Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith

Charles Templeton

McClelland & Stewart, Jan 14, 2011 - Religion - 248 pages

For more than twenty years, Charles Templeton was a major figure in the church in Canada and the United States. During the 1950s, he and Billy Graham were the two most successful exponents of mass evangelism in North America. Templeton spoke nightly to stadium crowds of up to thirty thousand people.
 
However, increasing doubts about the validity of the Old Testament and the teachings of the Christian church finally brought about a crisis in his faith and in 1957 he resigned from the ministry.
 
In Farewell to God, Templeton speaks out about his reasons for the abandonment of his faith. In straightforward language, Templeton deals with such subjects as the Creation fable, racial prejudice in the Bible, the identity of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus’ alienation from his family, the second-class status of women in the church, the mystery of evil, the illusion that prayer works, why there is suffering and death, and the loss of faith in God.
 
He concludes with a positive personal statement: “I Believe.”

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - charlie68 - LibraryThing

Not an easy book to read, as it dismisses Christians as primitive simpletons who still believe in the fables of the Bible. Most of the criticisms of the Bible I had heard of before and are hardly new ...

Review: Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith

User Review  - Chris - Goodreads

All I can say is I don't see how a believer could read this and have their faith intact afterwards. A man who studied the Bible inside and out takes it to task in ways that even Dawkins can't do.

About the author

CHARLES BRADLEY TEMPLETON (1915-2001) was executive managing editor of the Toronto Star, editor-in-chief of Maclean’s magazine, and director of news and public affairs for the CTV television network. Born in Toronto, Templeton was a cartoonist, evangelist, agnostic, inventor and politician. He is the author of twelve books published in fifty-one editions and eleven languages. He was the host of many television programs in Canada and the United States and co-host with Pierre Berton of the daily radio program Dialogue, which was syndicated across Canada for eighteen years.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith
• Author: Charles Templeton
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 2011
• ISBN: 1551994496, 9781551994499
• Length: 248 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / Metaphysics; Religion / Agnosticism; Religion / Christianity / General