A Holy Haunting: Why Faith Isn't a Leap But a Series of Staggers from One Safe Place to Another

by Sam D. Kim

What if we’ve been looking at faith all wrong? What if faith is not a mere byproduct of cultural factors, but an echo resounding from eternity?

Atheists like Richard Dawkins often mock prayer, equating it to calling upon a fairy in the sky. This misunderstanding pervades western society, criticizing those that practice traditional faith as “old fashioned” or “out of touch.” In A Holy Haunting, Dr. Sam D. Kim interacts with this perception of faith and challenges readers to look at faith another way.

Unlike many who discredit the power of the spiritual or immaterial, Dr. Kim sees human consciousness—the soul—as evidence of humanity being forged in the corridors of eternity, before the primordial universe and the Big Bang.

A Holy Haunting befriends the doubter, challenges the churchgoer and gives fresh vision to our earnest questions. Dr. Sam D. Kim – gives us all skeptics and believers alike – a roadmap to discovery and wonder.”

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction, Religion, Faith, Discipleship, Christianity

200 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 23

About the author

Rev. Dr. Sam D. Kim is a Harvard-trained ethicist and the co-founder of 180 Church in downtown Manhattan. He was appointed as a research fellow in Global Health and Social Medicine at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and part of Harvard Catalyst, where he researched inequities related to health, immigration, and social policies. Dr. Kim also holds the Lifelong Learning Fellowship at Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Medicine. An initiative awarded by the John Templeton Foundation and the AAAS aims to bridge the gap between faith and science. Dr. Kim's work has been cited by Harvard, Publishers Weekly, and the Washington Post. His debut book, A Holy Haunting, was the first inaugural grand prize winner in the Spirituality category to win Publishers Weekly's BookLife Prize in nonfiction.

Reviews

[Keigo Tanaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Holy Haunting explores faith from multiple vantage points - ranging from developmental psychology and postmodernism to personal faith journeys and even his own personal experiences of doubt and disillusionment in faith. The book acts as a guide for anyone who has been curious about faith, evoking the feeling of wonder that can arise when having a conversation with your friend talking about the meaning of life. My favorite part of the book was when he addressed the misunderstanding of doubt in the process of faith - as he says, "faith isn’t opposed to doubt; it is actually part of the process. In fact, you could go so far as to say that faith apart from doubt isn’t faith at all. Faith is born out of the crucible of doubt”. Go give it a read!

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Holy Haunting is a must-read for anyone on the faith spectrum: believer to non-believer, and everyone in between.

Dr. Kim invites the reader into a genuine and honest exploration of faith by pulling from his own personal experiences, while also referencing and critically evaluating a breadth of research, from theological, cultural, and scientific sources. The book does an excellent job bridging the gap between the spiritual and natural worlds. It is full of empathy and understanding of the different contexts in which faith must operate in, thus never coming off as condescending or out of touch, but always tender, warm and inviting to the reader.

For the seeker and non-believer, A Holy Haunting provides many practical tools to actively engage with your questions and reservations, an essential part of the faith process. For the believer, it serves as a powerful tool to reach across spiritual barriers you may experience with those you feel called to minister to and in the process, strengthen/find your own faith again.

On a personal note, I’ve gone through my own doubts and skepticism in my own faith journey, but can thankfully say I found my way home. In reading A Holy Haunting, I couldn’t help but think how invaluable it would have been to have had a resource like this along my journey. I highly recommend it to be part of yours, wherever you may be in that process. As Dr. Kim puts it, “come and see”!

[Joey Cheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Holy Haunting starts with a simple premise - while many may think of faith to be a leap, the actual journey may be imagined to be like a series of staggers from one safe place to another. Acting as a safe harbor for skeptics, seekers, and believers alike, the book explores faith incrementally, creating a plausibility for why humans may have an innate need for faith, how science and faith can be companions, and how our implicit biases may be hindering us from a critical examination of the gospel and the historicity of the bible. The author shares his own personal lived experiences of his own grapple with faith as well as personal faith journeys from his own church community to illustrate how the holy haunting looks like in different people’s lives. As a Christian, I found the book to be a refreshing reminder of why I believe in God, and how I can invite others into the journey of faith.

