Everything Happens for a Reason by Kate Bowler

Everything Happens for a Reason by Kate Bowler

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A meditation on sense-making when there's no sense to be made, on letting go when we can't hold on, and on being unafraid even when we're terrified."--Lucy Kalanithi

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE

Kate Bowler is a professor at Duke Divinity School with a modest Christian upbringing, but she specializes in the study of the prosperity gospel, a creed that sees fortune as a blessing from God and misfortune as a mark of God's disapproval. At thirty-five, everything in her life seems to point toward "blessing." She is thriving in her job, married to her high school sweetheart, and loves life with her newborn son.

Then she is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.

The prospect of her own mortality forces Kate to realize that she has been tacitly subscribing to the prosperity gospel, living with the conviction that she can control the shape of her life with "a surge of determination." Even as this type of Christianity celebrates the American can-do spirit, it implies that if you "can't do" and succumb to illness or misfortune, you are a failure. Kate is very sick, and no amount of positive thinking will shrink her tumors. What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists everything happens for a reason? Kate is stripped of this certainty only to discover that without it, life is hard but beautiful in a way it never has been before.

Frank and funny, dark and wise, Kate Bowler pulls the reader deeply into her life in an account she populates affectionately with a colorful, often hilarious retinue of friends, mega-church preachers, relatives, and doctors. Everything Happens for a Reason tells her story, offering up her irreverent, hard-won observations on dying and the ways it has taught her to live.

Praise for Everything Happens for a Reason

"I fell hard and fast for Kate Bowler. Her writing is naked, elegant, and gripping--she's like a Christian Joan Didion. I left Kate's story feeling more present, more grateful, and a hell of a lot less alone. And what else is art for?"--Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior and president of Together Rising

Kate Bowler writes about festive entertaining techniques, easy recipes, DIY projects, and life as a new parent on her popular lifestyle blog Domestikatedlife.com. Martha Stewart Living, Family Circle Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, and The Boston Globe have all featured her recipes and style work. She is the co-President of the Boston Bloggers Association and lives in a picturesque seaside village outside of Boston with her husband and daughter. Kate may be found on Instagram and Twitter as @domestikateblog, as well as on her website, www.domestikatedlife.com.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780399592065
ISBN 10	0399592067
Title	Everything Happens for a Reason
Author	Kate Bowler
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2018-02-06
Number of pages	208
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.