A Restless Faith: Leaving Fundamentalism in a Quest for God

This book tells the story of Keiths restless journey of faith from his early days at Prairie Bible Institute in Canada through positive encounters with Anglican evangelicalism in Australia and into a more restful and sustainable faith. The book charts a way forward for people who feel they must choose between fundamentalism and jettisoning their faith altogether. I agree with Keith on some issues but not others. In one sense this is beside the point. Keith is more interested in asking the right questions than in answering them. The book is more biography than polemic--and is the better for it. It is a personal cry for a more gracious church: a community of faith that seeks to open up proper dialogue rather than shutting down an honest search for the truth. --Right Reverend Stuart P. Robinson Bishop Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn Australia I fully commend Reverend Dr. Keith Mascords book. For me as an Aboriginal theologian it raised still-unanswered questions about the impact of Christianitys arrival on this continent and of the need for a hermeneutic connected to this land its peoples and their stories. My hope is that my people will join and not be excluded from the quest for God and for better understandings that Dr. Mascord articulates in his highly readable autobiography. --Pastor Ray Minniecon Aboriginal Community Chaplain Redfern New South Wales This is a journey out of fundamentalism with a difference. So many such books depict personal despair and existential agony. This one takes us into the warm and generous lifeworld of a man who from his youth has loved a theological stoush as much as a good game of touch rugby. It follows Keiths steps as he loses his faith in fundamentalisms answers--but never his love for the people who raised him in its traditions. This is a book to bring comfort and hope to those walking a similar path. --Marion Maddox CORE Professor and ARC Future Fellow Macquarie University Sydney; author of God Under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics Keith Mascord is a Canadian-born Australian. He has been a teacher a priest an academic a chaplain and is currently a parole officer. For fifteen years Keith taught philosophy and pastoral theology at the Anglican seminary in Sydney Moore Theological College. Keith and his wife Judy have five sons and two grandsons. He is interested in philosophy hermeneutics and sport and loves to meet over coffee with family and friends.