Revelation: A Search for Faith in a Violent Religious World

by Dennis Covington

Acclaimed journalist Dennis Covington examines how faith and violence shape our world.

In war zones witnessing widespread conflict, what makes life at all worth living? When chaos becomes a way of life in places where religion and violence intersect, what do people hold on to? If religious belief is, as Christopher Hitchens argues, the cause of wars and genocide, then is faith the cure?

Dennis Covington pursued answers to these questions for years, traveling deep into places like Syria, Mexico, and the American South. Looking not for rigid doctrines, creeds, or beliefs -- which, he says, can be contradictory, even dangerous -- he sought something bigger and more faith. It's faith in goodness, kindness, and the humanity of the smallest moments that makes the most difficult times bearable.

The young bomb victim who offers a smile from his hospital bed, the grieving parent who shares a photograph, the joined hands of men who were previously mortal enemies, and Covington's own family turmoil. These are some of the moments that leave him touching the beating heart of what it truly is to live.

Like Covington's widely celebrated Salvation on Sand Mountain, Revelation is an intensely personal journey that goes to the edges of a world filled with violence and religious strife to find the enduring worth of living.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Spirituality, Memoir, Travel, Politics

215 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 16, 2016

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure about this one. I feel an unexplained fondness for Dennis Covington, because of a book called Salvation on Sand Mountain, his personal exploration of snake handling churches in Appalachia. He seems like a kind man, but deeply troubled, and in this new book I learned of his extremely difficult years since the early 1990s - divorce, bankruptcy, loss of faith, a series of spiritually-induced mental breakdowns and hospitalizations - though he only mentions these crises and doesn't explore them deeply here. This new book is ostensibly about a quest to find faith in violent, war-torn settings, but this quest or question seemed undefined and under-explained. Really the entire book was vague and meandering, and I don't think he spent enough time on the page talking about what he was really after. But I still enjoyed reading it. The whole book has a sort of melancholic beauty.

It begins with a jaunt into Ciudad Juarez (I think that's where he went - or some place near that - see: I only read that section two days ago and it's already hazy) with author Charles Bowden (RIP; such an amazing writer). Then a short history of Covington's early life in pre-Civil Rights-era Birmingham, Alabama, with interspersed discussions of his older brother's mental illness and its effect on his family. But the preponderance is Covington's many trips to southern Turkey near the Syrian border in the year or two just before ISIS took control and then during the early ISIS kidnappings and beheadings of 2013-14. There really isn't much here about faith in the face of violence, and it's mostly about hanging out in Antioch with various war correspondents other Europeans, including a dubious "tourist" (German spy) and "the most beautiful woman in the world" (an enigmatic videographer), while they all cluster around the Syrian border and make risky dashes into Aleppo - not to offer humanitarian aid (this is before the siege) but to take photographs and ..... I don't really know what - this all reads like a questionable sort of war tourism to me (Covington doesn't even possess a media pass or journalist credentials for this "research" he's doing. If his publisher was footing this he doesn't disclose it.) Also troubling during these trips was that Covington was undergoing a sort of spiritual/existential crisis which (he claims) left him not caring if he lived or died. But people did die, were dying. And journalists and humanitarians were being kidnapped and held hostage. So while he was cavalier with danger, I'm not sure he really justified his reasons for putting himself there and for putting his translators and drivers at risk.

In the end Covington becomes interested in the Kayla Mueller case - her name hadn't been made public yet but he finds a way of tracking down her parents back in Arizona and pays them a strange unannounced visit to ask them "how their faith is holding up." This was probably inappropriate. How it's presented makes it hard to truly determine what occurred.

It's not an unsettling book despite all that darkness, but it's sort of bewildering and felt unfinished. I think his focus could have been tighter. Or something ......

