Americans are obsessed with religion. You’re either in or you’re out; you’re this or you’re that. Except now, so many of us just want to forget the whole thing. We often feel angry, hurt, and alone, while knowing there’s a better way. Lost Faith and Wandering Souls helps readers get at these important feelings of disillusionment and shows that the keys to rediscovering hope are within. 

David Morris puts theological arguments aside and holds up our humanity as equally important. He treats the loss of faith as if it were any other kind of loss, and asks, what if we learned to mourn? He turns to psychoanalytic psychology for its interpretive power. With the concepts of mourning, pining, and play, he shines a light on a path forward. Applying these concepts to contemporary spiritual memoirs, Morris discovers a back-and-forth movement in overcoming faith loss, going between feelings of numbness, self-recrimination, and wandering to playfulness, self-agency, and belonging. If we can feel our loss, he argues, then we can rediscover meaning making.

Lost Faith and Wandering Souls acknowledges the religious identity crisis of our time and the full power of the psychological journey. By looking beneath the surface at deep, lifelong dynamics, it shows a way through our losses individually and socially toward a healthier, inclusive spirituality.