Curing Christianity Overcoming Doubt, Fear, and Confusion to Rediscover a Healthy Christian Faith by D. L. Webster author and narrator

Rating: 4 star rating

If you have ever felt burned out or hurt by church culture, Curing Christianity is a breath of fresh air. D. L. Webster does not write like some scholar or pastor talking down to you from the pulpit. He is not angry or trying to destroy your faith, he just wants to help people heal. 

He gets into the stressful topics that a lot of churches use to make people feel guilty, like purity culture, toxic leaders, and scary rules about hell. He talks about how fear motivates, and this why a lot of churches use it. Webster shows that a lot of the things making us anxious are not actually what Jesus taught at all.

One issue I have with the book is that the subtitle promises to help you overcome doubt, fear, and confusion, but I feel like the author should have covered those specific things a lot more. He frames doubt as a normal step toward a stronger relationship with God, but he spends way more time talking about specific church doctrines and rules than he does giving deep advice on how to actually process your internal fear and mental confusion. If you are looking for a deep emotional dive into handling those three specific feelings, you might find the book a little lacking because it focuses so much on breaking down church culture. But I enjoyed the way Webster covers his topics and he follows it up with scripture. He has a gentle way of covering this information.

If you are tired of religion feeling heavy or fake, you still might want to give this a read. It leaves you feeling comforted and shows that you do not have to walk away from God just because pastors or people may cause a lot of human doubt, fear, and confusion, that is placed onto the church and God. 

My biggest complaint is about the audiobook. The author narrates it himself, and it sounds like he has a piece of candy rolling around in his mouth the whole time. Those wet mouth noises are incredibly distracting to listen to, and I really think he needs to hire a professional narrator to re-record it. Because the audio was so annoying, and because I wanted more focus on the doubt and fear aspects, I give the actual content of the book a solid four stars. I think reading the actual book may be a better choice for some.

Thank you, NetGalley,Spherical Media & Publishing, and author and narrator D. L. Webster, for providing me with a copy of this free audioebook in exchange for an honest review.

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This is a review of the audiobook.