There is a little of Peter Fromm in everyone that questions religion

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	• The Flight of Peter Fromm Martin Gardner Noonday Pr, 1989 average customer review:based on 13 reviews
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highly recommended

a powerful theological book

With all the Christian fiction out there (much of it horrible) it's refreshing to read a novel like "The Flight of Peter Fromm." It's a powerful comming of age novel as Peter, a divinity school student at U of Chicago, slowly sheds his Fundamentalist skin and journeys away from the Christian faith.

As the story goes on--as Peter goes deeper into contemporary theology--he considers these new theologies, only to reject them. By the novel's end, as Peter talks to his major professor (an atheist) Peter is a philosophical theist: he still holds to a vague notion of God but it's not the God of orthodox Christianity.

This novel was a joy to read. I found that Peter's journey paralleled my own journey as a young seminarian. More Fundamentalist Christians won't like it (except to see the route one can take in losing one's faith). But for those Christians who no longer stand within the "orthodox" fold, and who want to make better sense of their faith journey, reading about Peter's journey can be helpful.

I don't keep many books on my bookshelf, but this one is a keeper. Readers who like this book may also like "THE GOSPEL OF ARNIE."

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There is a little of Peter Fromm in everyone that questions religion

In the minds of many people, there is religious belief and there is scientific belief and nothing in between. This mutually exclusive dichotomy leads to the evangelical movement expounding a complete belief in the Christian Bible and creation and the hard science belief that the universe simply exists and God is an emotionally comforting delusion. Fortunately, there is a vast middle ground of people who accept evolution as scientific fact and question the role of God in our lives, while believing that "he" exists. In my opinion, they form the logical, intelligent middle and Martin Gardner is one of the most prominent members of this group.
This book is somewhat autobiographical in that the primary character of Peter Fromm is from Oklahoma, served in the navy in World War II and attended the University of Chicago. Gardner studied philosophy while Fromm attended divinity school.
The main theme is the evolving religious beliefs of a young man that grew up in a fundamentalist environment yet his studies for the ministry lead him to have many doubts about religion. Fromm is a very intelligent man and voraciously reads material written by religious commentators. In some ways he reminds me of a comment I heard once about a student studying religion. "He has read the bible enough to recognize and be puzzled by the internal contradictions."
Those contradictions lead Peter along several paths, to the point where he most likely goes insane. The climactic scene is when Peter is giving an Easter sermon and he suddenly strips off his clothes and urinates on the organist. Needless to say, I hope that event is not part of the factually accurate biography.
This is a most interesting book; it is "narrated" by Homer Wilson, a faculty member of the University of Chicago Divinity School and an active minister. It describes the thinking person's quest for religious truth. Peter can be considered a synopsis of all people who grew up in religious households and begin to question once they are on their own. As always, Gardner tells his story well, there is a little part of Peter Fromm in all people who question the tenants of religious fundamentalism.

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Humorous, Eye-Opening Intellectual and Historical Fiction

This is one heck of an entertaining book. The main reason is this: Gardner's narrator, Homer Wilson, is downright hilarious. Both his telling of Peter's story and his asides remind me of Uncle Screwtape in C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Throughout the book, Homer subtly spins every story he recounts and every subject he addresses. His descriptions of certain real-life people are especially funny. For example, Homer describes C. S. Lewis, whose works were broadly Christian, as an "Anglican apologist." He describes J. Gresham Machen, who hated to be called a fundamentalist, as "the last of the scholarly fundamentalists." And those are just two little examples of Homer's spinning. It is strangely exciting to read a story narrated by someone you know you can't trust.

_The Flight of Peter Fromm_ is poignant in that Peter is ultimately ruined by Homer's spinning. Reason does not demand the loss of faith that Peter experiences, but the constant influence of the culture in which he lives, which subjects all things Christian to radical doubt while accepting the bases and consequences of agnosticism unquestioningly, eventually wears him down. Fortunately, Peter's end is hardly the necessary one for those committed to the life of the mind.

Finally, this story is eye-opening in that it reveals what can happen to those who are too brash and self-assured. Peter just knew he would convert the University of Chicago; instead the University toppled him. If Peter had been a little more humble he may have emerged from divinity school with his faith alive and enriched and refined.

I would recommend _The Flight of Peter Fromm_ to both agnostics and Christians. Agnostics, as they enjoy the outcome of Peter's story and conclude that that outcome was inevitable, should take a moment to notice the subtle deceptions of Homer Wilson, and at least consider the possibility that they should test their own thinking more rigorously than they usually do. Christians should take a good hard look at the road that leads, step by tiny step, to unbelief, and ask whether reason demands each step taken down that road. Hopefully all readers will appreciate the meticulous research, wonderful details, and humor that combine to make _The Flight of Peter Fromm_ a truly remarkable work of intellectual and historical fiction.

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