Letter to a Man in the Fire: Does God Exist and Does He Care?

by Reynolds Price

Does God Exist and Does He Care?
In April 1997 Reynolds Price received an eloquent letter from a reader of his cancer memoir, A Whole New Life . The correspondent, a young medical student diagnosed with cancer himself and facing his own mortality, asked these difficultQuestions. The two began a long-distance correspondence, culminating in Price's thoughtful response, originally delivered as the Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture at Auburn Theological Seminary, and now expanded onto the printed page as Letter to a Man in the Fire .
Harvesting a variety of sources -- diverse religious traditions, classical and modern texts, and a lifetime of personal experiences, interactions, and spiritual encounters -- Price meditates on God's participation in our fate. With candor and sympathy, he offers the reader such a rich variety of tools to explore these questions as to place this work in the company of other great tetsaments of faith from St. Augustine to C. S. Lewis.
Letter to a Man in the Fire moves as much as it educates. It is a rare combination of deep erudition, vivid prose, and profound humanity.

Genres: Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Essays, Theology, Faith

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Reynolds Price was born in Macon, North Carolina in 1933. Educated at Duke University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Merton College, Oxford University. He taught at Duke since 1958 and was James B. Duke Professor of English.

His first short stories, and many later ones, are published in his Collected Stories. A Long and Happy Life was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel. Kate Vaiden was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Good Priest's Son in 2005 was his fourteenth novel. Among his thirty-seven volumes are further collections of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and translations. Price was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.

Photo courtesy of Reynolds Price's author page on Amazon.com

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a little ambivalent about this book. Price (R.I.P.), given his literary adeptness, was a wonderful exegete for someone who was not a biblical scholar. So I appreciate his approach towards the text. He is also a fantastic writer. However, he seems to miss some important points in this book. I will offer three. For one, he assumes the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, an idea which many mainline scholars and theologians challenge (or at least they have revisited the semantics of that attribute) and which is only vaguely attested to in Scripture. Also, I am surprised at his heavy reliance upon Calvin given his Methodist mother and the simple fact that he taught at Duke- an institution known for its Methodist scholarship. And this topic is where Calvin has led many astray (IMO) and where Wesley and also Eastern Christian thought offer a strong corrective. These other streams of thought have offered compelling arguments for the empathy of Christ's suffering with ours- a notion that Price mentions but does not wrestle with for long. Price seems to see the Resurrection as a hopeful act of God on behalf of humanity, but overlooks the fact that Christ suffered great pain to get there. For me, the incarnate God who knows our pain is a God who is intimately loving, not Price's arms-length semi-deistic God who lets us languish alone until later. Finally, probably because Price was not a regular church-goer, he misses God's call to action for the church to care for the suffering- a very significant omission in my opinion. In all, an interesting read with beautiful writing, but not a book I would recommend for serious questions of theodicy.

[RAD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humble and Pragmatic Theology

There is much to be learned from Reynolds Price’s short volume, Letter to a Man in the Fire: Does God Exist and Does He Care? Not only readers, but also authors and editors should—like the peppered imperative of a Charles Stanley sermon—“Listen!”

From the dust jacket blurb:

In April 1997 Reynolds Price received an eloquent letter from a reader of his cancer memoir A Whole New Life. The correspondent, a young medical student diagnosed with cancer himself and facing his own mortality, asked the difficult questions above [the book’s subtitle]. The two began a long-distance correspondence, culminating in Price’s thoughtful response, originally delivered as the Jack and Lewis Rudin Lecture at Auburn Theological Seminary, and now expanded onto the printed page as Letter to a Man in the Fire.

Letter is permeated by a humility and reverence for its topic. There is no ne plus ultra, implicit or explicit, that is prevalent in much of today’s theological and religious writing (Brian McLaren’s audaciously titled A New Kind of Christianity comes to mind, which implies an exhaustive knowledge of 2000 years of Christian theology that is sorely lacking in his work). Price maintains “…you must know from the start that I have no further potent claim to make on your time or credulity. I’m no trained theologian, no regular churchgoer, no mathematical cosmologist, no theoretical physicist, and no statistician with an eye for your chances or anyone else’s” (24). Later, he asserts “Even a fool as hardened as I won’t hope to urge a substantial revision at this late date in our Western sense of the nature and purposes of God, especially the God who is both our omnipotent Creator and the mute witness of so much agony in humankind and among our fellow creatures” (76). He even admits, “If you think I’m mumbling in soft-brained error, I might not deny you” (86).

