Faith Beyond Belief by Margaret Placentra Johnston

Describing many religious institutions as 'exclusionist, ethnocentric, judgmental, and triumphalist,' Johnston maps a future for religion that is 'post-critical,' heterodox, mystery-centered, and teaches moral reasoning rather than doctrinal adherence. Understanding this natural movement, indicates Johnston, may shift the expanding 'spiritual, but not religious' demographic toward more satisfying spiritual depths. Interweaving personal stories from Catholics, a Mormon, a Muslim, Protestants, and others with accumulated core insights from human development experts, including Abraham Maslow, Lawrence Kohlberg, Gordon Allport, and James Fowler, Johnston identifies five stages of 'deconversion' and spiritual growth: Lawless, Faithful, Rational, Rational Plus, and Mystic. 'In this thought-provoking first book, former optometrist Johnston, who has studied spiritual development, allies herself with the 'beyond religion' movement, in which nonbelievers or those who are 'post-organized religion' advance toward spiritual maturity through emotional intelligence, psychology, ethics, and critical thinking outside of traditional religious structures and belief systems. It also points beyond the atheist/believer controversy wrecking such divisive havoc in our culture today.

Johnston's book will help doubters to see things in a new light as well as those who are struggling to clarify their own spiritual vision. Her second set of stories are of people at the 'mystic' level who can tolerate paradox and see truth and reality as multidimensional. But, while that step is a necessary one on the spiritual path, it is only intermediate.

The stories of the nonbelievers-including an ex-Catholic, a former Mormon, and a clandestine Muslim apostate who left his community after the attacks of 9/11-show how complete confidence in human reason can lead away from literal religious interpretation.

Some of these real-life accounts are by nonbelievers others are by those among the growing numbers of the 'spiritual but not religious.' All are thoughtful people with too much integrity to live what they consider a lie. Johnston uses first-person stories as well as known spiritual authorities in describing various stages of religious growth.

Faith Beyond Belief gives a much-needed voice to the 'good' people who have left their church but whose spirituality continues to mature.

Faith Beyond Belief by Margaret Placentra Johnston