Into the Headwinds: Why Belief Has Always Been Hard―and Still Is

by Terryl L. Givens, Nathaniel Givens, Richard J. Mouw (Foreword)

A deeper look at how people individually and collectively form religious beliefs—and what that means for faith in an increasingly secular culture. Secularism is increasingly a fact of life in Western society. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that faith is harder than it has been before. Even in the past when organized religion enjoyed more widespread cultural acceptance, there were still obstacles to true belief. Today, the obstacles are different, but faith is still viable.  Acclaimed author Terryl Givens and his son, Nathaniel Givens, combine their respective areas of expertise to offer a fresh take on religious belief through the lens of contemporary research on psychology, cognition, and human nature. They also address two of faith’s foremost modern-day rationalism, the myth that humans can or should make the majority of their choices based on logical thought, and scientism, the myth that science is the only reliable means of discovering truth. After reckoning with the surprising fact that people often don’t even understand their own beliefs and are influenced in ways they seldom perceive, the authors go on to describe genuine faith as an act of will—an effortful response to the deepest yearnings of the mind and heart—that engenders moral responsibility, the ability to embrace uncertainty, the motivation and means to relate to others, and the capacity to apprehend reality through nonrational means.  Written for truth seekers who may or may not belong to religious communities,  Into the Headwinds  is less a work of apologetics than an inquiry into the role that faith can and does still play in a society where participation in institutional religion is declining precipitously. Terryl and Nathaniel Givens propose that to reclaim the power of genuine faith we need to first acknowledge the reality that religious belief is hard. It always has been, and it always will be. But perhaps, instead of a hindrance, that is its most important aspect.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Theology

140 pages, Hardcover

Published October 18, 2022

About the author

Terryl L. Givens was born in upstate New York, raised in the American southwest, and did his graduate work in Intellectual History (Cornell) and Comparative Literature (Ph.D. UNC Chapel Hill, 1988), working with Greek, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and English languages and literatures. As Professor of Literature and Religion, and the James A. Bostwick Professor of English at the University of Richmond, he teaches courses in Romanticism, nineteenth-century cultural studies, and the Bible and Literature. He has published in literary theory, British and European Romanticism, Mormon studies, and intellectual history.

Dr. Givens has authored several books, including The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy (Oxford 1997); By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (Oxford 2003); People of Paradox: A History of Mormon Culture (Oxford 2007); The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2009); and When Souls had Wings: Pre-Mortal Life in Western Thought (2010). Current projects include a biography of Parley P. Pratt (with Matt Grow, to be published by Oxford in 2011), a sourcebook of Mormonism in America (with Reid Neilson, to be published by Columbia in 2011), an Oxford Handbook to Mormonism (with Phil Barlow), and a two volume history of Mormon theology. He lives in Montpelier, Virginia.

Reviews

[Clint Hubbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I think I liked this book. The discussion around faith was great, and I think that its a very important topic. A lot of this book went over my head though. This may be because I'm out of practice reading this type of theological/psychological book, but I felt that for as important as much of this book felt to me, it wasn't very accessible. A lot of great quotes and meaningful paragraphs, but a little disappointing as a whole.

[Liz Busby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a review copy of this book from the author. All thoughts are my own.

I'll be trying to publish a longer review of this one somewhere, but overall, this book tied together a lot of the threads in my personal reading and brought them back around to interact with my faith. I find the ideas to be spot on and fascinating. If you're interested in neuroscience, behavioral economics, and religion, you owe it to yourself to pick this little volume up.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think religious believers of all various kinds would find this book fascinating and interesting. The Givens (this time Terryl and Nathaniel, not Terryl and Fiona) do a great job of breaking down the two major "threats" to faith in our modern age—rationality and science—and show that they are, in the end, not really threats to faith at all. The book does this by drawing on many different thinkers across many different disciplines, and this is a major strength of the book.

I found some of the book too clever by half, particularly the chapter on science and scientism, with a few leaps of logic I'm not sure I agree with in those portions, but still the book was a thought-provoking read nonetheless. The major point running throughout the text that belief has always been difficult and our modern era is not substantively different on that point was well made.

