Believe? Tell Me Why: Conversations With Those Who Have Left the Church (Fides) - Softcover

This book addresses questions and uncertainties expressed by those who have distanced themselves from the faith in which they were nurtured as children. Their faith is still there, flickering in the depths, but it is surrounded by doubts and prejudices. Pagola understands their reluctance to search the past for those once-comforting certainties, and is aware of their unwillingness to return to the beliefs and practices of former times. Offering guidance in their need for understanding various things about the faith, Pagola proposes not a process of catechesis, or meetings for religious formation, or prayer meetings for believers. Rather, he suggests that the most helpful way through this stage would be to make the return journey with a group of fellow seekers who are taking the first steps toward a new faith by sharing their anxieties and experiences with others.

José Antonio Pagola was born in Spain in 1937. He completed his theological studies in 1962 at the Papal Gregorian University in Rome and his studies in Sacred Scripture at the Papal Biblical Institute in Rome in 1963. He also studied Biblical sciences at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem. Pagola is a professor at St. Sebastian Seminary and at the Faculty of Theology of Northern Spain. He has dedicated his life to Biblical studies and Christology and has done research on the historical Jesus for more than 30 year.