Popular and “public” theologians: “Listen!”

Price’s deep-rooted prose acknowledges and respects the work of those who preceded him. There are (meaningful) references to other poets, musicians, and authors, ranging across millennia from Auden to Bach to Tertullian. He frames his views in a wider context grounded in years of diligent scholarship, and disdains those who fail to give the same respect to their topic (witness his view of the “immensely self-assured, sometimes piercing, and often baldly unsubstantiated books and television appearances of [the Jesus Seminar’s] John Dominic Crossan” (95)). This critique could be equally applied to books like Reza Aslan’s Zealot or the vacuous, twitterized cotton candy of Rob Bell’s What Is the Bible? But I digress.

Writers of history, or any topic that exists in a historical continuum: “Listen!”

Like a Pauline epistle, Price has managed to pack a lot of thought into a short letter (a letter is in fact what this book is: it begins with the salutation “Dear Jim”, and concludes with the valediction, “All hope from Reynolds”). Despite the nonacademic form, there is a very helpful “Further Reading, Listening, and Looking” section which, unlike a standard bibliography, provides an often detailed assessment on resources in other religions (Hinduism’s Bhagavad Gita ), as well as poetry (Milton’s Paradise Lost), fiction (Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot), history (Meier’s A Marginal Jew ), and the author’s own work ( A Palpable God ), among many others. This section adds another 25% to the book’s pagination, which testifies to both the foregoing letter’s brevity and the scope and helpfulness of the concluding guidance. It is this sort of afterword that correctly blurs the lines between popular and academic titles; there is no reason why popular works cannot be supported and referenced in an academic (or quasi-academic) manner. (Poor examples of this sort include Aslan’s Zealot, whose “Notes” section is willfully obfuscatory and bastardizes the usage of the term, and Bell’s Bible, which devotes an entire “Part” (“Part 5”) to “Endnotes”, which itself has (many) sections, including one for thank-yous and another titled “Books About the Bible That Will Blow Your Mind.” It’s a complete, unorganized mess).

Authors and editors and publishers: “Listen!”

Finally, we must address the two questions asked in the book’s subtitle: does God exist and does He care? Price is unambiguous on both. Ultimately he states that “I know I believe that God loves his creation” (84), which asserts not only the existence of God but His care as well. But don’t trust me; just read the letter. It is time well spent.

[Marguerite Hargreaves · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had higher hopes for this volume, which might have been unfair of me. I've read three or four of Price's novels and based on them expected a thoughtful, no-stone-unturned reflection on God and suffering -- maybe along the lines of Henri Nouwen. But this struck me as fairly dogmatic and disappointed. I read theology for at least seven years and learned in the process to question my beliefs, and I wanted something similar here but didn't find it. Being told that Christians believe something because it's fundamental to Christian belief doesn't help. And, the notion that suffering is redemptive makes God a sadist. One of my theology professors recommended Proverbs of Ashes, by Rita N. Brock and Rebecca Parker, as the book for which I was really looking.

[Blair Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief meditation on the question of God's existence and God's goodness in the face of inexplicable suffering in the world. Reynolds Price's response to a man dying of cancer is suffused with an unusual mix of uncertainty and devotion. Prince spends a lot of time in this very brief book agonizing over whether it is appropriate to even write a letter recommending the existence and—in some sense—the goodness of a Creator to someone whose present suffering directly calls those views into question. Price's reluctance is appropriate especially because so many people who write answers to theodicy questions forge ahead with affirmations of God's goodness without dwelling long with the sufferer in their very real pain. He wants neither to "diminish for an instant my sense of the grinding wheel you're presently under" by offering weak platitudes, nor "burden you further with darker thoughts than you're otherwise bearing"—a frighteningly acute description of the strange negotiations comforters must make as they go along (80). Humility, for Price, is the best characteristic a comforter can possess, as he affirms this letter as amounting "to no more than a stumbling guess," "one long surmise [which] comes from as deep in my mind and nature as I know how to go" (86). Is he successful? I think that will mostly depend on each individual reader.

