Wishful Thinking: How I Lost My Faith and Why I Want to Find It

by Donna Freitas

Publisher:

Worthy Books

, 2024

Donna Freitas wants to believe.

Raised Catholic, she sang songs about Jesus as a child and lived in a house where nuns and priests were regular guests, yet she found herself questioning the faith of her family, examining the reasons none of it added up, and distancing herself from the God of Christianity.

Despite her questions—or perhaps because of them—she made a career out of trying to understand God, pursuing a PhD in religion. But even as she taught college students about mystics, theologians, and others who wrestled with God, she was never able to embrace a faith of her own.

In this searingly honest and deeply personal book, Freitas retraces her roundabout path up and out of the wilderness toward hope, and her dogged—and ongoing—search for faith. She talks about her experience with the Catholic abuse scandal, about being embraced as a speaker at evangelical colleges, about how the death of her mother and the loss of her marriage made her question everything she thought she knew about love, how she cannot reconcile the ways the concept of God makes absolutely no sense, and how she cannot stop trying to believe, despite it all.

Real, raw, and beautifully written, Wishful Thinking is a powerful story about the author’s search for belief in God and about finding God in the most unexpected places.

Praise for Wishful Thinking

“Donna writes about all the difficult things in life — accidents, illness, break-ups, abuse — in her signature incisive style using words to slash scenes into being, carving feelings out of vowels, and connecting us through what she calls ’the magic of writing…' Soulful and sparse, her prose cuts right to the core. I truly appreciate Donna’s candor, bravery, and openness in her latest fabulous read.”—Zibby Owens, author of Blank and Bookends; host of the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books; CEO of Zibby Media

"A beautiful exploration of what it really means to find ourselves—and faith—when it seems like all hope is lost."—Amy B. Scher, author of This is How I Save My Life

"Anyone who ever struggled with the longing for a faith they left behind will be grateful for this radiantly wise memoir by Donna Freitas, who brings a piercing clarity and hard-won joy to her radically honest appraisal of the gifts and the burdens of belief.”

—Carlene Bauer, author of Girls They Write Songs About

"Donna Freitas writes with a lucid, searching honesty. Wishful Thinking is a colorful memoir of a Catholic childhood, and what came after…This is a book for anyone who wonders how--even long after one has left the religious tradition of one's origins--it continues to leave its imprint in surprising ways."—Rene Steinke, author of Friendswood

Product Details

• Title: Wishful Thinking: How I Lost My Faith and Why I Want to Find It
• Author: Donna Freitas
• Publisher: Worthy Books
• Print Publication Date: 2024
• Logos Release Date: 2023
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781546004608, 9781546004585, 1546004580, 1546004602
• Resource ID: LLS:9781546004608
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-11T06:01:44Z

About Donna Freitas

Donna Freitas is Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University. Her most recent book project is Sex and the Soul (Oxford, March 2007), based on a national study about the influence of sexuality and romantic relationships on the spiritual identities of America’s college students. A devoted fan of the celebrated British children’s author Philip Pullman, her book about the religious and ethical dimensions of his award-winning trilogy: Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman’s Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials (Jossey-Bass/Wiley), just recently hit the bookshelves. Much of her writing, teaching, and lecturing centers around struggles of belonging and alienation with regard to faith, particularly among young adults and especially with regard to young women. She loves to ask Big Questions (Why are we here anyway?) and delights in discovering the many possible forums in which to dabble with the stuff of faith, religion, spirituality, and gender. This attitude accounts for her upcoming venture into the world of fiction, since she will see the publication of her first novel, The Possibilities of Sainthood—about a 15 year old girl, Antonia Lucia Labella, who aspires to become the first official living saint in Catholic history—with Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (FSG) in 2008. A regular contributor to The Washington Post/Newsweek’s online panel “On Faith” the religion webzine Beliefnet,and Publishers Weekly, she has also written for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Christian Century, School Library Journal, and she has appeared as a commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered. Her books also include Becoming a Goddess of Inner Poise: Spirituality for the Bridget Jones in All of Us, and Save the Date: A Spirituality of Dating, Love, Dinner & the Divine. Born in Rhode Island, Donna now splits her time between New York City and Boston