We believers have always had a hill to climb in that respect. (And everybody is a believer in something.) Best to start hiking, even with all the uncertainty and ambiguity about. After all, there really isn't a way to get out of trying to make sense of life and the universe. So do your best to find that sense.

[Bryan Samuelsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gist is that everyone should be a lot more humble about what they think they know. I agree with that, but felt like the apologetics were fairly weak for what is implicitly an apologetic book. Nevertheless, I thought it was a good read. A nugget I liked: “Gratitude is an illogical response to a world that never had us in mind as an audience. But it is the fitting tribute to an original Creator who anticipated our joy and participates fully in it.”

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I usually enjoy the Givens but this not so much. This could be down to several factors. Perhaps I’m missing the Fiona touch. Perhaps it’s just the wrong book at the wrong time (I purchased it upon release and it’s been sitting in the towering TBR stack ever since). And perhaps it’s because my apparently still exhausted brain is just not up to the challenge.

In any event I found it a bit of a slog for such a slender volume. There are good quotes and some thought provoking bits but overall I found it inaccessible and somewhat disappointing.

[Ronald Schoedel III · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a relatively quick read because I just wanted to soak in all the thoughts on faith especially. The first chapter on rationalism will be familiar material if you’ve read any Haidt or Kahneman. The Givenses cite them extensively, and offer excellent examples and explanations of how we don’t even know what we believe or why we believe what we believe oftentimes, and demonstrate just how little our rational thinking is utilized in so many areas of life, not just matters of belief.

A lot of things to reflect on, I expect I will come back to and read the chapter On Faith a few more times to really digest it.

It was the discussion on what has been termed “presumptuous certainty”—the notion that we generally will attempt to short-circuit the natural process of faith maturation (oh, hi, stages of faith!), and presume our way to unjustified certainty—that really struck me.

“By virtue of being simplistic, and free from exceptions or nuance, such beliefs are easier to state and restate, which is a key part of their self reinforcing nature. By virtue of being uncompromising, they feed the sense that those who embrace them are distinctive, and set apart, further expanding the sense of special status of those to adopt them. …

“No matter how firm a conviction of genuine faith is, it participates in an essential humility. That is because faith is an expression of our weakness. Faith makes us vulnerable. If you have faith in something you don’t fully understand — like God, or his canonized word — then you cannot say ahead of time, where that faith will take you. That can be scary. Presumptuous certainty shields us from that risk. The risk is that our faith might be wrong, certainly, but more importantly, the risk is that our faith might grow into something different and take us to unforeseen destinations. This is why faith always has moral stakes. Because one is committing to a course of action, with no guarantees of where that course will lead.

“Presumptuous certainty is dangerous, because it creates what primatologist Frans de Waal calls ‘serial dogmatists.’ They ‘crave dogma, yet have trouble deciding on its contents.’ Waal sites Christopher Hitchens as a case study: ‘Hitchens was outraged by the dogmatism of religion, and he himself had moved from Marxism. (he was a Trotskyist) to Greek orthodox Christianity, then to American neoconservatism, followed by an anti-theist stance that blamed all of the world’s troubles on religion. Hitchens thus swung from the left to the right, from anti-Vietnam war to cheerleader of the Iraq war, and from pro to contra God. He ended up favoring Dick Cheney over Mother Theresa.’”

“Presumptuous certainty is not exaggerated faith in God. It is idolatry. We turn our conception of God — our expectations of who he is, what he is like, and what he would do — into an idol. Idols are inanimate objects, and so they are safe. God is a living being, and so relationship with him carries risk. When we live by faith, we live precariously.“

As I go through the middle section of life, I naturally find my faith in God to be instrumental in leading the untangling of what I thought I was so certain of, and find myself becoming less dogmatic and more focused on that relationship with the living being of God. I’ve chucked out more than a few idols from my life, and will yet uncover more, I suspect. Yes, relationship with God, like any human with whom we are real and vulnerable, carries risk. But the joy and the journey are so worth it.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I anxiously read everything that Terryl Givens writes, because he addresses the challenges I face at the intersection of faith and reason. Into the Headwinds shows how the twin philosophies of rationalism and scientism have confronted religious belief and insisted that only they can identify truth. Givens pokes holes in their claims of infallibility, and draws from a lot of current academic research that carves out a place for intuition and the unexplainable.