[Sam Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book feels like a biopic of my life. It's almost as if the author and I have lived identical lives ;)

[Andrew Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A holy haunting is a book that really spoke to me and in my own journey of faith. The stories of real faith in the community is powerful and relatable. The levity and humor of the book is disarming and enthralls you while the evidence and logic that is presented grounds you.

Working in the surgical field we always try to practice based on best available evidence. A holy haunting provides the evidence for faith and Christianity in such a logical and clear way it gives me a solid framework for my own journey in faith.

[Grace K Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it again and enjoyed it just as I did the first time I picked it up. I both laughed and teared up while reading the anecdotes that make the sophisticated arguments still approachable. Some pages were so beautifully worded I wanted to highlight every other sentence.

Definitely a book I would gift a friend seeking or questioning faith, especially those who want intellectual arguments while not willing to read something too dense or heavy.

[Billy Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

MUST READ FOR ALL SKEPTICS AND DOUBTERS.
As an NYU Chaplain, "A Holy Haunting" articulates and clarifies the most pressing issue of faith in this generation. It's a refreshing take, giving the skeptics and believers permission to be real and honest of our most deepest questions. Most importantly, Sam D. Kim treats us as a friend along our journey of faith, never imposing but gently guiding us to recognize that Jesus Christ has been with us all along.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Holy Haunting by Dr. Sam Kim explores faith and a relationship with God with a fresh new perspective. It asks a lot of questions that Christians may not have known that they had. It also covers the basics of apologetics with those who don't know their standing with God. Regardless, Dr. Kim has written a book that is fun to read, humorous, and really hit home for me.

[Joe Han · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Holy Haunting is a thought-provoking and brilliant approach to faith that is long overdue. Packed with fresh theological insight and novel ideas, this book is specifically written to offer seekers, skeptics, and doubting believers an alternative perspective on faith. Sam D. Kim’s approach is inviting, genuine, balanced, nuanced, and open-minded. The perspectives offered are intellectually sound and existentially satisfying, engaging both head and heart. As a Christian, I found myself laughing out loud numerous times while simultaneously thinking, “wait… somebody was finally able to articulate something I was thinking for the longest time!”

The book builds a case for Christianity referencing multiple disciplines including history, biology, psychology, theology, philosophy, and sociology. As a mental health clinician, I felt that the book was psychologically sound. At one point, Dr. Kim argues that the root cause of today’s mental health crises (i.e. loneliness epidemic, increasing suicide rates) is just as much spiritual as it is psychological. Undoubtedly, advancements in psychopharmacology and therapy have helped the cause but it also has its limitations. The author suggests that faith and spirituality is the missing piece to our society’s conundrum. At first glance, this answer may sound like “fluff” but the current literature apparently supports the view that faith based involvement and spiritual development improve mental health outcomes. These ideas (and many more) bring food for thought and many will find the read helpful in processing their faith.

Even if you don’t completely buy into Christianity, this is worth the read. It’s always worth hearing the perspective of a Harvard trained academic and a rising Christian intellectual. This is a highly recommended read!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Holy Haunting helped rewaken my heart and faith. It also gave me permission to ask questions I hadn’t asked before. And it showed me the magic of how God writes stories in and with our lives.

One of the things I love about literary and apologetics author C.S. Lewis is his ability to be personable - many say he makes you feel known and like you have a friend along the journey of exploring faith, whether again or for the first time. Dr. Sam D. Kim does exactly that for me in this book. There were so many moments where he shared his doubts or hurts, and I was able to think back on my own with a similar perspective of love, and also work through my doubts with evidence-based, critical thinking. As someone who grew up with Jewish and Christian backgrounds, I went through a difficult period of questioning and searching for what is true. This book would have been so helpful to have during that time!

