I won this in a GOODREADS givaway -- Sin Bravely: My Great Escape from Evangelical Hell by Maggie Rowe - Mental heath and spiritual health come in conflict in this book. Not sure I would have made same choices that the author made but I enjoyed her sharing of them. ( )

.Pecca Fortiter or Sin Bravely is both the title of book and the solution to doubt that a Christian psychiatrist offers to Maggie Rowe. The precise saying comes from a saying of Martin Luther church reformer :"God does not save people who are only fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly. For he is victorious over sin, death, and the world"or in the book's vernacular: "Sin bravely in order that you might know the forgiveness of God" This concept of grace is the bed rock of Christianity. This is chronicle of Maggie Rowe transformation from a rule obsessed Evangelical doubter to being someone who does not have all the answers to someone but who is at peace in her faith in Christ's ability forgive and love her no matter what her sins are. This biography is also an unblinking look at Evangelical culture. The book opens with Maggie in the lobby of Grace Point an Evangelical psychiatric hospital run by Evangelicals for Christians with mental illness. Maggie is obsessed with the question of her belief in Christ( i.e.her salvation). Is it good enough to get her into heaven? No matter how many times she prays or matter the degree of fever she doubts if it is effective enough to please God. In the journey to resolution Rowe explores most if not all of the contemporary and past issues of and reasons for doubt. She also voices her reaction to the sometimes silly and cringe worthy answers she gets to her questions. The book is also tale of what good counselors armed with appropriate medications can do. This is not a traditional triumphalist Christian biography. It only covers a portion of Maggie Rowe's life. Some readers may not appreciate its indirect criticism of the Evangelical culture that developed around Christianity. Nor will some appreciate its representation of Christian counseling techniques and practices. I thinks its critiques while painful have the ring of truth. The doubts and questions Maggie Rowe expresses are real, valid, and in certain circles suppressed.I and others have had them and experienced the suppression and at times embracing of these doubts.Finally the solution Rowe is given will be controversial in Evangelical circles Doubt is being in uncertain of an idea. Literally being in 2 minds about a subject. Unbelief is a settled certainty . Doubt is different than unbelief says Os Guinnes in his book In two minds: The dilemma of doubt & how to resolve it: and it needs to handled differently.The New Testament book of Jude verse 22 reads And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment[a] stained by the flesh. Doubt is treated like an incurable disease and to be avoided like the plague in some Christian circles. Those who voice it are treated like lepers. Sin Bravely by Rowe and In two minds by Guinnes are good arguments against this view. ( )