{"id":20863,"date":"2015-08-06T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T07:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=20863"},"modified":"2015-08-06T00:01:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T07:01:24","slug":"journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalist Kay Campbell: &#8216;WWG Bows to the Enduring Mystery of the Universe&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_22568\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22568\" style=\"width: 580px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2015\/08\/06\/journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe\/\" rel=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2015\/08\/06\/journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe\/\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22568 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1658-580x387.jpg\" alt=\"Barbara Falconer Newhall's book Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith on sale at Book Passage bookstore, Corte Madera, California. Photo by Barbara Newhall\" width=\"580\" height=\"387\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22568\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The religion-philosophy-inspiration section of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/bookpassage.com\">Book Passage<\/a> bookstore in Corte Madera, California. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>Here&#8217;s what my Religion Newswriters Association colleague Kay Campbell has to say about\u00a0&#8220;Wrestling with God<\/em>.&#8221;\u00a0Thank you, Kay.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In &#8220;Wrestling with God,&#8221; Barbara Falconer Newhall, a longtime religion writer, combines the best of gracefully practiced and written journalism with the best of a personal spiritual quest.<\/p>\n<p>With a persistent seeker\u2019s humbleness, she asks good questions of <!--more-->thoughtful people from an astonishing range of backgrounds. Then she listens to and transcribes \u2013 with gentle editing for clarity and rhythm \u2013 their answers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Making Sense of the Universe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The result is both an encyclopedia of the ways that twenty-first-century Americans make sense of the universe and their place in it as well as a personal memoir of Newhall\u2019s own, continuing, spiritual journey. Along the way, she manages to invite readers deeper into their own quests, whether for the first time, or as a waymark on their pilgrimages.<\/p>\n<p>Divided into chapters presenting the diverse individuals she talked with as she worked on this project \u2013 more than a decade \u2013 the book would work well as the focus for small group study or as a quiet companion on a personal spiritual journey.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Tough Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The conversations take on the hard questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can God be good and still allow evil?<\/li>\n<li>What does religion have to say to science or vice versa?<\/li>\n<li>Does faith come from feeling or from evidence?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The conversations deliver no easy answers or pat solutions. Even so, the book arrives at a place of peace with the unknown, of finally bowing to the enduring mystery of the universe and to the persistence of human questions about the universe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy conversations with the people who tell their stories here convinced me that we live in a miraculous world \u2013 that something is going on,\u201d Newhall writes in the book\u2019s conclusion. \u201cThat\u2019s the only truth I\u2019ve wrestled from God so far. It\u2019s all I know for sure. And it\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/search.al.com\/kay+campbell\/1\/all\/?date_range=all\">Kay Campbell<\/a> is an award-winning religion reporter with the Huntsville Times and the Alabama Media Group<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>If you enjoyed this post, you might like <a href=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2014\/08\/21\/writers-need-editors-and-mine-wants-my-manuscript-turned-in-now\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Writers Need Editors and Mine Wants My Manuscript Turned In Now.&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0 Also, <a href=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2014\/02\/06\/making-friends-trying-to-with-the-dread-serial-comma\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Making Friends With &#8212; Trying To &#8212; the Serial Comma.&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0 You can get a copy of the book at <a href=\"http:\/\/WrestlingWithGodBook.com\" target=\"_blank\">WrestlingWithGodBook.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20809\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20809\" style=\"width: 125px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2015\/08\/06\/journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe\/\" rel=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2015\/08\/06\/journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-20809\" src=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/cover-print-book-WWG0001-390x580-336x500.jpg\" alt=\"The cover of Barbara Falconer Newhall's 2015 interfaith religion book &quot;Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith&quot; shows two red chairs opposing one another. Design by Michelle Lenger.\" width=\"125\" height=\"186\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20809\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cover design by Michelle Lenger.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2015\/08\/06\/journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe\/\" rel=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2015\/08\/06\/journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22568 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1658-580x387-500x334.jpg\" alt=\"Barbara Falconer Newhall's book Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith on sale at Book Passage bookstore, Corte Madera, California. Photo by Barbara Newhall\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My Religion Newswriters Association colleague Kay Campbell says this\u00a0about <em>Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith<\/em>. <a href=\"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2015\/08\/06\/journalist-kay-campbell-wwg-bows-to-the-enduring-mystery-of-the-universe\/\">Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1475,34,1383,1380,750,53],"class_list":["post-20863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-book-group","tag-dont-miss","tag-endorsements","tag-kay-campbell","tag-spiritual-journeys","tag-wrestling-with-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}