The author's personal journey through a crisis of faith, better described by the subtitle than the title.

The author's experience is one in which many others can see themselves to some degree or another: he was raised in a faith environment and developed assumptions and expectations about the nature of God, the Bible, and how things were supposed to happen. When everything proved to be far less simple and clear-cut than that, he started doubting his faith. He learned a lot of lessons on the way, primarily in terms of those assumptions and expectations, and has sought to learn how to live with God the way He is and what He has made known in the condition it is.

The book could be a good resource for those who are experiencing similar trials in faith. The tragedy of it all is how unprepared the author was for the experience: this kind of faith transition is a natural part of life, the wrestling with one's God and one's heritage to see whether one will be able to affirm one's father's god as his God, or whether he will turn to follow another god. This is by no means an attempt to demean the author; it is more an indictment of the environment in which the author was raised. Churches of Christ are easily enamored with simplicity; many, especially in previous generations, did not question, would not question, and were content to maintain a more simple (as in naive) faith, overtly hostile to any kind of questioning. We do better to communicate among ourselves that this kind of wrestling is normal; to challenge and question can be healthy as long as we first and foremost are challenging and questioning those beams in our own eyes - our own assumptions and expectations.

The author writes in a way to attempt to engage with the "common man," often turning to bad preacher humor and self-deprecation. Such things go over far better in a pulpit than in a written book. He is also extremely hard on his faith tradition and makes much of his belief that its sectarianism has been toxic; the solution, apparently, is to embrace Evangelicalism...right at the time when Evangelicalism is having its own existential crisis. These are not major matters or themes in the book, and are entirely extraneous - and should therefore have never been in the work in the first place.

The core purpose of the book is of great value and importance, and if the author's telling of his story and his exhortations help reinforce the faith of many in times of trouble, well and good. It would be great to have a better work to accomplish the same purpose.

One sign that we are maturing is when we find ourselves believing in a God we don’t always like - Luke Norsworthy.

It's a pleasant feeling to finish a book and know you want to read it again. Especially a book about how God doesn't live up to your expectations.

Have trouble believing in a good God when there is so much suffering on the world? Feel that God has let you down? Don’t buy the idea of a cosmic Santa Claus? You are not alone.

For someone to have doubts about God's goodness, or even His existence, isn't rare. When the doubter is a Christian pastor, that makes it more problematic. When faith is your job, what happens when you wonder if you should believe?

In God Over Good, Luke Norsworthy is honest about his doubts, about his struggles with simplified Christianity. He asks hard questions and rejects the pat answers many people give.

I'm a questions guy. I always want to know "why," plus who, what, where and when. Maybe even “how” - although if you ask the “5Ws” that will usually encompass the how. That is probably one of the reasons I became a journalist, something I still consider myself to be even though it has been more than 20 years since I last had to meet a newspaper deadline.

When it comes to matters of God and theology I also like to ask why. Like Norsworthy, I am uncomfortable with cookie cutter answers that in some ways seem to avoid the real issues. My faith isn't real if I shrink from examining my beliefs. There are times I don't understand, times I just don't know - but trying to pretend there aren't hard questions isn't an option.

God Over Good is a fun read in many ways, despite the serious topic. As the story unfolded, I wasn’t surprised to discover Norsworthy has tried his hand at stand-up comedy. He understands the need to inject humour into a weighty subject to avoid depressing the reader. I appreciated that.

This is a book for those who are not satisfied with God, who are asking uncomfortable questions – uncomfortable at least for those who don’t like to have their faith challenged. This volume is for anyone who has seen the world as it is and doesn’t like the simple “it is God’s will” answers.

As with Job, who challenged God to explain himself, you may not like what you read. God Over Good provides honest answers to some tough questions – but they may not be the ones you wanted to hear. They weren’t for Luke Norsworthy, but he has learned to live with that and embrace the questions.

Perhaps we all should.

“Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.”