Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age

How do you live a meaningful life without religion

Meet the Nones, a rapidly growing group of religiously unaffiliated Americans (so-called because they check the box that reads, essentially, none of the above when asked about their faith). While many Americans are raised in a religious tradition, recent decades have seen large numbers of families drift from their churches and synagogues, temples and mosques, and abandon faith-based practices. But what is lost when we leave religion

Faith traditions give us a moral grounding and a sense of identity by connecting us to our past and creating tight communal bonds. But without the one-stop shop of religion, how do the nonreligious fill the need for ritual, story, community, and, above all, purpose and meaning With a quarter of Americans identifying as religiously unaffiliated, these questions have never been more urgent.

Katherine Ozment-writer, journalist, and mother of three-comes face-to-face with the fundamental issue of the Nones when her son asks her the simplest of questions: What are we Unsettled by the only reply she can summon- Nothing -she sets out on a journey across the changing landscape of America to find a better answer.

Ozment visits diverse congregations, from an atheist church to a storytelling gathering to a nature-based coming-of-age ritual. She turns to science and the humanities, seeking guidance from noted scholars in a wide range of disciplines. She interviews community leaders and parents, and searches for meaning on mountaintops and in her own front yard.

Insightful, surprising, and compelling, Ozment’s journey is both a personal and critical exploration, revealing how to find your own way forward to a meaningful life.