Product Review

What if we understood faith crisis as part of a natural cycle of spiritual growth, a breaking open to make room for new life and new faith? In the new book Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis, Thomas McConkie draws on the study of adult development to provide a map for people who find themselves in faith crisis, fearing they might have taken a wrong turn in their spiritual progression. This developmental perspective helps readers understand that they haven't necessarily drifted off course; they might have simply run up against the edge of their current map. Understanding how humans-and faith-grow and mature over time can offer tremendous stability and confidence to those who would press forward in the discovery of their own changing identity. This new framework enables the LDS community, and indeed any faith community facing similar struggles, to view faith crisis not as a symptom of apostasy, but of a deeper and fuller redemption. The reader finds that crisis may represent the awakening of a new kind of faith, one beyond mere belief, that may very well represent a new dawn in the unfolding of the world's religious traditions.