As a neuroscientist in training, I am so grateful to have this resource to come back to again and again as I continue exploring the connections between faith and science. Dr. Sam D. Kim brings his expertise in sociology, theology, psychology, and bioethics to create such an accessible framework for faith. In my field, every claim needs to be backed by a large body of research that supports it. I felt trusting of Dr. Sam D. Kim’s writing because he provides this type of support from different areas, while also weaving in touches of beautiful and poignant quotes. (Plus, there are some one-liners in here that really made me stop in my tracks!) I laughed, too, quite a few times - Dr. Sam D. Kim’s writing pairs levity and humor with academic writing in a way I didn’t know was possible. This is definitely a must-read if you've ever questioned or wondered about the existence of God. I can't wait to share it with my friends and family!

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Holy Haunting is a must-read for anyone on the faith spectrum: believer to non-believer, and everyone in between.

Dr. Kim invites the reader into a genuine and honest exploration of faith by pulling from his own personal experiences, while also referencing and critically evaluating a breadth of research, from theological, cultural, and scientific sources. The book does an excellent job bridging the gap between the spiritual and natural worlds. It is full of empathy and understanding of the different contexts in which faith must operate in, thus never coming off as condescending or out of touch, but always tender, warm and inviting to the reader.

For the seeker and non-believer, A Holy Haunting provides many practical tools to actively engage with your questions and reservations, an essential part of the faith process. For the believer, it serves as a powerful tool to reach across spiritual barriers you may experience with those you feel called to minister to and in the process, strengthen/find your own faith again.

On a personal note, I’ve gone through my own doubts and skepticism in my own faith journey, but can thankfully say I found my way home. In reading A Holy Haunting, I couldn’t help but think how invaluable it would have been to have had a resource like this along my journey. I highly recommend it to be part of yours, wherever you may be in that process. As Dr. Kim puts it, “come and see”!

[LydiaKim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed A Holy Haunting and especially appreciated the chapter on “spiritual refugees” addressing the need for the church to become a safe harbor to those who are doubting their faith, not just finding it. He highlights the struggle well so that it isn’t missed in the crowd of those who are certain and well. He welcomes the process and helps ease the shame and aloneness anyone may feel about the doubts. He invites those struggling to be honest about the doubts to process them honestly. He writes about his own experience, "I wish someone had told me at the start of my own struggle with faith in college that it is human to doubt and that doubt feels a lot like fear. You can't help but wonder if there is something wrong with you or with the world, or if the world is changing or if you are. Change is supposed to feel like something is off because something is." There are many reasons why one would struggle in their faith journey and I really believe A Holy Haunting will help ease that process and help many along the way.

[Hailee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Holy Haunting was an enjoyable and interesting read. It welcomes a spectrum of readers- from skeptics to believers and all those in between. It’s an invitation for all non believers to investigate faith and start a conversation about faith. There were interesting points made of science and faith and the validity of Christianity and the historicity of Jesus Christ. For believers, there were many relatable personal stories of faith and the struggles and doubts that come from the process of walking with Christ and developing a relationship with God—that it’s “not a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seems like one safe place to another.”

This book has helped me to feel better equipped to reach out and introduce people to faith. It also provided a better understanding of how science and faith go hand in hand and bridge the gap that people may feel. I highly recommend this book to all!!

