger – Michell Graabek-Wallace
-story of Anne Katrina and Marie Jensen’s prophetic dreams of marriage p. 158
-“I choose to allow strange shores to be exactly the place in which I find God…When God breathes by my side, it means that he and I are traveling along this shore together. I rust that God is always within my reach, wherever I may find myself.” p. 159

A Sacred Yes: Hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ – Astrid S. Tuminez
-“I can continue to discover light and truth though conversation, observation, experience, prayer, study, meditation, broad and deep reading, and compassionate living in my community among the Saints and in the larger world.” p. 205

On Finding Truth and God: Grom Hope to Knowledge to Skepticism to Faith – Eugene England
-“I believe that the struggle to find truth is only really successful when united with the struggle to find God.” p. 240

Living Proof – Joseph M. Spencer
-“Study does not alone produce wisdom – and even knowledge, as Hugh Nibley used to say, is not bought as cheaply as we tend to think.” p. 300

Why I Am a Believer – Leonard Arrington
-“My experience suggests that Francis Bacon was correct when he contended that ‘a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.” p. 352
-story of Brigham Young waiting to join the church until he saw the fruits of those living it p. 355

[Matthew Kern · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful update bringing in more voices from the current generation. I loved this one just as much as the first. It's one of those books that speaks to you a bit differently because the depth and content hit you differently because you have changed.

It is indeed full of thoughtful members of the LDS faith that have walked by faith and remain faithful to the Church in this life. These are people that have and are wrestling with their life, their religion, and all the relationships involved.

Some of my favorite quotes
* I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather I fear to lose truth by the pretension to possess it already wholly.
–William James
* My personal faith is in the felt actuality, the literal truth behind those words. And my fidelity to the church resides in my trust that the institution has most fully revealed him, provided me the practical resources to learn to emulate him, and stewards the holy powers that empower me to be eternally “at one” with him—and with those I love. If those three propositions are true, then the negative dimensions of the institution, as of any institution filled by human servants, are in the end beside the point. That does not entirely ameliorate the frustrations, the pain, and the personal costs those temporal realities bring in their turbulent wake.
* In short, I am—quite happily—an eccentric member of a peculiar people on a strange planet.
* Thoughtfulness is an attentiveness to things that mutes the urgency of answering and solving because it is satisfied to sit with questions and problems themselves.
* A thoughtful faith is unafraid to postpone the practical work of solving problems so as first to probe the problems themselves. The kind of patience required to be thoughtful in this way takes moral courage.
* Every time I hear confident and comforting explanations of “the way things are,” I am apt to think, “This doesn’t go far toward explaining crocodiles, flesh-eating bacteria, babies born with two heads, or a tsunami that may obliterate thousands of people at a time.” Nor does it account for the conflicting inspirations that various people sometimes profess. My impression is that, informed and animated by a thoughtful faith in a wider horizon, the veil should funnel the bulk of our attention to the here and now—on the time, people, problems, and opportunities of this day, at this moment, in this world. Despite the grace offering glimpses of eternal purposes, my life unfolds in tremendous, all-but-complete ignorance of our mysterious universe. The merest dabble into quantum physics, black holes, dark matter and energy, inter-stellar wormholes, or the Higgs-Boson particle reminds me of that fact. There is no proving God to others. Ultimate reality is not something I know; it is something in which I put my trust.
* The freedom independently to discern and choose between good and evil (morality) and good and bad (quality) is at the core of our purpose.
* perhaps the best question is not “What would Jesus do?” (a rather sentimental and unscriptural presumption), but rather, as Dostoyevsky transposed the query, “What will I do, with only His image before me?”
* may be that “Christ the Word,” as the Gospel of John casts him and as the Greek “logos” connotes, is indeed the “word;” that is, the “reason,” the “mind,” the “logic” and “expression” of God. But it may also be that Christ is, at last, God’s interrogative syntax, embodied: “Whom do men say that I am?” “Whom do you say?” And implicitly: “So what?”
* But for me, the ultimate author of the Question that life poses is the Author of creation. Our inescapable reply, the way that we reply, the quality and content of our reply, is that which creates the meaning of our lives—and forges the caliber of our souls. We become the answer to life’s query. Life, then, is a question, posed by God, through a veil. How shall we respond?

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately I am glad I read this book, which is an edited volume collecting essays from various "faithful" Mormon scholars from various fields. Some of the essays are reprints from a 1980s volume; others are new.

Some of the essays are really stellar, like those by Laurel Ulrich and Leonard Arrington (both are reprints). A couple are pretty weak, basically amounting to calling exmormons stupid (Samuel Morris Brown's essay, for example). Most are reasonably interesting but not terribly profound.

But let me get to the main point. Despite this book's claim to reflect faithful views, you will find very few essayists articulating or defending actual LDS doctrine or teachings that have actually been taught by actual LDS leaders during the last 100 years or so. You will find very few quotes by current or recent general authorities. You will find only a handful of authors even defending the main unique doctrines of Mormonism.

What you will find instead is an overarching embrace of a form of have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too cafeteria Mormonism, in which authors have cherry picked a handful of narrow phrases from Mormon scripture or (typically 150+year old) teachings by leaders and treated those snippets as representative of LDS theology. In other essays you will find open embrace of the most generic religious views you can imagine--sometimes generically Christian and sometimes more general--without any mention of LDS specifics. In many essays you'll find authors making doctrinal or historical claims that directly contradict over-the-pulpit claims of LDS leaders at the highest level. And in some essays you will find thoughtful embrace of LDS culture without much doctrine at all.

The point I am getting at is that many of these authors have far more in common with the typical exmormon than they do with the typical orthodox LDS believer. The main difference is that these authors have sufficient fondness for LDS culture or generic spirituality that they still call themselves "faithful."

This is fine with me! People should be free to craft their own religious identity however they want. But as a non-believer, I would love for some of these folks to admit that their views of the actual Church itself are basically the same as mine.

[Kurt Manwaring · Rating 4 out of 5]

A raw and courageous book. Each essay gives a unique first-person account of the terror that comes with hard questions and hard realizations—and reveals why each person nonetheless chooses faith.

They grapple (and empathize) with Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Kafka. They face disillusionment at church, live with existential despair, and yearn to make sense of it all. None succeed, but all seek to understand. Each “thoughtfully” chooses faith for their own hard-won reasons. There’s no effort to proselytize, and sympathy with agnosticism ironically draws the reader closer to the heavens in their search for God and meaning.

A masterpiece that tortures and soothes at the same time.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought-provoking collection of essays about cultivating a thoughtful faith in the LDS context.

[Tanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paperback. Thoughtful indeed!