"And this is witty and wicked satire"

Scot McKnight, noted Evangelical author (I recently bought his book, The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus) and New Testament scholar, reviews The Loser Letters by Mary Eberstadt, recently published by Ignatius Press:

I'm a fan of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters , as much for its insight into human nature as anything else, and I think Lewis now has a rival: The Loser Letters, by Mary Eberstadt. But instead of insight into the moral and religious problems at work among Christians as one finds in Lewis' classic, Eberstadt's book explores the logical and moral problems at work in new atheism.

What does her book do? It's a series of ten letters to the New Atheists. Ten satirical letters, and I'm not a fan of cheap satire. This is good satire, uplifting and insightful and edgy and fun.  The letters are written by the new convert to atheism, A.F. Christian (A Former Christian), to the upper echelon of new atheists, like Dawkins and Hitchens and Harris, on why the new atheists have got to shape up or they're not going to get many converts (like A.F. herself). In short, A.F. Christian exposes the weaknesses of the new atheists.

And this is witty and wicked satire.

Read the entire piece on McKnight's "Jesus Creed" blog at Beliefnet.com.

The opening chapter of Eberstadt's book is available on Ignatius Insight:



Much more about The Loser Letters on the book's website.