Sara Miles

David Ian Miller interviewed Sara Miles, author of Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion, for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Two of their exchanges:

One of the questions you raised in the book is "Why would any thinking person become a Christian?" First, I'm going to ask you why you even felt the need to pose that question. I don't think someone would ask the same question of a Jew or a Buddhist or a Hindu or a pagan.

There are a lot of secular people who are raised to doubt any knowledge that can't be proved through a scientific paradigm. That's why I asked that question in the book. But one could ask that same question for other religions as well.

Now I'll ask you for the answer to the question, "Why would any thinking person become a Christian now?"

I'm not going to give the answer for why anybody else should be a Christian, but I will say why I became a Christian. I believe the story of Christianity is true. It is true beyond facts and literalism, and it's true beyond logic. As a journalist, it was surprising for me to use a different set of tools -- the eyes of faith -- to understand the world. Belief turned out to be the least important part of faith. For me, the most interesting part of faith has been doubt, not knowing, being willing to look at the universe with a different perspective.

Read the entire interview.

Miles put Take This Bread to the Page 99 Test.

--Marshal Zeringue