Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey

In his resonant account of a spiritual quest, Fenton Johnson examines what it means for a skeptic to have and to keep faith. Exploring Western and Eastern monastic traditions, Johnson lives as a member of the community at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky and at the branches of the San Francisco Zen Center. Ultimately his encounter with Buddhism brings him to a new understanding and embrace of Christianity. Weaving together meditations on Johnson's spiritual journey with history and insights from modern monks, Keeping Faith offers a blueprint for a new way of practicing faith.

This unflinching spiritual biography explores:

• A Skeptic’s Journey: The author’s candid struggle with anger, doubt, and the institutional church as he seeks an authentic path to the divine.
• Buddhism and Christianity: A deep dive into two ancient monastic traditions, living side-by-side with monks in a Kentucky abbey and Zen practitioners in California.
• Zen Meditation and Practice: An immersive look at the discipline of zazen and daily life inside the San Francisco Zen Center and its remote Tassajara monastery.
• Modern Monasticism: A rare glimpse into the Abbey of Gethsemani, the spiritual home of Thomas Merton, and what it means to live a life of solitude, prayer, and community today.

"Richly allusive, impressively lucid, and unflinchingly honest; Johnson speaks as eloquently to the heart as to the head." Kirkus Reviews

"KEEPING FAITH is a tour de force -- a moving memoir of an American boyhood as well as a deftly written exploration of Christian and Buddhist monasticism. Fenton Johnson's urgent inquiry traces religious impulse to its source in the very springs of human desire -- where he finds much longing, much trouble, and enduring beauty." --Patricia Hampl, author of A ROMANTIC EDUCATION

"Johnson's account of his passage from skepticism to faith is exceedingly refreshing and pure in its honesty..." Publishers Weekly