Holy Runaways, Matthias Roberts
Holy Runaways, Matthias Roberts
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Holy Runaways
Rediscovering Faith After Being Burned by Religion

Author: Matthias Roberts, Jen Hatmaker

Narrator: Matthias Roberts

Unabridged: 6 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/03/2023


Synopsis

In the past decade, church attendance among US adults has decreased by more than 25 percent. Americans report leaving religious communities because of the institutions' hypocrisy and resistance to change or because of trauma they have experienced in those spaces. Instead of safe havens for people of faith, many churches have become sites of harm—places people feel the need to escape at all costs.

In Holy Runaways, psychotherapist Matthias Roberts reaches out to those who, like him, want to understand the religion they've run from and erect a new faith on firmer foundations. He concludes that the best blueprint for a new spiritual home requires reimagining ourselves, God, and our very definition of faith.

Roberts blends deeply personal stories, new interpretations of familiar Christian parables, and recent scholarship about the dynamics of trauma to offer a way forward—and a warm, helpful companion—for listeners on their own journeys. He calls out people who perpetuate systems of violence and oppression and suggests ways we can all contribute to a new system built on love—and a new home we can inhabit together.

About Matthias Roberts

Matthias Roberts is a licensed mental health counselor associate in Seattle, Washington, and host of Queerology: A Podcast on Belief and Being. He holds two masters degrees, one in theology and culture and one in counseling psychology. In his psychotherapy practice, he specializes in helping LGBTQ+ teens and adults live confident and fulfilling lives. He writes and speaks nationwide about the intersections between gender, sexuality, mental health, and theology.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kj on October 21, 2023

Following his insightful, absorbing, and genuinely helpful first book, “Beyond Shame” (2020), Roberts dives even deeper into the complex pressures of belief, shame, longing, and belonging in “Holy Runaways.” Offered in poetic filaments evocative of Zen koans and creative nonfiction, “Holy Runaways” i......more

Goodreads review by Eady on December 29, 2024

I loved this book! I do not have the same journey as Matthias, but his experiences are very relatable and there are truths he shares about deconstruction that benefit many of us “holy runaways” as we reconstruct our faith. I appreciated what Matthias had to say about the parable of the seeds. I’d alw......more

Goodreads review by My_Strange_Reading on March 09, 2024

I really wanted to like this book more than I did, and I think the reason it wasn’t my favorite was the pacing choices. Roberts has such an important message to share, but I feel he gets lost in trying to be too many things at once: philosophical, metaphorical, psychological. I would get lost in a s......more

Goodreads review by Joe on October 16, 2023

I had to take several breaks while reading to spend time processing the thoughts and feels Mathias brought to me; I can relate so much to his story as a peer raised in white western evangelical christianity while also discovering my queerness and running away (well more like quietly evaporating). The......more

Goodreads review by Jo on October 07, 2023

Compassionate, insightful, exploratory; this book needs to be read and savored again and again......more