I remember reading Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom when I was 16. Even as a teenager, I found Albom's portrayal of his teacher and mentor Morrie and his life lessons meaningful and inspiring. I found Have a Little Faith: A True Story, Albom's most recent novel, to be equally as inspiring.
After being asked to write and deliver the eulogy for his childhood rabbi "Reb" (Reb makes this request himself of Albom), Albom spends eight years learning about Reb and the meaning of faith. In his recounting of his meetings with Reb, Albom intertwines the story of a Detroit Pastor, Henry. Much like Morrie, Have a Little Faith is full of life lessons. And although the main characters in the novel are a rabbi and a pastor, it is not about religion--it is about faith and what it means to have faith. Albom does not describe himself as religious before his meetings with Reb, and I'm not sure he would describe himself as religious after those meetings.
What do you think about faith? Is it something intricately tied into religion, or is it something that you have have even without religious beliefs?
2 comments:
I think you can have faith without belonging to a religion but it's obviously easier when you have a belief structure set in place that you have learned since childhood. I don't belong to a religion, per se, but I have faith. It's more of a spiritual thing I guess for me. More about how you treat the things around you and how they treat you rather than the rules and regulations set forth from the beginning of time.
I think you can have faith with or without religion. As I get older, being tied to a religion doesn't seem so important. I'm trying to focus more on being good to people and to do good in the world which for me is what faith/spirtuality is about.
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