If the bestseller charts are any indication, it’s become popular to condemn religion.
Books such as Sam Harris’ "Letter to a Christian Nation" and "The End of Faith," Richard Dawson’s "The God Delusion," Christopher Hitchens’ "God Is Not Great" and Bill Maher’s soon-to-be-released film, "Religulous," would have us see faith as antiquated, illogical and dangerous.
And let’s face it, the arguments they make are not without merit: In the shadow of Sept. 11, religion seems at the root of much hatred and violence the world over. The announcement of a financial, sexual or political scandal involving a religious official — whether we cringe or feel some secret schadenfreude — no longer shocks us. At the same time, in this country as in others, it seems like religion is increasingly seeking to take on public and political dimensions, reaching into education, medicine, science and social programs.
In a world where religion is the cause of so much folly, it becomes harder to defend faith, which makes Rabbi David Wolpe’s new book, "Why Faith Matters" (HarperOne), all the more important.
"Why Faith Matters" is not a book that will convince anyone who doesn’t already believe in God — nor is it meant to. Yet believer and nonbeliever alike should find "Why Faith Matters" thought-provoking and challenging.
What the book does well, in short, succinct chapters, is address some of the more popularly held charges leveled against religion, such as "religion causes violence" or "science and religion are at odds." And it does so in a readable and erudite way, quoting from sources as diverse as Tacitus, Heinrich Heine, Nietzsche and Rabbi Hayyim of Zans.
More importantly, it makes the case for the seldom-acknowledged benefits of faith, such as community and charity, and elucidates how religion and religious practice can enhance the lives even of those who don’t and will never believe in God. Wolpe also hopes the book will give comfort to those who have faith.
"It’s not only written for those who doubt," Wolpe said recently, "but to settle the souls of people who believe."
Wolpe is turning 50 this Friday, Sept. 19, and has been the rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles for the past 11 years. "Why Faith Matters" is his sixth book, and he wrote it not as a polemic response to the "New Atheists," but as a personal book about his own journey.
He was born in Harrisburg, Pa., where his father, Gerald Wolpe, was a Conservative rabbi. When David was 10, the family moved to Philadelphia, when Wolpe’s father became the rabbi of Har Zion, a large Conservative synagogue on the city’s Main Line.
Stephen Fried’s "The New Rabbi" (Bantam 2002) chronicled the search to find a replacement for Wolpe’s father when he retired. A New York Times’ article about the book describes Wolpe’s relationship with his father as "wonderfully complicated."
In "Why Faith Matters," Wolpe explains that as a teenager, after seeing the vivid documentary footage about the Holocaust in Alain Resnais’ "Night and Fog," he became an atheist, embracing Bertrand Russell as one of his sages. Wolpe said he is attempting in this book to speak to his younger self. Yet, to a great extent, Wolpe now regards atheism as a failure of the imagination.
