My Faith So Far (PDF)

In this frank, funny, and often challenging memoir about life in
and out of the church, twenty-something Patton Dodd reveals his
quest for an authentic experience of God. On his journey he
attempts to pinpoint and justify his belief in God, first with the
fervent absolutes that characterize a new believer's faith
but then with a growing awareness of the cultural complexities that
define his faith and encompass his understanding of
Christianity.

When a spiritual awakening in his last year of high school
wrenches Dodd out of his rebellious party days, he embarks on a
quest for God. He exchanges pot smoking for worship dancing, gives
up MTV for Christian pop, and enrolls at a Christian university.
Soon, however, he finds himself ill at ease with the other
Christians around him and with the cloying superficiality of the
Christian subculture. Dodd tells his story in contradictory
terms--conversion and confusion, acceptance and rejection,
spiritual highs and psychological lows. With painstaking honesty,
he tries to negotiate a relationship with his faith apart from the
cultural trappings that often clothe it.

Dodd's moving story paints a nuanced and multilayered
portrait of an earnest quest for God: the hunger for genuine faith,
the bleak encounters with doubt, and the consuming questions that
challenge the intellect and the soul. This is a story that will
resonate with the emerging generation of young adults attempting to
break new ground within their own faith tradition.