| Julia Sweeney -- Letting Go of God Monologue -- Part 1 of 7 Her journey from Catholic upbringing to atheism. Review by NYTimes: Can an atheist lift the spirit? In her searing and bracingly funny solo show Letting Go of God, Julia Sweeney traces her bumpy journey away from religious faith in an accessible, no-frills format that suggests the kind of inspirational self-help lecture you might see around PBS pledge time. Richard Termine for The New York Times Julia Sweeney reviews assorted belief systems in Letting Go of God. Readers Opinions Forum: Theater But where Deepak Chopra or Wayne W. Dyer, say, come bearing warm broth, distilled from revered spiritual traditions, Ms. Sweeney arrives with a bucket of cold water for all supernatural belief systems, from her familys old-school Roman Catholicism to the New Age alternatives (including Mr. Chopra) embraced by many of her peers. In her fluent, friendly and offhandedly riveting account, what started with a visit from two young Mormon missionaries soon became a fitful but unrelenting quest for an adult understanding of the deity she always sincerely sensed was at her side. Ms. Sweeney felt Gods presence, sure — but what did she really believe about him? Shes almost sorry she asked: upon examination, the Bible horrifies her, and so, ultimately, does the implicit determinism of every spiritual approach she tries, from Buddhism to the Deist notion of God in nature. Once she loses the Christian plot shed never before questioned ... |