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A Holy Haunting" had me self-reflecting my renewed faith in God at every page. The very concerns/doubts that deterred me from God during my college years were meticulously answered by Dr. Sammy. To read that doubt is human gave me a piece of mind, as I now understand that there are others who go through what I went, and coming back to God. The cross-examination of science and religion was thought-provoking and well explained for people who question wether religion can co-exist with scientific explanations of creation. I particularly enjoyed the section where Dr. Sammy likens the existence of Jesus to the country Kazakhstan. Personal anecdotes such as this, along with pop culture references, helped make the reading more relatable.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an act of love, a helpful hand to bring clarity and reason in this often confusing and fear driven place we call life. As a Christian who has read from great authors like C.S. Lewis and Father Henri Nouwen, I found the same compassion Reverend Dr. Sam D. Kim has for others in any stage of their belief, or nonbelief. I recommend this book like a basics course on how to start taking ownership of your life and how to think critically about faith. It also introduces you to the many friends along the journey.

[joan claire wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

accepting the holy haunting

As a Christian, I still struggle with how to approach others, especially those I love the most, about faith. This book is a very readable way, summarizing the believability of the Gospels and the ways individuals have come to faith.

[Remo Tlale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful in the journey

Much of what Sam addresses is what I have had to wrestle with on my faith journey over the years and he does so honestly, sincerely and factually not bashing or shaming anyone.

[Ana Frye · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 if I could! I’d confidently give this book to someone on the fence about faith, especially if they had a background in STEM. It doesn’t go as deep as I somewhat wished it would, especially in the evidence levels provided… but it’s a good starting point resource.

[Maverick Independent Book Review · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was drawn into reading this book by the people Sam D. Kim is speaking to. Those who have deep spiritual longings, who are not all about church. Those who are in church, who know they have deep spiritual longings. And those who have left the church because it did not share their real, lived questions. These diverse audiences he calls “far, near, and somewhere in between.” Speaking to all of them together in the language of faith relates to a task Christianity calls “apologetics.” Kim’s blurbers say as much in the foreword to the book A Holy Haunting: Why Faith Isn’t a Leap but a Series of Staggers from One Safe Place to Another.

While intrigued, I approached the book with justified caution. I think of apologetics as “making faith make sense” using the language and symbol system of a surrounding culture not of that faith. By touching on points of meaning already in the world(view) of people beyond the church, and translating a spiritual contribution made in that area by Christianity, apologists have – in the last 2000 years or so – both welcomed newcomers and edified the faithful. As translators of ultimate meaning, they have been creative and expansive. They have also been stubborn and entrenched, argumentative, defensive and combative. Any new book of apologetics risks the same errors.

The cultural ‘surround,’ for Kim as a Christian pastor in New York City, is not any faith specifically, but the absence of a faith tradition. He reaches to secular academics and successful professionals, to connect thinking people to join the church that he pastors. Surprise surprise, educated adults can at times find themselves drawn into the fabric of a faith community! This makes sense, the book says (and I concur) because human beings are made for community and for Love. A spiritual framework for community and for meaning provide an astonishing amount of people with higher well-being than others, simply by being part of an inter-generational tradition. The Easter faith of courage and hope amidst pain and sacrifice is one such tradition, attested by many reputable and irreputable people through times and across cultures.

I myself value mystery as much as logic in my religious world. Yet I share with the author a compassion for rational adults when they are making a faith commitment, and/or when needing to deconstruct/reconstruct their faith as adults. They deserve to know that their place of (chosen) belonging is not an infantilizing cult, that they can have other reference points beyond the canon of whatever sacred text started it, and they can expect openness instead of shame for ongoing lived spiritual experience and interpretation. They deserve this even in evangelical Christianity, which is far too often known for the opposite.

From his own experience, the author tells of a “tsunami of doubt that would rip the seams off my youthful faith.” After facing the potential death of his mother, as a young man he developed a more compassionate sense of prayer amidst unanswered questions. “From hindsight, I’ve learned that struggling with doubt while grappling with loss is not apostasy; it is just human.” Instead of thinking “something was wrong” with him, feeling like a “renegade,” or staying “in spiritual exile” with the fullness of his emotions and critical thinking, he came to look back on this period of life, his sadness and his questions, as a “spiritual puberty” – a necessary part of growing up.