His thinking is sophisticated, and I can't begin to compress his ideas down for a quick book review. I took pages of notes, both transcribing his words and recording my own musings, which shows what an impact his book made on me. I am really grateful for thinkers like Givens.

One of the ideas that most struck me was that our unconscious minds dislike ambiguity, and will choose "presumptive certainty" every time. In other words, relying on faith can be uncomfortable, so it's easier to just dismiss the unknowable. It's like my daughter who doesn't want to do the work to solve the difficult math problem; she just wants to have an answer to write down, even if it isn't correct.

One quick quote: “Faith is not an escape from or even a bracketing of rationality or evidentiary claims. Faith involves an expansion of the realm of rationality.”

Into the Headwinds isn't a perfect 5-star book. Some parts felt convoluted, and I wasn't necessarily convinced by every argument. But I got so much out of it.

[Scott Franson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long held the belief (apparently a rationalization of the current direction my elephant is heading) that science is inadequate to the task of explaining the fullness of reality. I am coming to consider that rationality is as well. Other works of Terryl Givens have recently nudged me (the rider) in that direction. This book attempts to explain why.

I need to take time to consider the implications that "faith is not a proposition about reality but a response to something emanating from that reality," and how this applies to my own belief and desires to know truth and develop a relationship with God. I really enjoyed this work.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unafraid, Multi-disciplinary, Profound

I am drawn to hard questions and open-minded exploration of a solution set which allows for and gives due consideration to all forms of knowledge acquisition.

Perhaps this is in part why, having “discovered” Given’s works, I am now drawn to read more.

His writing belies wide, deep, and intersecting study and contemplation. A quest for understanding and for meaning.

I am a little different for having read this book. Perhaps to good effect. Yet to be, costly decisions will bear that out (or not).

[Michael Rawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I like this book. I think sections of it are important to revisit, but other parts of the book seemed to fall flat. I liked the introduction section on why Secularism is not the problem. I liked the use of the elephant and rider analogy.

I liked the notion that religion has always been hard and in fact our sacrifice for it shows our dedication to it.

Honestly, I don’t remember this book as well as I’d like so I should probably re read it. I just remember enjoying some sections and not loving others.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The two Givenses spend the entirety of this short book employing arguments across different discipliknes to advocate for different ways of knowing aside from just reason and logic. The title led me to think the subject matter would be a little more expansive, so it was kind of a disappointment in that regard, but I always enjoy a good Givens read.

[Dallas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Put your thinking cap on

And pay close attention to what you read and you may need to use the dictionary. If you make it through that you will find some very thought provoking ideas about finding truth and what role faith has in the process.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a bit difficult to understand where the author was going with this book. I had expected an argument for belief, but the book seemed for a promotion for being agnostic rather than an argument for faith.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was very interesting. At times I was thinking, "is this an argument FOR faith or AGAINST it". Or is it really neither - just an explanation of why faith is hard. But obviously, the authors are coming from a place of faith, and think that it is worth it.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely thought-provoking. Not as helpful in my specific set of problems--it's not that I have problems with faith in general, just growing problems with faith in specific areas controlled by fallible humans. Did not glean a lot on what to do with that.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I will definitely reread several times down the road.

[Terry Earley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Givens never disappoints. I highly recommend.

[Belann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me a while to read this, but worth the read.

[Bruce Madsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, interesting, but a difficult read/listen for me. Deep. Not quite like Terryl’s other books I’ve read.

[Callee]

The reading slump continues and this book could not possibly have pulled me out. I understood nothing. I even had the book and kindle and the audio and still got nothing.

[Stacey Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not at all what I expected. It read like an extra long academic paper. But there was a lot of really interesting information. It's definitely one that will stick with me for a long while.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another tour de force from the Givens family! A very thoughtful exploration into the meaning of faith, and the apparent contrarian voices of rationalism and scientism.

Highly recommended!

[Patsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's easy to think that belief is only difficult in our enlightened age, but this book helped me understand that belief is often hard. It also helped me understand that belief is worth working for.

[Karla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars