Book Review: Don't Forget We're Here Forever by Lamorna Ash 

The second 'theology' book which caused me to get diverted from reading Moltmann was 'Don't Forget We're Here Forever: A New Generation's Search for Religion' by Lamorna Ash. This was the next book on the list for the local Clergy/Reader book group I've joined, so I had a deadline to finish reading it.

Following on from the publication of her first book on 2020, 'Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town', she was looking for something else to write about. Two of her former university friends had become Christians and decided to train for the Anglican ministry. So she decided to investigate further. In her introduction she writes:

"I was no Christian, no theologian, no philosopher. At twenty-six, I knew that miracles and religious experiences were not real. That prayers did not do a thing. That churches were as useless and beautiful as dinosaur bones. And that the end of life was synonymous with finality: to imagine otherwise was a hopeful and misplaced delusion. By twenty-six, I’d inherited all these unquestioned assumptions about Christianity, that it operated as a single homogenous bloc aligned with all kinds of malignant social positions – most of all that it was endemically misogynistic and homophobic, permanently stained by its status as a colonial handmaiden, a breeding ground for paedophiles.

"I was another writer seeking something to write, preparing to face up to the subject with her props – this notebook, this Dictaphone, this armoury – as if to say, I am not here to be changed; I have no dog in this fight."

And investigate she did, immersing herself headlong into all manner of aspects of the Christian faith:

"I filled up the coming months of my calendar with Christian retreats, church visits and stays in the houses of Christian strangers all across the highways and byways of the UK – Cornwall, Sussex, Kent, Hertfordshire, Birmingham, North Wales, Norfolk, Sheffield, Halifax, Durham, the Inner Hebrides – seeking out every kind of Christian, from Catholics to Orthodox Christians, to those from as many Protestant denominations as possible: Quakers, Pentecostals, conservative Evangelicals, liberal Evangelicals, high to low Anglicans, Anabaptists, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, non-denominational Christians, self-professed mystics, and those who only on certain days called themselves Christian. My focus was on my generation, those in their twenties and thirties, the youngest set of adults in Britain."

She attended a Christianity Explored course at All Souls Langham Place and visited the Youth With a Mission (YWAM) centre in Harpenden (I've been there a few times) - both expressions of conservative evangelicalism. At the same time she was continuing to live a life that many such Christians would criticise:

"At that time, I was being inducted into a new form of loving. I was dating women for the first time. Actually, I was dating a curly-haired lesbian couple, and a sharp, elegant, slightly older woman I’d met on a dating app. I was also half in love with a man who did not love me back, because it’s hard to let go of old habits. My weekends were spent dancing at grotty house parties, kissing in the backs of clubs, on night buses, waking up on Sundays having slept sub-three hours, my throat bonfire embers and my heart going at a speed I usually decided to find intriguing rather than concerning, then being picked up by the same bleary-eyed friends and lovers to drive to protests at detention centres or out on the streets."

And of course, sexuality was a key aspect of her attitudes to conservative evangelicalism, but despite this, she learned things which altered her perspectives on Christianity.

She started regularly frequenting a Quaker meeting, and this allowed some respite from the implicit and explicit criticisms of her lifestyle.

Ash explored retreats at Iona, Walsingham and various other expressions of the faith, as well as interviewing liberal, progressive and deconstructing Christians. In terms of immersing herself in the Christian faith, I doubt there are many Christians who have explored so intensively all the different expressions of their faith.

I have to say I really like her writing style, and admire her tenacity in pursuing her investigations. There is a lot that people of faith or none can learn about Christianity. For Christians, she holds a mirror up to us and helps us to see how our beliefs and practices look to modern, secular young people. Many non-Christians may find their perspectives broadened through reading this. And many deconstructing Christians may find hope of a way back to a faith that is honest and sincere despite the forces within traditional faith which have put them off.

So, down to the all-important question: What happened at the end of her research? What effect did it have on her? Well I'm going to default on answering that. This is a book which deserves to be read, and I ended up chasing to get to the end before our book group meeting (tomorrow) so I would know the answer to that. I recommend this book to all.

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