The best thing about this book is its stated commitment to reduce shame and stigma for people when they question, doubt, and explore their beliefs – saying instead that this should be viewed an important part of the human life cycle. As Kim says, “What has been typically valued in Christian spirituality is an unhealthy dependency on certainty that leaves little room for ambiguity when both life and faith are often messy and tumultuous.” True belonging and meaning actually depend on these expressions of authenticity.

Where this books falls down is with a lack of self-critique within the tradition. For example, Kim omits how religious LGBTQ people suffer when a sense of belonging is withheld from their sacred community, and when their framework for moral and spiritual meaning is jeopardized from the beginning. By not exposing how the church has actually harmed the well-being of queer groups of people, in his chapter on the epidemic of suicide the author tacitly blames queer people for their own suffering. For these and other stigmatized groups, Kim stops short of addressing harmful norms that have accrued onto Christian faith. Of which there are many!

I picture Sam Kim as the enthusiastic guy with a marker at the whiteboard – half the time talking to himself as he draws and writes, half the time talking to the people in the room, who both chuckle and admire the enthusiastic guy at the whiteboard. Faith communities tend to have at least some people like this, teachers infused with ideas who want to get big ideas across! People in the room tolerate them pretty well, as long as they don’t get into fights with other big-idea-marker-people. Of course different faith communities have different people with different markers. It goes ok until someone with a marker wants to hit others over the head with their marker – which Sam King expressly doesn’t.

Yet I have the feeling that many of the people this author reads would totally hit others over the head with their marker. And their influence shows. Kim’s footnotes detail 20th century American forebears with Billy Graham megaphones and a rigid conception of who is in and who is out. While Kim’s memoir-style case for faith seeks to expand the circle of participation, I notice that only men are quoted in A Holy Haunting (with the exception of Anne Lamott, whose inspiration lent the excellent subtitle of the book, and Margaret Atwood whose post-Christian fiction was used as a kind of a cautionary tale). A tone of confrontation comes through. The book includes a somewhat random chapter debating evolution. It ends with a C.S. Lewis quasi-archival plea for certainty regarding the New Testament. The final pages can be used as a tract, which does not suggest dialogue and development, but rather goal lines and conversion. I was disappointed.

Early on, the author states: “My goal isn’t to win religious arguments that you couldn’t care less about, but rather to start a genuine dialogue about things that really matter and touch the deepest part of our lives.” If this is a genuine motivation in his pastoral work, I hope Kim will also recommend other 21st century authors to people in his church:

I recommend Jacqui Lewis, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Molly Phinney Baskette, Lauren F. Winner, Heidi Neumark, Ann Kansfield, Rhina Ramos, and Christina Kukuk – all Christian pastors, all women who have written memoirs.

Plus women who haven’t been pastors, but who (like C.S. Lewis) have written as laypeople to fill out the church’s ministry of teaching, feeling, and critical thinking in a complicated world: Diana Butler Bass, Debie Thomas, Kat Armas, Bekah McNeel.

My own book might be too far afield for this list – one pastor’s queer theological memoir written by a transgender man. Even as I name that caveat, I can only guess that some people baptized in Sam Kim’s congregation are going to need to have a real gender conversation at some point! For their sake, I applaud the spirit of staggering, and the author’s human demonstration of authenticity.

Contributed by Rev. Dr. Malcolm Himschoot, author ofReading Secrets: A Queer Inheritance of Life and Scripture and the article “Practices of Spirit for Genderqueer and Transgender Christians

[Drew Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

From a literal book perspective:

This book needs an editor. The first few chapters have a number of typos and errors. The author likes to use the same phrase multiple times on a page or in a chapter, it just reads poorly. There’s not a lot of variety in how he might describe something or someone, so it felt a bit like when you’re trying to hit a word count for an essay but you don’t have a thesaurus handy.

