Unapologetic - by Francis Spufford (Paperback)

About the Book

"First published by Faber and Faber Limited in 2012"--Title page verso

Book Synopsis

Francis Spufford's Unapologetic is a wonderfully pugnacious defense of Christianity. Refuting critics such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the "new atheist" crowd, Spufford, a former atheist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, argues that Christianity is recognizable, drawing on the deep and deeply ordinary vocabulary of human feeling, satisfying those who believe in it by offering a ruthlessly realistic account of the grown-up dignity of Christian experience.

Fans of C. S. Lewis, N. T. Wright, Marilynne Robinson, Mary Karr, Diana Butler Bass, Rob Bell, and James Martin will appreciate Spufford's crisp, lively, and abashedly defiant thesis.

Unapologetic is a book for believers who are fed up with being patronized, for non-believers curious about how faith can possibly work in the twenty-first century, and for anyone who feels there is something indefinably wrong, literalistic, anti-imaginative and intolerant about the way the atheist case is now being made.

From the Back Cover

First published in the United Kingdom to great acclaim, Unapologetic is a wonderfully pugnacious defense of Christianity. But it isn't an argument that Christianity is true--because how could anyone know that (or indeed its opposite)? It's an argument that Christianity is recognizable, drawing on the deep and deeply ordinary vocabulary of human feeling, satisfying those who believe in it by offering a ruthlessly realistic account of the grown-up dignity of Christian experience.

Unhampered by niceness, this is a book for believers who are fed up with being patronized, for non-believers curious about how faith can possibly work in the twenty-first century, and for anyone who feels there is something indefinably wrong, literalistic, anti-imaginative, and intolerant about the way the atheist case is now being made.

Review Quotes

"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 muscular counter-attack against the arguments of Richard Dawkins et all...[the] acknowledgement of human imperfection is the most powerful part of the case against idealistic atheism... Spufford has achieved an unlikely feat: an honest, modern religious voice to engage fellow Christians and detractors alike." - Metro London
"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
"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'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
"Francis Spufford is one of the most gifted English writers of his generation...Unapologetic captures the distinctive 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
"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
"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
"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
"Because Unapologetic is without pretense it is one of the most compelling apologies we have for Christianity in our time. 'Emotions' are that consistently despised and overlooked aspect of our lives that attends too closely to what we take to be common sense. 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
"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
"Catnip for atheists, agnostics, believers, disbelievers and people who like to think and wonder." - Chicago Tribune
"Fresh, lively, provocative, insightful, articulate, witty, scabrous, honest, shocking, profane, Christian." - James Martin, S.J., author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
"Unapologetic is flat-out exhilarating. Francis Spufford captures the passionate essence of Christianity as an emotionally sensible way of life that invites skeptics and challenges believers to a fresh understanding of an old story. 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