Contesting Faith

by Steve McNeilly

Overview

'Contesting Faith' is a novel that aims to make theological and philosophical issues accessible to ordinary readers who enjoy an interesting story with dramatic twists.

A 32 year old marketer named Matt Sherwin learns that he has incurable cancer and about 6 months to live. In the emotional confusion of this news, he attends two funerals, one high church and one thoroughly secular. As he watches the mourners, Matt is forced to think seriously about his own death and how to face the rest of his life.

Frustrated by his initial attempts to find satisfactory answers to his questions, Matt decides to use his marketing skills to tease out the best answers through a blog diary. This evolves into a contest between different religions and ideologies where Matt will award one point for every answer that is both original and helpful. At an agreed date, he will 'convert' to whichever religion or ideology has the most points.

However, neither cancer nor life itself is predictable and much drama ensues before the final outsome of the contest. Even then, there are lessons to learn about how faith impacts life.

The subject of life after death is profound and complex but, because the issues are filtered through the lens of an everyday bloke like Matt, they are not presented in an intellectual or scholarly way. Where some more complicated theories appear as comments on Matt's blog page, he finds them too hard to understand and either seeks a simpler explanation or dismisses them altogether.

"Contesting Faith" is set in a fictional Australian city similar in many ways to the regional Victorian city of Warrnambool.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780980524116
Publisher:	Stephen McNeilly
Publication date:	07/14/2018
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.67(d)

Table of Contents

1 - Stranger in the Distance 2

2 - Brave in the White Water 17

3 - Make It a Contest 29

4 - The Rottenness Inside 37

5 - Silence Shattered 50

6 - Where the Body Was 62

7 - Getting Weird 76

8 - What If It’s a Sin? 91

9 - Thousands of Years 109

10 - Make It Work 125

11 - Old Holy Books 138

12 - Faith In Yourself 156

13 - Guarded Optimism 166

14 - Are You Sure About This? 179

15 - Ways Not To Hurt People 193

16 - Wonderful Eternal Chain 208

17 - An Unexpected Friendship 222

18 - No Pleasant Surprises 237

19 - A Good Legacy 251

20 - Wrestling 264

21 - Something Good For Sophie 282

22 - Robert Makes a Good Point 298

23 - Preacher Dude 315

24 - Waiting For a Train 332

Meet the Author 339