From a content perspective:

Holy Haunting was not quite what I’d hoped it would be. The back of the book and the subtitle made me think it would be Christian prose written about running to and relying on instances of God’s faithfulness in your life (“staggering from one safe place to the next”), but really it’s more like an alternate version of Tim Keller’s “Reason for God”. The main audience would either be skeptics with an interest in the faith or Christians struggling with specific issues that Dr. Kim addresses (literal Genesis interpretation, historicity of Jesus, New Testament reliability, etc.) The subtitle, which really inspired my desire to read this, is most just a copy of another author’s prose on faith. I think the best part about Dr. Kim’s research and writing is his discussion on why Jesus really must have existed and why the Bible can be treated as a historical account. Ultimately this book wasn’t for me (and I suppose wasn’t really written for me), but I would definitely recommend it to the science-minded seeker.

[Henry Benry · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the casual reader, this book will leave a lasting impact. Dr. Kim humorously and fiercely presents the Gospel, calling out our own implicit biases, while sharing his own personal life. Academically and anecdotally, we will be challenged to think critically about the historicity of Jesus and follow the author's coming-of-age story, growing up in New York City.

It is a vulnerable book that cries through painful memories of doubts and celebrates the lives of those making sense of their own faith. I learned a lot reading alongside prestigious scholars who tackled major themes of Christianity and the prayers helped me process each chapter intellectually and spiritually.

Let’s not forget how poetic the introduction is! I would love to see this adapted into a film one day!

[Christine Doron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faith when you least expect it

Reading this book may in itself be a haunting, a direction from God. As a Christian, I like many, are uncomfortable speaking of our faith in the current world. Ironically doing so may bring a neighbor, a friend, a co-worker freedom from daily fears. This book provides encouragement to trust that even a small kindness could begin their Stagger.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty fresh presentation of aspects of the Christian faith that provides contemporary nuance to some of the issues that might stand in the way of someone making a journey of belief. Apologetics involving a mix of old school and new school approaches. Probably worth a read for someone investigating these things.

For me, it came with a lot of credibility from appearing on the excellent Englewood Review of Books, and I love the main title of the book.

But I find that apologetics always puts me in an argumentative state. And I feel almost duty bound to take issue with the subtitle: "Why faith isn't a leap but a series of staggers from one safe place to another" (phraseology lifted from Anne Lamott).

The field of apologetics is often based on the idea that a person can reason their way to faith. As I understand it, in the subtitle Kim is saying that faith isn't simply blindly and boldly jumping into the void with no supporting evidence to suggest that something might catch you (an unreasoned bit of fantasy or wishful thinking), but rather, tentatively making your way from one reasonable and sound proposition to another. It is these kinds of propositions that he seeks to touch on in the book.

I quite like this picture. And I especially like Anne Lamott's image of staggering and safe places - though knowing Anne Lamott I doubt she is talking about reasoned intellectual stepping stones when she talks about safe places. For her, it is likely to be a more existential and messy process. And Kim does give space to those kinds of existential hungers and drives that draw us towards faith.

But I want to get a little pedantic. I want to say that faith IS a leap AND a series of staggers from one safe place to another.

The concept of the leap of faith comes from Kierkegaard, a thinker who worked hard to position Christianity and faith in the gritty realities of the human condition. Years after he died, he got a lot of flak from apparently reason-based apologeticists like Francis Schaeffer. But he shouldn't have. Some of that unfair assessment was based on what subsequent existentialist thinkers did with his work, and on varying interpretations of what was meant by such concepts as the leap of faith.

Essentially, the idea of the leap of faith is the acknowledgement that reason can only take you so far, and also that the limits of the human condition and capacity to know, mean that at some point a leap is involved. And not only at some point, but actually when you think about it, pretty much all the time. In many ways, human life is an act of trust. Furthermore, Kierkegaard pointed out that to commit to the Christian faith is actually to adhere to some big claims... propositions which might not only appear absurd, but also have some pretty big implications for the way we are called to live. So yes indeed - a leap of faith for sure.

