Logo

 

Banner Image:   Baptist-Times-banner-2000x370-
Template Mode:   Baptist Times
Icon
    Post     Tweet

For God’s Sake By Alan Budge 

The story of one person’s tragi-comic quest for spiritual enlightenment

ForGodsSakeFor God’s Sake
By Alan Budge
Matador
ISBN: 978-1-78306-164-8
Reviewed by David Stuckey

This book (subtitled “Religion, Atheism and why I gave them up”) is said to be the story of “one person’s tragi-comic quest for spiritual enlightenment”. You could have fooled me.
 
Budge’s quest apparently took him along well-trodden paths of trendy enlightenment - India, China, Tibet (and areas of West Yorkshire). His quest for truth led him to name-check Marianne Faithfull and the Dalai Lama among others, and includes “an enlightened descent into alcoholism and misery”.
 
Many years ago I recall reviewing the movie Performance, which starred James Fox and Mick Jagger along with other stars of the ‘swinging sixties.” Fox was to eventually find enlightenment and purpose through an American organisation in this country, which led to him being involved in campus evangelism (also in Yorkshire).
 
Asked whether his involvement in the Swinging Sixties blew his mind, James said “Truthfully my mind was blown well before then”.
 
Budge’s mind is not so much blown as muddled. His chronicle is said to be spirituality without the usual self-help smugness, written by a normal, flawed human being, in the hope of engaging a similar audience.

We also learn that he has a long-standing interest in spirituality, having worked for a number of faith-based organisations, and “having recovered from the resultant religious mania - and some other addictions besides - he now works in community empowerment”.

Given that the 20th word of his introduction is the f-word (which is repeated many times through his narrative along with other equally surprising choices from a street-wise vocabulary) … “For God’s Sake” seems an apt title which should herald alarm bells rather than heavenly trumpets.

 

David Stuckey is a journalist and member of Maghull Baptist Church






 

Baptist Times, 02/10/2015
    Post     Tweet
Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human, by Cole Arthur Riley
'Cole Arthur Riley’s writing offers up a voice from the margins which speaks into our wrestling with embodiment, with the wonder of being human, and the aches of trauma - a gift to anybody, and especially any worship leader'
Blessed be God: a book of blessings and resources to write your own, by Ruth Burgess
'This book will be an excellent resource for those leading services, but also for all who wish to bless others or indeed themselves and those closest to them'
Reimagining the Landscape of Faith, by Mary and Charles Hipplsey
'An excellent practical tool for ways of developing faith when life is going normally, and also handling faith when the moral and spiritual battles of life threaten to overwhelm us and sink the ship'
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
'Brings her unique experiences as a novelist to bear on the nature of the text, while sharing her insights as a female writer on the importance of women'
Giving the Church, by Michael Moynagh
Giving the Church is a comprehensive critique of how the church at large presents itself to contemporary society
A Handful of Pennies, by Afaf Musallam
This Palestinian Christian Arab woman’s long journey searching for identity and peace works on several levels
    Posted: 21/03/2025
    Posted: 04/10/2024
     
    Text Size:  
    Small (Default)
    Medium
    Large
    Contrast:  
    Normal
    High Contrast