Why I Left, Why I Stayed : Conversations on Christianity Between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son
Author(s): Tony Campolo, Bart Campolo
Bestselling Christian author, activist, and scholar Tony Campolo and his son Bart, an avowed Humanist, debate their spiritual differences and explore similarities involving faith, belief, and hope that they share.
Over a Thanksgiving dinner, fifty-year-old Bart Campolo announced to his Evangelical pastor father, Tony Campolo, that after a lifetime immersed in the Christian faith, he no longer believed in God. The revelation shook the Campolo family dynamic and forced father and son to each reconsider his own personal journey of faith—dual spiritual investigations into theology, faith, and Humanism that eventually led Bart and Tony back to one another.
In Why I Left, Why I Stayed, the Campolos reflect on their individual spiritual odysseys and how they evolved when their paths diverged. Tony, a renowned Christian teacher and pastor, recounts his experience, from the initial heartbreak of discovering Bart’s change in faith, to the subsequent healing he found in his own self-examination, to his embracing of his son’s point of view. Bart, an author and Humanist chaplain at the University of Southern California, considers his faith journey from Progressive Christianity to Humanism, revealing how it affected his outlook and transformed his relationship with his father.
As Why I Left, Why I Stayed makes clear, a painful schism between father and son that could have divided them irreparably became instead an opening that offered each an invaluable look not only at what separated them, but more importantly, what they shared.
Review(s):
“Rarely are questions of faith genuinely debated with the kind of sincerity, insight, and compassion presented in Tony and Bart Campolo’s thoughtful new book. We can all be grateful this isn’t just a family discussion.”
“A love story for our time. One of the most honest books of this generation.”
“An indispensable treatise of hope and transformation. In an age when the fastest growing religious demographic in the United States are those who are not formally affiliated with religion, Tony and Bart provide us all with a model for how we engage, interrogate, and reconcile our similarities and differences.”
“Bart’s journey—and especially the amazing relationship he’s forged with his superstar preacher dad—will delight anyone looking for an example of how to live a beautiful and good life without God. Tony’s response—to honestly engage without attacking—is equally inspiring.”
“An intellectual feast, an example, and a window into robust expressions of both evangelicalism and humanism. This is an important book for our times. Please read it.”
“The Campolos have done us all a huge favor by discussing their differences right here in the open. A remarkable book.”
“Bold. Gripping. Brutally honest.”
“This book offers a model that could bring healing to many torn relationships--a thoughtful dialogue into which people from across the spiritual spectrum can enter.”
“[Tony Campolo is] one of the most important evangelical Christian preachers of the last 50 years, a prolific author and an erstwhile spiritual adviser to Bill Clinton.”
“[Bart Campolo] is a rising star of atheism.”
ISBN: 9780062415370