In response to the two main questions (does God exist and does he care about us), Price offers a "troubled Yes"—troubled because he senses no good way to prove this answer to anyone else (26). Although Price isn't directly involved in any organized religion, he describes experiencing a handful of "private intensities" and "demonstrations" throughout his life which have convinced him that there is some sort of benevolent Creator overseeing this world (26-7). These moments of holistic connection to creation itself while wandering in the woods alone or in a dark hospital room where, in response to his existential question borne of his own cancer as to how much more he must suffer a voice answered, only, "More" (28). His understanding of these moments has been justified and bolstered by similar experiences of friends and acquaintances and people throughout history, a long line of witnesses to God.

What's striking here, though, is that rather than dwelling on accounts of these witnesses, Price immediately turns to acknowledge that there are perhaps just as many people who have not experienced these "personal openings" to the divine, even in the midst of "troubled straits" (30, 33). What should such a person do? Price declares his answer, albeit a somewhat absurd and perhaps not all-too-convincing one:

"I'm afraid I could offer little more than a proposal which you may feel you've already exhausted: the shamefaced suggestion that you go on waiting as long as you can at the one main door, requesting entry from whatever power may lie beyond it" (34).

But even if a glimpse of "reliable light" seeps through a half-opened window, or a sudden flood of assurance such as that received by Paul of Tarsus comes through after all, the rest of Price's letter insists that troubles and mysteries still await the one who has come to a conviction that God is in some way there for them.

Informed by a Calvinistic background, Price wonders whether God is really there for everyone or whether some are elected to a special notice. He wonders why it seems like those whom are especially holy seem to be singled out for suffering, as though God's notice brings torment. He speaks of the "Dark Night of the Soul" and periods when God seems to have absented himself at the most crucial of moments—as when Christ called out for abba in the midst of his suffering and seemed to receive no reply (41, 62).

In fact, Price finds Jesus's declaration that God is our father, a benevolent gift-giver,to be the most difficult thing to believe of all his teachings. Despite coming from Jesus himself, declarations of the fatherhood of God have "always been as doubtful as they are welcome among realistically way believers":

"No theological learning is required, after all, to stand in the ashes of one's private hopes or beside the literal ashes of an innocent loved one—a five-year-old son, say, who has died before our eyes in the torment of leukemia—and to wonder, from that point in human time and place, just where abba is to be found...In an unbroken note of the most serious eloquence, from the known beginnings of sacred poetry, the cry of humankind has begged to know how the hand that made us has likewise struck us down or has let some other force destroy us" (41-2).

The rest of the letter discusses possible solutions to this dilemma as articulated in traditions as diverse as Hinduism, Hebrew scripture, or by poetic figures ranging from Milton to T.S. Eliot. Price briefly discusses one possible Mormon answer to this problem: the existence of a suffering God who joins us in the midst of this, his created and imperfect world, but he sees that resolution as "insubstantial" because any suffering experienced by an "omnipotent and omniscient" being would be a walk in the park (57-58).

In the end he opts for a view of God that works harder to incorporate the darker elements of the human experience (the same being who created flowers created the AIDS virus) in order to conclude that "the Creator is far more mysterious than we can suspect or than human organs will ever prove capable of comprehending" (81). Sufferers should work to become paradoxically hopeful stoics" (77).

In the end, Price's letter is best directed to sufferers who find comfort through better articulation of questions about God's love more than they do from simple assertions of that love. As the result of a life in which a deep and abiding faith is brought face to face with a deep and abiding suffering, Letters to a Man in the Fire belongs on the shelf alongside the book of Job and C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed.

With T.S. Eliot, Price concludes that

...all shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one....(85, from Four Quartets)

But just how he knows this, or why you ought to agree, Price can't ultimately say. And for some readers, his reluctance will be a strength.

