by Jeff Sharlet
First published 2009
This anthology from KillingTheBuddha.com gathers personal accounts of faith in unexpected places. Contributors write about sex education lessons in Catholic classrooms, encounters with witches across Kansas, and religious sects thriving in city life. The collection includes stories of Buddhists cutting hair in barbershops, Sufis hiding in plain sight, and a teenage Jewish messiah living in Queens. Each piece explores the messy territory between belief and skepticism. Writers share moments when religion disappeared from their lives, returned unexpectedly, then vanished again. These personal testimonies avoid easy answers about faith. Instead, they reveal the complicated ways people navigate religious doubt and conviction in contemporary America.
Genres: anthologies, contemporary, non-fiction, belief
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-testimonies
Setting: Kansas, Queens, America
Period: contemporary
280 pages · Paperback · Beacon Press