We live in a culture of singles. Fewer of us get married; those who do, get married later in life. The number of children born in the United States each year keeps declining. Americans report having fewer friends, less community engagement, and rarer social outings. Amid a deficit of relationships that leaves us spouseless, childless, and friendless, more of us are also finding ourselves godless: Our lack of relationships with each other parallels the absence of a relationship with God. Without others, we are without God; without God, we are without others. Every person, it seems, is becoming an island.
Christopher Beha broaches this relationship deficit in his most recent book, Why I Am Not an Atheist: The Confessions of a Skeptical Believer. Beha has established himself as a talented novelist, especially with The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, a literary presentation of our human brokenness and of the grace that sometimes shines through the cracks. Why I Am Not an Atheist is as much about the need for relationships as it is an apologia for faith. It describes Beha’s discovery of the centrality of personal relationships, which opened him up to his need for a communal relationship with God.
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