[Douglas Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What's troubled in the Yes is my inability to prove the truth of my claim to others. Nonetheless what I assert with no serious doubt is that our one universe anyhow was created and maintained by a single divine intelligence who still exists and continues to oversee his primeval handiwork."

"My belief in a Creator derives largely from detailed and overpowering personal intuition, an unshakeable hunch, and a set of demonstrations that go far back in my consciousness--well before I began to comprehend the details of the world of deeply held but unoppressive Christian faith in which my parents had been formed, and in which they raised me. What I've called demonstrations have come in a very few experiences of my own beginning when I was six years old.

Starting on a warm afternoon in the summer of 1939, when I was wandering alone in the pine woods by our suburban house in piedmont North Carolina, I've experienced moments of sustained calm awareness that subsequent questioning has never discounted. Those moments, which recurred at unpredictable and widely spaced intervals till some thirteen years ago, still seem to me undeniable manifestations of the Creator's benign, or patiently watchful, interest in particular stretches of my life, though perhaps not all of it. And each of these moments--never lasting for more than seconds, but seeming, in retrospect, long hours--has taken the form of sudden and entirely unsought breaking-in upon my consciousness of a demonstration of all of visible and invisible nature (myself included) is a single reality, a single thought from a single mind."

"...I've heard what amounts to a densely complex yet piercingly direct harmony that appears to come from the heart of whatever reality made us and watches our lives." (26-28)

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does God exist and does God care? Two, basic, fundamental questions that every human being asks and somehow seeks to answer. Reynolds Price is a survivor of spinal cancer, and went through a horrific journey on the path to healing. He wrote a well-reviewed book about that experience. A young medical school student, recently diagnosed with an advanced cancer, writes Price after reading his book. Aware of his experience, and his background, this young student asks Price to reply to these two fundamental questions.

Price's reply letter, later expanded, is the text of this book. Originally produced as a lecture/presentation at Auburn Seminary Price, with sympathy and sincerely, seeks to respond to this young man facing a daunting future.

While there were points of insight and eloquence, I found it difficult to connect with Price. The short book is a single chapter. A single meandering chapter. I could never get a feel where Price was trying to go - perhaps he didn't know himself. But then again, how many of us, including myself, could give a helpful or knowledgeable reply to such a young man.

Ultimately, the author raises as many, if not more, questions than he ever really answers. Perhaps because he was writing for an audience of religious intelligentsia more than the average reader. It was certainly worth taking the journey; it is just a question of where one ends up at the end. I can say I was no closer to definitive answers. But that is okay. I appreciate the effort.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat discursive and deeply personal meditation on the question of God and suffering. If you enjoy someone deeply learned and with a literary bent think out loud about this complex and difficult subject, and do so elegantly, you will enjoy this book. If you are looking for tightly reasoned answers, on one side or the other, and clear conclusions you will likely be frustrated. I found it interesting and enjoyable to read but not all that persuasive as an argument, if that is what it is. Instead, I felt like I grew to understand the author better and get a deeper understanding of how he came to be the writer and thinker that he became.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

On around page 5 Price admits the impossibility of "proving" the existence of God, and then for the next 100 pages debates whether he exists and whether he cares, and guess what-- he comes to no conclusions beyond his own personal experiences, which is where we started. Personally I have long since given up on any finite human understanding reasoning the existence or non-existence of God, but hoped a man who had a vision would have something enlightening to add to the discussion.

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book. No sugar coating, no saccharine best wishes. Just a deep look at what, to the author, is the truth of God to the extent that it is knowable which, to his credit, he acknowledges throughout, that it is not. He leaves room for hope, but also is honest about the possibility that the best thing to do is enjoy what God has given you for the time you have and in the circumstances in which you find yourself, whatever they may be. This is truly a remarkable work.

[AddyF · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deep. Thoughtful. Vulnerable and honest. A little above me intellectually. This might be a good read for someone who struggles with doubt in a scientific, intellectual, philosophical way. I also wonder if a suffering person might feel like Price drones on and on in an unhelpful way.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars.

