Official Review: A Faith That Works by Teresa Stith
- NRoach
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Official Review: A Faith That Works by Teresa Stith

1 out of 4 stars
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A Faith that Works, by Teresa A. Stith, is a self-help book focused on helping people find a way to make their faith work for them. She talks about her own experiences being downtrodden and bitter, and how drastically things have changed for her since rediscovering her faith.
I went into A Faith that Works as someone who was raised a catholic and went to catholic school, but never really bought into it. That said, as much as my upbringing failed to instil actual belief in me, it did give me an appreciation for religion and the role it can play in people's lives. I was hoping for a book filled with fascinating insights into someone bouncing back from rock bottom and genuine, actionable life advice. Ultimately what I got was a 100 page sermon.
I can imagine Stith being an absolute firecracker at the altar. The way the book is written tells me that she's probably a fantastic orator, one who could really get the congregation fired up. Sadly, many of the skills that go into a fantastic speech don't work on paper. The whole book has a weird spoken quality to it. Stith frequently starts sentences with “see”, and everything feels very loose and stream-of-consciousness-like, as though it was transcribed from a sermon. That's not even to mention the overabundance of exclamation marks. There are more exclamation marks in this book than there are pages, and the majority of them come in groups of three. It's hard to take Stith seriously when the formatting is often akin to the diary of an excitable eight year old. Page long paragraphs abound which are just hard to read, and they're peppered with words in capitals for emphasis, overused exclamation marks, and general formatting woes.
None of this is to say anything about Stith's words. As I said, I can imagine her being a cracking preacher. She's got some great advice, as long as it gets to the right people, and an interesting perspective. I found some of it confusing, namely the idea that you should give up trying to solve your problems and leave it to God but at the same time not expect God to give you everything you want. It's possible I've misunderstood Stith grossly there but I found the formatting genuinely challenging to get through.
My understanding of A Faith that Works's message is that people need to accept the reality of God having his own plan for everyone and stop worrying. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away but it's all for the best in the end as long as you don't let disappointment and anger lead you off the path. It's not revolutionary theology by any stretch, but there's a reason it's been a mainstay of Christian thought for so long. People find it comforting to know that everything will be fine and that they don't need to worry. That's the idea that is reiterated and really hammered home throughout the book, and it's a message that works and that people in bad situations find comforting.
I suspect A Faith that Works was written over the course of a few days, with comparatively little time spent going back and editing it for clarity. With half the exclamation points and double the paragraph breaks, this book would be so much better and Stith's genuinely well-intentioned and (to the right people) valuable advice would have a much better chance of making an impact. As it stands, it's a perfectly reasonable self-help book that's absolutely hamstrung by a lack of editing.
I give A Faith that Works one out of four stars. I was torn, because the advice would be valuable to someone who's in a dark place and has had their extant faith in God shaken. However the formatting makes it all so opaque and genuinely difficult to read at times that I cannot imagine anyone who'd benefit from this book sticking with it long enough to get that benefit. If the author came back with a heavily edited but essentially the same second edition, I can imagine this getting three stars. As it stands, I can't justify anything higher than one.
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A Faith That Works
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