Download Snip My from the App Store<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>Book Review: The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ<\/strong> by Andrew Klavan<\/p>\nBest selling author Andrew Klavan was what he describes as a \u201csecular Jew.\u201d Then, he began praying.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t aim his prayer at any God or being in particular. He just began to discuss what was on his mind in prayer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe surprise \u2014 to him, but not so much to those of us who have experienced the same thing \u2014 is that there was an immediate answer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nKlavan\u2019s book describes the slow and gradual relationship with God that he built by the simple method of praying to this unknown Being. By the time he realized that he had been speaking with Jesus, the deal was done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThis is a candid and honest book, in which Klavan deals with all sorts of issues that people encounter in their walk with Christ. I was especially interested in how he thought through the violence and cruelty of anti-semitism and the senseless slaughter of the Holocaust. It mattered to me a lot because, while I am not Jewish, I have the same questions about the same events.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAs a woman, I also deal daily with the misogyny that Christian leaders peddle in the name of Christ. I have been deeply wounded by it. I struggle with the indifference to violence and cruelty against women, even to the point of supporting rapists for high office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo, Klavan\u2019s thoughtful and honest consideration of what Jews have suffered at the hands of Christians was meaningful to me on many levels.<\/p>\n
The book itself is more memoir than conversion story. In fact, I think it has too much depth and honesty to fit into the category of conversion story. I read a review on Amazon which described The Great Good Thing as something akin to The Confessions of St Augustine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPersonally, I don\u2019t think so. Augustine was a lot less honest in his confession than Klavan, and the \u201csin\u201d he talked about was trivial.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nKlavan is open about his own life, and he also deals with the nightmare of Western civilization, which is the industrialized mass murder of millions of innocent people by the Nazis. He talks about the Holocaust from the viewpoint of a Jew who has developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhile I know he is only speaking for himself, the fact that he doesn\u2019t back away from this or try to dismiss it with verbal pablum, gives resonance to everything else he is saying. Honesty counts for a lot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPeople who do monstrous things are destroyed themselves by what they do. But people who have horrible things done to them carry a burden of almost equal destructiveness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHow do you find spiritual life after atrocity? How do you recreate a moral world once the reality of what we are capable of doing to one another is fully exposed? How do you square the circle of a loving God in a world where such evil can flourish?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nKlavan doesn\u2019t answer those questions. But he does acknowledge their reality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHis book opens the door to discussion about such things without the meaningless gibberish of psycho-babble or opaque dismissiveness of pious and formulaic sloganeering. He doesn\u2019t come up with a universal answer. But he wasn\u2019t trying to do that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHe was trying to find an answer for himself. In the end, he dealt with it in a way that worked for him without lying to himself or to his reader.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe most interesting thing about the book is how he came to Christ. As I said, he found Jesus in the simplest way possible: by talking to Him in prayer.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s close to my own conversion experience. The difference is that with me it was immediate and overwhelming, while with Klavan it was slow and thoughtful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHe worked his way through his many questions as part of the conversion process itself. I converted in a moment, and then dealt with the questions afterwards. But both of us encountered Christ on our own, without church or clergy or even an earnest friend to facilitate the process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI recommend The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ<\/a>. I think it\u2019s well worth the read.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ by Andrew Klavan Best selling author Andrew Klavan was what he describes as a \u201csecular Jew.\u201d Then, he began praying. He didn\u2019t aim his prayer at any God or being in particular. He just began to discuss what was on his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":47135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[693,819],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-conversion"],"yoast_head":"\n
Book Review: The Great Good Thing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Book Review: The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ by Andrew Klavan Best selling author Andrew Klavan was what he describes as a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: The Great Good Thing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Book Review: The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ by Andrew Klavan Best selling author Andrew Klavan was what he describes as a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-20T12:13:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-20T04:20:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-by-Snip-My-on-Aug-19-2025-at-23.17.12.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"209\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/\",\"name\":\"Book Review: The Great Good Thing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-20T12:13:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-20T04:20:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\"},\"description\":\"Book Review: The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ by Andrew Klavan Best selling author Andrew Klavan was what he describes as a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book Review: The Great Good Thing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Public Catholic\",\"description\":\"Catholic in the Public Square\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\"},\"description\":\"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book Review: The Great Good Thing","description":"Book Review: The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ by Andrew Klavan Best selling author Andrew Klavan was what he describes as a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book Review: The Great Good Thing","og_description":"Book Review: The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ by Andrew Klavan Best selling author Andrew Klavan was what he describes as a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/","og_site_name":"Public Catholic","article_published_time":"2025-08-20T12:13:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-20T04:20:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":209,"height":320,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-by-Snip-My-on-Aug-19-2025-at-23.17.12.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rebecca Hamilton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Hamilton","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/","name":"Book Review: The Great Good Thing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-08-20T12:13:32+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-20T04:20:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d"},"description":"Book Review: The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ by Andrew Klavan Best selling author Andrew Klavan was what he describes as a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2025\/08\/book-review-the-great-good-thing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book Review: The Great Good Thing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/","name":"Public Catholic","description":"Catholic in the Public Square","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d","name":"Rebecca Hamilton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Hamilton"},"description":"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47132"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47141,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47132\/revisions\/47141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-by-Snip-My-on-Aug-19-2025-at-23.17.12.jpeg\")
<\/a>