The premise of this sounded really good, but wow… what the heck did I just read??? (Note to self: if you’re wondering about the existence of God, best to contact, say, a chaplain who's actually studied theology.) Anyway, here’s what I gathered, as far as I can tell. I'd probably need to re-read to be sure, but there's no way I'm going to waste more time re-reading this. (Not sure if this is a spoiler but will mark it as such just in case.)


* People sometimes have inexplicable experiences of God
* God probably isn’t really a Father
* Jesus probably wasn’t God – otherwise, why would he have been so isolated from God the Father? (Whom we seem to have more or less established isn’t really a Father anyways?)
* The Devil probably doesn’t exist – who needs a devil when there’s lots of evil without him? Evil is just God withdrawing from some of creation so that we have some room to choose stuff
* God probably doesn’t care that much about your suffering (e.g., it sure sucked to be Job… and God didn’t even make it up to Job!)
* God looked on and did nothing about terrible contemporary crises either
* The Bhagavad Gita has some nicer versions of God
* Gospels, especially John, may be unreliable
* There are piles of books of incantations and spells you could use to bring about evil, but frankly we don't need them because usually evil is pretty good at just coming to us without being summoned.

And here are his cheerful final words for our cancer patient:

“Whatever up-to-date slaughters and afflictions our fiendishly inventive race has awarded itself will be the subject of CNN’s ever-grim report every moment of the clock. History pants to run abreast of the brisk unflagging pace of evil, whatever its motive force and fuel; yet the proportional number of Homo sapiens who doubt the existence of a conscious Creator—the source of all good if nothing more—is likely no greater than it’s ever been.” (107-108)



I don't know about the actual cancer patient he was corresponding with, but I would’ve straight up ghosted him if this is the sort of stuff he was spouting to me as I approached death!

[Amy Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course this is beautifully written, and explores some very important questions. But I wanted to argue with Reynolds Price and with a lot of people who write similar books. Why do so many people assume that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and get all twisted around about how he lets bad stuff happen to some people. Maybe is is simply very powerful and very well informed, and has perfectly good reasons for not making life easy for us.

Price accepts that we can question whether God exists, but believing that he does, jumps from there to belief in omniscience and omnipotence. Given that God is clearly hard to comprehend, why not question those assumptions while questioning his existance and his caring?

[Eugene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Price writes about faith from the point of view of an extremely well-read and articulate layperson. One that I would have enjoyed talking with and learning from. He combines he great knowledge of literature with the marvelous insights of a avid listener and reader on music, a great student of Christian theology, and the skills of a great writer and communicator. This is a book I would like to have heard him read aloud. His voice was so distinctive and powerful. When he spoke it could be mesmerizing. Listening to him also made it easier to grasp the ideas he was conveying.

A very thoughtful and profound book. I would file it next to Henri Nowen's "Life of the Beloved." In fact, I might use the two in a book study someday soon.

[Aimee Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My rating is biased. I was given this book while in profound suffering and found it immensely helpful. While I don't agree with everything Price writes of God, and I agree with some of the criticisms others have offered, I appreciate that Price invites us into his struggle. And it's not a typical invite. The story of his vision of Jesus on the Galilee shore (retold from his earlier "A Whole New Life") helped me put my suffering in context. I also learned a lot from a man--skeptical by nature, as I tend to be--who was willing to confirm things with confidence while admitting he had no way to prove, only to persuade.

[Ted Gale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow . . . first read this book over twenty years ago, not long after its publication. Picked it up this afternoon, in response to certain things going on with my own life . . . it is a wonderful meditation on the mystery behind the cosmos, that which we (for the sake of convenience) call "God," but know in fits and starts (and are always in danger of creating in our own image) . . . inspiring, profound, unsettling, a little bit terrifying . . .

. . . this is a reason one hangs on to books . . . it had probably been on my self for fifteen years unread, but I am glad it was here this afternoon . . .

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me this was a confusing book, mostly due to the authors presentation.

On one hand, he's a believer - nondenominational, but nonetheless, he chooses to believe and has had religious experiences to support his belief. But he also presents his own picture of God which bothered me (due in part to the difference with my own picture of God.)

