The Book
Losing My Religion
“When I lost my faith, a vast sense of loss descended upon me and everything good and beautiful about this life on earth – God watching over us, the promise that we will return to him – all that was gone. And I was left to search for another reason to live.
Eric T. Hansen was a Mormon missionary for two years in Germany and was a dedicated believer for much of his life.
Then his disillusionment – and the feeling that he was not living his own life – grew so much that he had to leave.
It was the hardest thing he ever did.
Now, many years later, he can look back and see more clearly the reasons he had to leave, but also the good things he left behind.
“Losing My Religion” is his personal story faith, it’s loss and the gaping hole it left behind, and his struggle to live a spiritually authentic life. It is also an honest and intimate look at the Mormon church – its dogmatism, its society-within-a-society, its history and its exceptional theology.
Eric T. Hansen, an American writer living in Berlin, (“Gracian’s Art of Worldly Wisdom,” “Do Cats Have Souls?”) explains the radicalism and genius of the Mormon church, but also tells how he lost his faith and what he gained instead.
Available on Amazon.com.
“The author, in limpid prose, fleshes out a fascinatingly complex religion, which he convincingly argues is the most American of spiritual traditions.” – Kirkus Reviews
– Kirkus Reviews
Yes, Mormons believe you can become a God.
Yes, Mormon children decide on their own whether they want to become members or not.
Yes, Mormonism is the only religion to have been actively persecuted on American soil.
Mormonism is unique among churches – for its sheer Americanness, for the radicalism of its theology (man can become God, for example, or the unique Mormon interpretation of the story of the Garden of Eden) and more.”
There is a lot of nonsense about Mormonism out there, negative and postiive – propaganda on the one hand and brutal lies on the other, and everyone seems to have an ulterior motive.
It takes a former insider to cut through all the propaganda: Someone who has left the church, and who has been away long enough that he is no longer bitter about it – so he can explain its attraction for some 13 million members worldwide.
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“Hansen’s prose vividly depicts the struggles of his life-altering personal journey. Those interested in the intersection of religion and personal choice will find his memoir both forthright and insightful.”
– BlueInk Review
The Author
Eric T. Hansen
Eric T. Hansen was a Mormon missionary for two years in Germany and was a dedicated believer for much of his life.
Then his disillusionment grew so much that he had to leave.
It was the hardest thing he ever did. Now, many years later, he also sees all the good things he had to leave behind.
“When I lost my faith, a vast sense of loss descended upon me and everything good and beautiful about this life on earth – God watching over us, the promise that we will return to him – all that was gone. And I was left to search for another reason to live.
“Irreverent and entertaining … sometimes funny, sometimes serious … The book’s observations on faith and doubt are compelling.”