None of this detracts from the Christian faith per se. The call is to make the leap, rather than to deny that a leap exists. It can, and maybe in some ways should be, an anxious moment. But it does also involve safe spaces. And Kierkegaard paints the state of faith on the other side of the leap as ideally a state of quiet freedom (although we know that we will in reality continue to encounter anxiety along the way - that's life).

Actually, despite the subtitle, throughout the book Kim acknowledges this kind of leap. For example he talks about giving in to the inklings that God is calling you into something. That's what the 'holy haunting' idea is about. Reason might play a part, but if it does (and it might not, by the way - not everyone is wired that way) it can only take you so far. A leap for sure. And at the end Kim invites you to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, even though the book has given you no watertight proof that this is so. Some pretty decent arguments have been made that a historical figure named Jesus of Nazareth existed. But as for this other claim - a leap of faith for sure. No matter how convincing you find it, and no matter how much your gut or heart say it's true, a leap is involved. But a leap is a good thing.

Another interpreter of Kierkegaard, Clare Carlisle (Professor of Philosophy at King's College London... Kim likes noting people's qualifications, so I'll put one here haha), talks about the leap of faith as being like a dancer's leap. The dancer is prepared to leave the ground, but always returns to the ground... that's the reality of human existence and the life of faith. And when you think about it, this image is actually a more gracefully pictured version of staggering from one safe place to another. It's both of course, that's life.

Faith is a leap, and it's staggering from one safe place to another.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is faith and where does it come from? Is faith just a whim? Or is there something deeper. In A Holy Haunting, Sam D. Kim shows “why faith isn’t a leap but a series of staggers from one safe place to another.”

Kim is the perfect author for this type of book. He is a Harvard-trained ethicist and a former research fellow at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. He’s also the co-founder of 180 Church in downtown Manhattan and a recipient of the lifelong Learning Fellowship at Yale Divinity School and Yale Medicine, which aims to close the gap between faith and science. His background makes him the perfect person to help both skeptics and believers take a fresh look at faith.

After a foreword by Leighton Ford, founding president of the Lausanne Movement, Kim shares a story of how he went from being a skeptic to a worshiper, although not in the typical way of religion. To illustrate, Kim writes how, growing up, he didn’t like girls at all—not until he found the one who would be the love of his life. Kim compares the change of loathing girls to liking girls — to spiritual rebirth. He refers to these inner workings of the soul — this transformative developmental process — as spiritual puberty. Salvation can be complex, and this book helps to make sense of the mess.


A Lifelong Longing

In Part 1, Kim defines biblical faith as a lifelong evolutionary longing to make meaning of human existence in light of a higher plane of reality. Kim speaks of the spiritual consciousness as a basic part of human development and how it is bridged with the academic disciplines of biology, psychology and theology. While this is a book that deals with heavy discussions, Kim remains conversational and sprinkles stories throughout his writing.

Part 2 discusses deconstruction and the need for a safe harbor for those who have been spiritually displaced. Kim is direct, yet kind. He tells of the beginnings of his own deconstruction when he doubted the reality of Heaven during his mother’s diagnosis of a stroke. I was most moved to read on how some who deconstruct choose to live as expats in a self-imposed exile.

Kim goes on to explain how faith is not opposed to doubt. Reading this chapter made me more sensitive to those who are deconstructing, while also giving me points to discuss in conversation.


When Faith Becomes Sight

Part 3 deals with four big questions and objections to the Christian faith: (1) Did God create the world? (2) Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist? (3) Are the gospels a reliable source? (4) Does God still speak today?

In regards to the historical Jesus, I was most surprised to read that even the Talmud makes reference to Jesus. Furthermore, even non-Christian scholars argue for the existence of the historical Jesus. Finally, the pull of Jesus across generations and as the dominant figure of Western culture for the past 20 centuries is undeniable.

