A writer searches for the existence and nature of the Christian God.

The “Club” mentioned in the subtitle of Smith’s nonfiction debut is, according to the author, “the (multi-denominational) Christian Church” that was “founded” by Jesus and uses the Bible as its “charter”—meaning, presumably, Christianity. Smith came to his current examination of the Club after a time of being a “lukewarm” Roman Catholic, employing a process called “Experiential Learning” (Using your life experiences “to re-examine and evaluate assertions, ideas, and beliefs”). In his 40s, the author reached a point where he considered it “somewhat likely” that Jesus was not the son of God and that the Gospels may have been altered over the centuries. During the ensuing years, he pursued these questions, reading famous atheist books by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and always looking for some kind of intellectual confirmation—through experiential learning—that the basic tenets of the Catholicism of his upbringing were actually true. It’s not many pages later when his doubts have apparently been resolved enough for him to write “we do know we were created by something we call God.” The rest of the book breaks down the exegesis of that belief and provides the author’s intriguing rundown on a wide array of controversial topics on which the Catholic Church has pronounced dogma over the centuries. Masturbation is “a sin,” for instance, and abortion and euthanasia are “against God’s will.” But many of Smith’s readers will be surprised and perhaps pleased at how often he finds the position of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to be a “misinterpretation” of God’s will as expressed in Scripture—the author countenances things like contraception and gay sexuality. Those same readers will find Smith’s lucid analytical approach to all of the teachings of the Club endlessly thought-provoking.

A readable and highly detailed inquiry into the roots and values of Christianity.