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard Dennis Covington speak at the Festival of Faith and Writing in 2016. He is the author of Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia. The book was a finalist in the National Book Award of 1995. Someday, I hope to read that book. He's a bit of a character - my view - his looks, his voice, but I like him. And, I think I liked this book because of hearing him. He read the chapter, The Headless Girl. (In 2012, New York Times correspondent C.J. Shivers posted the link to a video the likes of which I'd never seen before. p. 100) In this book, Covington goes to violent places - Juarez, Mexico and Syria - to find faith. He grew up in Birmingham, AL. It's interesting to read his thoughts/family's thoughts and actions during the civil rights period. He remembers hearing that four Negro girls had been killed at the 16th Street Baptist Church (September 15, 1963). "My father was a segregationist, but the finest man I knew. That Sunday morning was the first time I had ever seen him cry, and it was the last time I thought I could ever believe in a merciful and all-powerful God, a god that was both powerful and good. (p. 50) Not exactly sure why Covington goes to Mexico and Syria. Not sure what he "learns" "It's the end of my three-year search for faith, but I'm still not sure whether there's a God or not...... I can't deny the existence of faith, though. I've seen it in the eyes of children, my own and the one I've met from El Salvador to Mexico to Syria. I believe that faith was once in my own eyes as well." (p. 206) On the back of the book - Praise for Revelation - Alan Weisman, author of Countdown and The World Without Us writes, "Once again, Dennis Covington..... rushes headlong into abysses that the rest of us feel, from the most brutal spots on earth to the rawest truths in the mirror. His obsesses, haunted quest scours the depths of madness--his, ours, this century's--yet somehow salvages faith from the most fearful despair. This brave book is a Revelation, indeed." This is a good summery of Dennis Covington. While in Turkey/Syria - American/British/Japanese journalists and humanitarian aid workers are kidnapped and executed by ISIS. He writes about visiting Kayla Mueller's parents in Arizona. We already know this, but in the end of his book, he hears that Kayla Mueller has died (February 6, 2015, ISIS issues a statement that she is dead.) Also, Jim Foley is mentioned - he is beheaded by ISIS in August 2014. There is a documentary on HBO about Jim Foley. I don't think I would have watched it before this book. Now, I will plan to watch it. I'm not the best person to rate books. It was not a GREAT book, but I did like it and glad I read it. Now the book is much overdue and need to return to the library.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

What, exactly, is the author’s purpose in undertaking the travels chronicled in this book? It isn’t “a search for faith”, of that much I am sure. The author gives a clue, however, when he asks himself this question in the book: “I began to wonder what my search for faith was about. Was I merely an aging narcissist who was willing to take risks in order to get just one more story before he checked out for good?” I can provide an answer to his question: “Definitely YES”.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "Revelation: A Search for Faith in a Violent Religious World" which I won through Goodreads/First Reads Dennis Covington goes on a quest in a world filled with the violence of man's inhumanity against man to find the faith of Hebrews 11:1 - "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In a spiritual journey he looks for faith in suffering in places where people face extremes.

In the ups and downs of life that for Dennis includes divorce, alcohol addiction, depression, misdiagnosis of a head injury as well as his brother's mental illness, he quickly learns that faith is not a blissful walk in the park but a rocky road. Amid the heartache and pain of his own family turmoil and in countries scourged by corruption, crime and the madness of war, Dennis embarks on a spiritual journey searching for moments of goodness, kindness and compassion that make life worth living.

Travelling to South America, Mexico and the Turkish-Syrian border he discovers a spark of light in the darkness of violence and corruption in Juárez Mexico in the heart of a Pastor working among the unloved, society's rejected in an asylum; in the smile of a young Syrian bomb victim; and in the quiet celebration of a mother whose seven sons are found alive living in a cave across the Turkish border. The story is powerful and emotionally - charged as Dennis Covington draws the reader into the danger and uncertainty of his border crossings, his confrontations with border guards, the misery of the refugee camps and the pain and heartbreak of death in a war in the Middle East that's cost thousands of lives. Yet for me the courage of faith can be seen in the self-sacrifice of Kayla Mueller the young aid worker imprisoned and murdered in Syria and the strength of her family who never gave up on her.

In a story filled with the dark brutality of crime, the inhumanity and violence of war and in the fear, doubt and uncertainty of the writer's personal life the light of faith shines through in unexpected ways. Although I don't totally agree with Dennis Covington's conclusion at the end I found "Revelation: A Search for Faith in a Violent Religious World" riveting from beginning to end. Not only did it give me a new awareness of the plight of the refugees in the ongoing Syrian war, but it reaffirmed my own faith.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel the title is misleading - occasional comments about faith were made but it was mostly about his own sad life and his visits to Turkey and Syria in 2012 - 2014. I had been to the area of Turkey that he visited so the book kept my interest more than it would have otherwise. It was unclear to me why he was even there except to tempt fate. He met a lot of people trying to do good but it didn't appear that he did any. I probably would not recommend this book to anyone.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give the author an A for effort, but the book ends up to be a lot of "me, me, me" with little insight.

[Mar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on Covington's faith and life experiences, I thought this book would be interesting. His recent journeys covered in this book deal with his travels into Syria and Turkey. He also recounts some of his early life in Birmingham and his family responsibilities in the USA. The book dealt a lot with the horror, harshness and bleakness of war. There isn't a lot of hope, which makes sense, but the author comes away unsure if God exists and the book is more a processing of his experiences, without really processing them.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started and just couldn't finish it.

[Katharine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tough for me to follow the thread, but many moving vignettes.

[Mark Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book touched home for me. I needed this read!

[Paul Womack · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting journey seeming renewed faith by entering the heart of darkness. What god he find? He fun there is often goodness to pure to be destroyed by evil. This is a faith that is distinct from belief. To have such a witness!

[Eleanor · Rating 1 out of 5]

A bitter disappointment. My full review is here.

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