The book concludes with a call to “cross the swamp” of doubt. He admits that conversion is less like a leap of blind faith and more like somehow making it from one area of confidence to another.

Those who doubt their faith will find a friend in Kim. For firm believers, you will be equipped to come alongside those who struggle. My heart was moved to worship, thanking God for the gift of faith and anticipating the day for when my faith will become sight.


I received a media copy of A Holy Haunting and this is my honest review.

[Kim Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

My low rating comes, not because this isn't an interesting book, but because the way it is written. I am no Einstein, but I have a very good vocabulary and have worked in both the medical and legal fields so know lots of lingo! This author, however, is so highly educated, he talks at a level so "above" the average person's daily conversational dialect, it is a labor to read. Most of us regular folks use them "nickel" words, but this book is filled from end to end with $5 words that you just don't hear every day - with more syllables in one word than are in a lot of sentences. AND WHAT A SHAME. This book truly has some wonderful Christian insights! Most authors write to the general public. This book is expressed with vocabulary that isn't even used in the average college lecture.

[Edward Cho · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reader of A Holy Haunting will be left with many insights to help give a framework for faith and Christianity. A Holy Haunting gives us a clear context to many of the questions we've always had in the back of our minds. Author, Sam Kim does not impose an agenda 'nor tries to sell you Jesus. Instead, he brings you along a journey that is intricately thought out - so that you are equipped to make informed decisions for yourself. Weaving history, science, and religion effortlessly, A Holy Haunting readers will perhaps be able to identify the voice that's been haunting them within and make a choice that can change the trajectory of their life forever.

[Yuen Loong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took my time reading this. It's a short book but it's packed. And it provokes me to think in a number of places. Good for anyone who wants to understand faith or struggling with faith.

[Christina Xu · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been several months since I read A Holy Haunting, and still now I periodically catch myself thinking about the book and feeling compelled by the ideas expressed in it.

On a literal level, A Holy Haunting is about reconciling science and Christianity, empiricism and spirituality, skepticism and faith. In the book, Dr. Kim discusses topics such as evolutionary creationism and cognitive and psychological development, and it's clear that he has a passion for the sciences and cares a lot about bridging the world we can see with the one we can't see. Even so, this book is not about lecturing on theories; Dr. Kim has spent over two decades doing ministry with ambitious millennials and Gen Z-ers in New York, and his tender heart for this demographic really shows.

At the very start Dr. Kim writes that he is not a snake oil salesman - this book isn't a set of magic words that will charm someone into following God. These are sincere words written by someone who has an intimate understanding that faith is not a straight and sure road. Most of the anecdotes in the book share a common thread: that the journey towards Christ is long and winding. Over and over Dr. Kim expresses that faith is neither straightforward nor easy, and many of the men and women whom he's discipled started from a place very far away from believing in the gospel.

As someone who struggles with a fair amount of doubt, and who likewise had a very back-and-forth journey to Christ, I found so much encouragement and wisdom in A Holy Haunting. Dr. Kim's stories, and especially his vulnerability about his own skepticism, remind me that not only is doubt okay, but being honest about our questions and skepticism is foundational to a healthy faith.

Really though, what struck me most about this book was Dr. Kim's emphasis on the need to address the spiritual part of our lives and world. He points out that our postmodern society largely ignores or is unaware of this spiritual part. Throughout the book, he asks us to reflect on what he calls the "holy haunting" - that longing that every one of us feels in the deepest part of our soul. We answer to our bodies by eating when we're hungry, and we answer to our mental and emotional health with therapy and self-care, and Dr. Kim acknowledges the value in those things. But how much more valuable, then, is answering to our holy haunting?

[Serena Koh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always appreciate a book that's well-researched, and this was one of them. Sam does offer some positively thought-provoking ideals that I helped me to change some of my perspectives about building faith.