Stumbling Toward God:
A Prodigal’s Return
Stumbling Toward God traces a woman’s spiritual search with an unusual twist – from an “atheist who prays” to unorthodox membership in two churches with contrasting approaches to worship: Unitarian and Episcopal. An honest, satisfying read for anyone questioning or seeking a spiritual path. First Place for Nonfiction Book in the PNWA Literary Competition.
The Second Edition, published in March, 2020, includes new material that opens up the individual spiritual journey to the universal, on a path laid out by love.
What others say about Stumbling Toward God...
"An offbeat, engagingly written, appealingly uncertain spiritual memoir." —Publisher's Weekly
"This book is the real stuff. Read it carefully—carefully because the fine writing will repay your attention, and carefully because it's the kind of quietly dangerous material that just might change you." —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
"Honest, elegant, and smart—this book is essential reading for anyone grappling with life's big questions, inside and outside what we call church."
— Christine Hemp, author of Wild Ride Home: Love, Loss, and a Little White Horse – A Family Memoir and That Fall (poems)
"With a mystic's heart and a scientist's precision, Margaret McGee traces the path of her journey away from religion, back again, and onward to a pilgrimage of transformation by love. Like a hand-drawn map of frontier territory, this book rewards those willing to venture past comfortable boundaries into unexplored terrain.
— Rev. Dr. Marlene Kropf, Professor Emerita of Spiritual Formation and Worship, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana
"Stumbling Toward God chronicles the journey of a thinking person's inexplicable pull toward the mystery of Faith. It's a story of doubt alternating with a renewed dedication to the spiritual path, encompassing both human foibles and God's grace along the way. But mostly, this is a story about love. Love of creation, of human fellowship, and the deep abiding love of God which resides at the core of all that is." — Sarah Stockton, spiritual director, poet, and author of A Pen and a Path: Writing as a Spiritual Practice (Church Publishing 2005)
"Thoughtful...compelling...I see this book as the work of an exceptional creative intelligence--Kathleen Norris meets Dorothy Parker." —Dr. Janet O. Dallett, author of The Not-Yet-Transformed God: Depth Psychology and the Individual Religious Experience
Table of Contents:
Prelude. Alive in the Cosmos.
Chapter 1. An Atheist Who Prays
Chapter 2. Ready for Revolution
Chapter 3. Dreadful Religion
Chapter 4. Church Shopping
Chapter 5. Getting to Know You
Chapter 6. Liturgy, History, and Ritual
Chapter 7. Dear God
Chapter 8. Grappling With Myth
Chapter 9. From the Virgin to the Cross
Chapter 10. Stumbling Toward God
Postlude. Matters of the Heart
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Reading Group Guide