I have to step back and recognize, give him credit for being willing to be honest about his beliefs, and to such a large audience. The rest of the book helps explain where he is coming from.

what can I say more - I liked some of it, some of it left me flummoxed.

[David Dunlap · Rating 1 out of 5]

The subtitle tells all: in this short book -- ostensibly a letter to a young cancer patient -- novelist Price attempts to answer two very big questions indeed; namely, Does God exist? and Does God care about the individual? -- After having read the book, this reader concludes that Price's answer to the first question is an unequivocal Yes. To the second, he seems less certain. -- I found this book to be hopelessly meandering and abstruse. There are better sources for wrestling with these profundities, I am convinced.

[Tim Soper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short read at about 73 pages of text, yet the depth and richness of Mr. Price's writing had me stopping to look up words and dive down associated rabbit holes his thoughts revealed. I can't say that I agree with the conclusions that Mr. Price arrived at but I felt privileged to witness his struggle to arrive at them. A good book for an uninterrupted afternoon.

[NIGEL PEARCE · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do you say to someone facing a doctor's report that you have 6 months left to live? Or how do people deal with the difficult traumas of life. This book will help you to navigate those murky waters

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not excellent.

[Steffanie Kamper Culp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This little book was interesting but I only got so much out of it..

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reynolds Price really is a good writer. I'm not sure I'll read his fiction, but I will probably read more of his religious writing. I am not convinced by his explanation of the existence of God and I have not had the experiences of "proof", nor do I follow the Bible the same way that he does. However, his thoughtful and non-sentimental thoughts on making meaning out of suffering are very valuable and helpful. I appreciate his humbleness and curiosity, which are essential for me to find theology palatable. This was a good follow-up to A Whole New Life, and better written, but I suspect I also need to read A Palpable God and A Serious Way of Wondering to get the full picture of what he believes.

[Kshappert]

Title caught my eye...particularly given the ongoing devastation in Haiti. In this book, Price is responding to a letter from a young medical student who had recently been diagnosed with serious cancer. The student was presumably reaching out to Price given Price's own successful battle with what was thought to be untreatable cancer. Though Price is not a theologian, he is well read and the book is thoughtful rumination. And Price's thoughts regarding the title are basically Yes and Yes, though Price feels God's timeline for Earthly life is often not in synch with what a human being might hope.

[Lane Willson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Assurance through doubt – I found it strangely comforting to have such a difficult and universal question of “is there a God and does he care?” answered with struggle of faith in light of disease, pain and premature mortality. This may be due the start honesty brought to the answer, and the lack of self-pity, or soothing cliché. I found the suggested material that followed the letter very helpful as well. Mr. Price’s response reminds me of a reply given by Rev. Billy Graham when he was asked how he knows there is a God. “I know because I know because I know”

[David Guy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although Reynolds Price was my teacher back in 1966 and remained a lifelong friend, I'm going to have to join the group who was disappointed with this book. It's beautifully written, as all his work is, but the whole discussion seems to take place in his head, as an intellectual question, and I believe religion to be a much more visceral matter. He speaks briefly of his several visionary experiences--which for me should have been the basis for his argument--but doesn't make much of them. The argument of this book seems to me--and I'm startled to say it--rather sophomoric.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject matter is very moving -- a medical student facing his own terminal illness. Reynolds Price, having survived a life-changing illness himself years ago, writes a letter to the young man. Quite touching, although parts of the long letter are almost too eloquent, at times distracting from the heavy subject matter.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wise and eloquent letter to a cancer patient. Reynolds Price turns a memorable phrase, with a healthy mix of hope and humility as to the value of his response. Good suggestions for further reading too. Recommended.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting approach to defining the human to desire to understanding the mystery of God. The format of the book is in a letter format to a terminally ill medical student. The facts and personal points of view from the author are enlightening.

[Marion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reynold's depth of thought coupled with his unique literary expression is abundantly evident here. However, the first three-quarters of this book delivered a disappointing (thin, unconvincing) theology.

[Leeanne Carrothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

not my favorite Reynolds Price book. I generally prefer his fiction, but this book and A Whole New Life: an Illness and a Healing are great reads for snyone who has dealt with pain, suffering or illness and wonders where God is.