Why I Believe: A Psychologist’s Thoughts on Suffering, Miracles, Science, and Faith

Cloud (Trust) meditates in this intimate account on the “unexpected miracles” that have shaped his life. In loose and digressive prose, he writes of struggling as a child with a debilitating hip condition, until a “divine voice” instructed his mother to drive from Mississippi to the New Orleans hospital where a surgeon developed the treatment plan that helped him recover. Elsewhere, he recounts how a “supernatural experience” in which God “came into... my being in the most powerful way I know how to describe” jolted him from despondency after he lost a bank teller job in college, and how God “healed” his depression through the aid of his friends, family, and doctor. Sections that draw on his psychologist’s training make for the most fascinating parts of the book (of the divine vision he had after losing his college job, Cloud acknowledges, “If I heard this from someone, I might think they were having a manic episode, but I wasn’t... my thinking, impulse control, reality orientation... were all fine”). Readers will also be intrigued by his arguments that psychological principles are grounded in, rather than antithetical to, scripture (for example, the Proverbs quote “If you rescue an angry man, you will only have to do it again” resonates with prevailing wisdom on not being an “enabler” for those with anger problems). It’s a wise and well-informed inquiry into faith’s many mysteries. (June)