IN THE RELIGIOUS GRAIN

A collection for truth-seekers that covers subjects from Catholicism to Salinger.

Palmer makes a case for faith, not religion, in this collection of writings about a hodgepodge of topics. “Religion is not faith,” he says. “Religion is a group of people doing something together that hurts other people…Faith, however, is belief in God in spite of the clergy or the scientists.” He also alludes to recently published books on atheism by writers Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, whom he calls “pop-atheists,” likening them to science-fiction or fantasy writers. Palmer’s premise is interesting, and if he followed up this thesis the book would be a worthwhile read. However, what follows is a mishmash of quoted material. The quotes aren’t woven into his writing; he aligns them against each other to make a point and often doesn’t bother to extrapolate upon them. He quotes Marx, Darwin, Camus, Dorothy Parker, the Bible, Orwell and Malcom Gladwell, among others. Interspersed within the quotes are sweeping grandiose statements about the human condition, such as “people don’t want freedom,” but he doesn’t use his material to explain why individuals huddle together and use religion as a shelter. Or, if he does, he offers platitudes. The book feels pasted together, rather than a well-developed argument on his thoughts and feelings about faith. Palmer spends a chapter interpreting the Catcher in the Rye and another chapter ruminating to his great-granddaughter about the state of the world. He makes an impassioned argument for Catholicism being the one true religion, but it’s only followed-up in snippets. Perhaps if the book were redefined as a collection of his essays it might work, but it may not be entirely clear what he thinks of faith itself. It’s too buried under the quotes of others.

Those wanting a fleshed-out argument will be disappointed.