Mr. Spufford is an amused and amusing observer of human beings, and it is a pleasure to be in his company.” — Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“Francis Spufford is one of the cleverest and most thoughtful nonfiction writers in England.…Unapologetic is exactly what those who’ve followed Spufford’s career might have suspected it would be: an incredibly smart, challenging, and beautiful book, humming with ideas and arguments.” — Nick Hornby
“A remarkable book, which is passionate, challenging, tumultuously articulate, and armed with anger to a degree unusual in works of Christian piety.” — Sunday Times (London)
“The man writes like a dream.” — The Guardian
“A subtle, witty, clever writer.” — The Observer
“This is a wonderful, effortlessly brilliant book.” — Evening Standard (London)
“The point...is to show those on the fence that belief need not mean the abandonment of intelligence, wit, emotional honesty. In this, Francis Spufford succeeds to an exceptional degree.” — London Times Literary Supplement
“Catnip for atheists, agnostics, believers, disbelievers and people who like to think and wonder.” — Chicago Tribune
“Spufford’s defense of Christianity is as unique as it is refreshing.…With unrelenting passion and honesty throughout, this book successfully accomplishes what it sets out to achieve—namely, making the case for the intelligibility and dignity of Christian faith.” — Booklist
“Fresh, lively, provocative, insightful, articulate, witty, scabrous, honest, shocking, profane, Christian.” — James Martin, S.J., author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
“A unique book, cutting its way ruthlessly through thickets of both religious and anti-religious sentimentality; painfully funny at points, always impassioned and never glib.” — Rowan Williams, Master's Secretary, Magdalene College, Cambridge University and former Archbishop of Canterbury
“Flat-out exhilarating.…Read this book and you will discover a faith that is brash, poignant, sensual, funny—but above all, profoundly, joyfully human.” — Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity After Religion
“Compelling....Spufford’s argument occassions the much needed reevaluation of how integral emotions are to being human and why common sense ought not be dismissed. This is a compelling argument not only for its content but also because it has been written so beautifully.” — Stanley Hauerwas Duke University, author of A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic
“Spufford exhibits his trademark brilliance, humor, and acumen, demolishing the intellectual emptiness of the New Atheism along the way. Richly rewarding to mind and heart, and a fine example of one of the era’s best writers at full tilt. ” — Library Journal
“Spufford is one of the most gifted English writers of his generation…Unapologetic captures the texture of today’s life of faith, faith always ever-so-slightly but also ever-so-constantly eaten away at by uncertainty, by the possibility of a truly disenchanted world, a wholly material life.” — Books & Culture
A remarkable book, which is passionate, challenging, tumultuously articulate, and armed with anger to a degree unusual in works of Christian piety.
This is a wonderful, effortlessly brilliant book.
Evening Standard (London)
The point...is to show those on the fence that belief need not mean the abandonment of intelligence, wit, emotional honesty. In this, Francis Spufford succeeds to an exceptional degree.
London Times Literary Supplement
The man writes like a dream.
Mr. Spufford is an amused and amusing observer of human beings, and it is a pleasure to be in his company.
A subtle, witty, clever writer.
Fresh, lively, provocative, insightful, articulate, witty, scabrous, honest, shocking, profane, Christian.
Catnip for atheists, agnostics, believers, disbelievers and people who like to think and wonder.
Francis Spufford is one of the cleverest and most thoughtful nonfiction writers in England.…Unapologetic is exactly what those who’ve followed Spufford’s career might have suspected it would be: an incredibly smart, challenging, and beautiful book, humming with ideas and arguments.
Spufford’s defense of Christianity is as unique as it is refreshing.…With unrelenting passion and honesty throughout, this book successfully accomplishes what it sets out to achieve—namely, making the case for the intelligibility and dignity of Christian faith.
Catnip for atheists, agnostics, believers, disbelievers and people who like to think and wonder.
Spufford’s defense of Christianity is as unique as it is refreshing.…With unrelenting passion and honesty throughout, this book successfully accomplishes what it sets out to achieve—namely, making the case for the intelligibility and dignity of Christian faith.
Flat-out exhilarating.…Read this book and you will discover a faith that is brash, poignant, sensual, funny—but above all, profoundly, joyfully human.
Spufford is one of the most gifted English writers of his generation…Unapologetic captures the texture of today’s life of faith, faith always ever-so-slightly but also ever-so-constantly eaten away at by uncertainty, by the possibility of a truly disenchanted world, a wholly material life.
Compelling....Spufford’s argument occassions the much needed reevaluation of how integral emotions are to being human and why common sense ought not be dismissed. This is a compelling argument not only for its content but also because it has been written so beautifully.
Stanley Hauerwas Duke University
A unique book, cutting its way ruthlessly through thickets of both religious and anti-religious sentimentality; painfully funny at points, always impassioned and never glib.
Compelling....Spufford’s argument occassions the much needed reevaluation of how integral emotions are to being human and why common sense ought not be dismissed. This is a compelling argument not only for its content but also because it has been written so beautifully.
Stanley Hauerwas Duke University
The man writes like a dream.
Spufford’s defense of Christianity is as unique as it is refreshing.…With unrelenting passion and honesty throughout, this book successfully accomplishes what it sets out to achieve—namely, making the case for the intelligibility and dignity of Christian faith.
A subtle, witty, clever writer.
Flat-out exhilarating.…Read this book and you will discover a faith that is brash, poignant, sensual, funny—but above all, profoundly, joyfully human.
This is a wonderful, effortlessly brilliant book.
Evening Standard (London)
A remarkable book, which is passionate, challenging, tumultuously articulate, and armed with anger to a degree unusual in works of Christian piety.
Mr. Spufford is an amused and amusing observer of human beings, and it is a pleasure to be in his company.
A unique book, cutting its way ruthlessly through thickets of both religious and anti-religious sentimentality; painfully funny at points, always impassioned and never glib.
Francis Spufford is one of the cleverest and most thoughtful nonfiction writers in England.…Unapologetic is exactly what those who’ve followed Spufford’s career might have suspected it would be: an incredibly smart, challenging, and beautiful book, humming with ideas and arguments.
The point...is to show those on the fence that belief need not mean the abandonment of intelligence, wit, emotional honesty. In this, Francis Spufford succeeds to an exceptional degree.
London Times Literary Supplement
08/12/2013
★ 11/15/2013
2013-09-01apologia ) of Christian emotions and their "grown-up dignity." Besides, writes Spufford (Red Plenty , 2012, etc.), going on to the second meaning of the term, "I'm not sorry," even though as an Englishman writing about religion, "I'm fucking embarrassed." Spufford's language isn't exactly Aquinian or Augustinian, but it gets to the point--to several points, in fact. One, bouncing off the trope of the messages emblazoned on buses in Britain to the effect that since there probably isn't a God, we should all just try to be happy on our own, gets Spufford's dander up sufficiently to mount a crusade fought in naughty words: "New Atheists aren't claiming anything outrageous when they say there probably isn't a God. In fact they aren't claiming anything substantial at all, because really, how the fuck would they know?" Yes, and vice versa: What's the ontological proof? Spufford is short on arguments that would cause Christopher Hitchens to budge an inch from the position of nonbelief, but his cause seems more personal than all that: He's explaining his belief in the context of what he brightly calls "the human tendency, the human propensity to fuck things up"--that is, to lay waste to all the things that matter and then spend the rest of our lives either trying to patch them up or trying to pretend that it doesn't matter. "I don't care about heaven," he professes. "I want, I need, the promise of mending." C.S. Lewis might not approve of the language, but he'd surely approve of the sentiment. A thought-provoking entertainment.
