Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious: Reframed and Expanded

by David Dark

We can't just be done with religion, argues David Dark. The fact of religion is the fact of us. Religion is the witness of everything we're up to--for better or worse.

David Dark is one of today's most respected thinkers, public intellectuals, and cultural critics at the intersection of faith and culture. Since its original release, Dark's Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious has become essential reading for those engaged in the conversation on religion in contemporary American society. Now, Dark returns to his classic text and offers us a revised, expanded, and reframed edition that reflects a more expansive understanding, employs inclusive language, and tackles the most pressing issues of the day.

With the same keen powers of cultural observation, candor, and wit his readers have come to know and love, Dark weaves in current themes around the pandemic and vaccine responses, Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements, Critical Race Theory, and more. By looking intentionally at our weird religious background (we all have one), he helps us acknowledge the content of our everyday existence--the good, the bad, and the glaringly inconsistent. When we make peace with the idea of being religious, we can more practically envision an undivided life.

226 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 13, 2022

About the author

David Dark is the critically acclaimed author of "The Sacredness of Questioning Everything," "Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons" and "The Gospel According To America: A Meditation on a God-blessed, Christ-haunted Idea." An educator, Dark is currently pursuing his PhD in Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University. He has had articles published in Paste, Oxford American, Books and Culture, Christian Century, among others. A frequent speaker, Dark has also appeared on C-SPAN’s Book-TV and in an award-winning documentary, "Marketing the Message." He lives with his singer-songwriter wife, Sarah Masen, and their three children in Nashville.

Reviews

[Austin Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Dark is a bit scattered and rambly but sticking with it provides fruitful results. This books feels like the red pill/ blue pill choice in the matrix, offering readers a way forth towards attention.

Ideas of religion can get meta but a worth while endeavor to recognize the things one’s religion names. Poetry is a great start.

[Grace Wiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a class I'm taking with Dr. Dark right now. He is an extremely intelligent man who makes fresh and meaningful connections between things I wouldn't have otherwise paired together -- perhaps because of his ongoing insistence that everything is related to everything else. This book implores readers to pay attention to the stories they tell to themselves and others, because that is what makes up religion; Dark believes (as the title suggests) that we are all religious, and it makes no sense to pretend otherwise. A bit densely-written, I'm not sure how eagerly I would recommend it to my friends, but I appreciate and hope to spread the ideas he champions in these pages.

[Anna Noden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave up halfway through. It's redundant! And too wordy. I honestly kept forgetting what the whole thesis was in the first place.

[Adam Bloch · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author is able to think about a lot of things in unique ways, and the titular theme is valuable, but he has only managed to deconstruct traditional and conservative thoughts, everything politically and theologically left is considered sacred (I'm not just summarizing; he makes this point directly). Despite his suggestion to question everything and keep growing in one’s mindset--the reader is left wondering why the author can't bring himself to question both sides. There’s definitely some bits of wisdom in this book, but it’s mixed in with a ton of polarizing references that casually (and sometimes not so casually) put down anyone who disagrees with the author. There are consistent nudges to believe in one’s own truth, but it is clear whose truth he thinks is true.

If you are on the edge for reading the book, just pick up and read the afterword, which makes extremely clear how foolish and spiritually abusive he thinks those people are with whom he disagrees.

Maybe the original edition was better? The afterword shares his thanks that he can repent of certain views in the former book.

[Josh Fisher]

One of the few thinkers who I feel understands religion in the same sense I do—someone who’s more likely to cite Dostoevsky or Octavia Butler than he is a Bible verse or theologian. It’s a way of looking at things that renders the phrase “not religious” just as nonsensical as “not cultural” or “not political.” It doesn’t add up. “True religion knows no neat divisions. The more we divide, the less we see.” Yeah. Yeah.

Also: props to Dark for rethinking some of his earlier positions and vocally renouncing “the soft fascism Christian supremacy.” I haven’t read the previous edition, but it sounds like this is a vast improvement

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think i like the older edition slightly better just because i've memorized certain phrases or the whole "label" paragraph but there are so many good helpful phrases i forgot about, the top two being Beloved Community and Attention Collection. either edition is well worth your time.

[hauntedandholierthanthou · Rating 5 out of 5]

very very good

[adie · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf. i want to read this so bad, but literally what the hell is this man on about.. i’ve picked this book up several times since buying it and i either fall asleep 2 pages in, have to skip several pages because i get lost, skip chapters because his anecdotes make no sense. i want to say i’ll continue to pick this up and try again throughout my life to see if it becomes a less challenging read, but it’s far too dense and i can’t get with the writing style no matter how much i try. good concepts - that’s about it for me.