From Religion to Reason

It took her decades to stop believing, and the courage to say so out loud.

Dr. Carolyn C. Shadle was raised in a deeply rooted Fundamentalist Protestant home, trained at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and landed her dream job at a large urban church in Buffalo. By every measure, she was supposed to have this figured out. Instead, the questions kept coming.

From Religion to Reason: My Journey is her honest account of what happened when she let herself keep asking. Through the social upheavals of the 1960s, a divorce, a career rebuilt around interpersonal communication and higher education, and a slow, deliberate reckoning with the infallibility of scripture, Shadle traces the exact moments that moved her from inherited belief toward a life shaped by reason. As she puts it, "I determined my beliefs based on reason, not on faith."

Wisconsin Bookwatch (Midwest Book Review) called it an extraordinary and emotionally engaging read from start to finish. Kirkus Reviews praised its brisk energy that makes for smooth reading. And Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, wrote that one "church lady" has finally embraced a life of real meaning.

If you've ever quietly questioned the faith you were raised in, or you've already left it and are still making sense of what that cost you, this memoir will feel less like reading a stranger's story and more like finally hearing your own.