Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower: Finding Answers in Jesus for Those Who Don't Believe

by Tom Krattenmaker Narrated by Tom Krattenmaker

Overview

An award-winning USA Today columnist makes the case for how a Jesus freed from religion and politics meets the need for meaning and purpose in secular America.
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Tom Krattenmaker is part of a growing conversation centered at Yale University that acknowledges-and seeks to address-the abiding need for meaning and inspiration in post-religious America. What, they ask, gives a life meaning? What constitutes a life well led?
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In Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower, Krattenmaker shares his surprising conclusion about where input and inspiration might best be found: in the figure of Jesus. And Jesus, not only as a good example and teacher, but Jesus as the primary guide for one's life.
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Drawing on sociological research, personal experience, and insights from fifteen years studying and writing on religion in American public life, Krattenmaker shows that in Jesus, nonreligious people like himself can find unique and compelling wisdom on how to honor the humanity in ourselves and others, how to build more peaceful lives, how generosity can help people and communities create more abundance, how to break free from self-defeating behaviors, and how to tip the scales toward justice.
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In a time when more people than ever are identifying as atheist or agnostic, Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower is a groundbreaking and compelling work that rediscovers Jesus--and our own best selves--for the world of today.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

08/08/2016
Krattenmaker (Onward Christian Athletes) was raised Catholic; he later stopped believing in the supernatural aspects of Christianity but still admired Jesus greatly as a role model. Asking what rock we should tether ourselves to in life, Krattenmaker makes a strong case for Jesus, not as a resurrected messiah or god, but as an ethical teacher and guide. Humanists and atheists have much to learn from this sage, Krattenmaker argues, and he spends his book outlining the basics of Jesus’s ethics. Most of this, with its emphasis on the loaves and the fishes (abundance), the Sermon on the Mount (radical nonviolence), and the good Samaritan (caring for others), will be familiar to anyone with an interest in or some exposure to Christianity, but for someone new to these stories or with a skeptical outlook, Krattenmaker’s book fills a gap. Krattenmaker is strongest when he marshals facts and figures to explain problems, such as overcrowding within the U.S. prison system, weakest when he talks about himself, but overall he offers a reasoned guide that makes a 2,000-year-old story relevant to secularists today. Agent: Kathryn Helmers, Creative Trust (Oct.)

From the Publisher

Is there a contradiction between believing that ‘Jesus is the answer’ and not being a Christian? In this spiritually honest book, Krattenmaker is intent on showing that there isn’t. Whether you are a Christian or not, whether you are religious or not, you will benefit from his wrestling with Jesus as the embodiment of the ‘true life,’ the key to human flourishing. An important book in a culture in which Jesus has for many become a ‘moral stranger.’”
-Miroslav Volf, professor of theology at Yale University, author of Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World
 
“In a book rich with meaning for believers and nonbelievers alike, Tom Krattenmaker offers insightful analysis of American culture and makes a uniquely compelling case for the transformative nature of Jesus.”
-Kirsten Powers, USA Today columnist, author of The Silencing
 
"This is an important book; brilliantly subversive and extraordinarily helpful. This gift is for any of us 'in search of a sun' around which to orbit our lives."
-William Paul Young, bestselling author of The Shack and Eve
 
"Tom Krattenmaker is a keen observer of culture and the American religious landscape, and I read everything he writes. In Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower, Krattenmaker offers readers surprising reflections on the benefits of modeling one's life based on Jesus's ministry and teachings. While the book purports to speak to non-believers, don't be fooled. A committed Christian will glean as much from this book as an avowed atheist."
-Jonathan Merritt, author of Jesus is Better Than You Imagined and contributing writer for The Atlantic
 
While too many of us in the Christian world are picking each other apart, Tom is about the real, substantive work of Jesus, right here and now. 
-Christian Piatt, author of Leaving A-Holiness Behind and postChristian, host of the Homebrewed CultureCast

Library Journal

10/01/2016
Krattenmaker, a columnist for USA Today and author of The Evangelicals You Don't Know, is a bit playful with the title of his latest work, as "Jesus follower" would be a secular version of "Christian" and the confessions have more in common with the Augsburg Confession than autobiography. The author puts forth a compelling portrait of Jesus stripped of theological trappings and sentimentality. Taking on societal ills such as the plight of the downtrodden or marginalized, Krattenmaker invokes the openness of Christ. In cases of power or violence, we see Jesus the subversive. What drives this confession is a savior who is impossibly good and vividly real in the face of our brokenness. Apart from frequent disavowals of any theological convictions, this work is akin to those by authors such as Jim Wallis. However, other writers are informed by a larger theological framework. Krattenmaker recognizes this and, at one point, attempts to demythologize this framework. Here, he falters somewhat. Reworking an interpretation of Jesus should require rethinking our understanding of His character. VERDICT Krattenmaker offers secular and religious readers a striking study of Jesus that could serve as a source of common ground and common cause.—JW

Kirkus Review

2016-07-31
How to follow Jesus without believing in him.USA Today columnist Krattenmaker (The Evangelicals You Don't Know: Introducing the Next Generation of Christians, 2013, etc.), the communications director at Yale Divinity, sticks close to his self-identity as a nonbeliever. Though he does not proclaim himself an atheist, he is indeed a secularist. Despite this, he finds in Jesus a role model of the highest order, and he attempts to convince his fellow secularists that Jesus is worth listening to, even worth following, so long as you don’t call it “religion.” Krattenmaker comes across as an almost stereotypical coastal liberal, working at Yale, with roots in Portland, Oregon, and a view of Christianity as something steeped in myth. Though he pokes fun at himself in this vein, the reality remains that he comes to his topic with a very defined worldview. He prides himself on having gotten to know some evangelical Christians, who were not as bad as he feared, but he still thinks they are wrong to have religious faith in Jesus. As a teacher of ethics and morality, however, Jesus is an unsurpassed example for the human race. Jesus’ words in the New Testament are not sacred to Krattenmaker but are indeed worth utilizing for daily ethical dilemmas. “When it comes to a secular engagement with Jesus,” he notes, “we can pick and choose, accept and reject, mix and match, however we wish.” The author stands in a difficult position. To nonbelievers, he will come off as a Christian. No matter how much he protests, the reality is that many self-professed Christians are just as unconvinced as he is of the supernatural aspects of Jesus’ story. Yet to many committed Christians, he will seem to be appropriating what they hold dear for his own purposes. Though the author is right to find moral bearings in the teachings of Jesus, his argument that one can follow Jesus yet not believe in him falls flat.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171905996
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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