I kept encountering people who had not stopped believing in God, but who had learned to brace themselves around Him. They loved Jesus, yet somewhere beneath their faith was the assumption that the Father was harder, angrier, or less approachable. I wanted to take that tension seriously. This book grew from the conviction that many people are not rejecting God.
A CONVERSATION WITH WILL BOURNERead the Written InterviewGo directly from the book into the author’s conversation behind it.
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The Faith We Inherited · Volume 1 of 18 · Catalog 43160
The God We Were Taught
Reclaiming the Doctrine of God from Fear and Projection
Many believers did not reject God; they learned to fear the version of Him they were taught.
Bourne Again Living Library · Catalog 43160
Fast orientation
Is this the conversation you need?
Start here for the clearest reason to read this book. Continue into the full profile when you want its larger context.
This book may help readers carrying questions about faith foundations restored, especially those looking for a thoughtful, Christ-centered way to connect belief with lived formation.
The Faith We Inherited, Volume 1 of 18. It also belongs to the Faith Foundations Restored pathway.
Understand the book before you choose it.
Many believers did not reject God; they learned to fear the version of Him they were taught. This opening volume in The Faith We Inherited series examines how trauma, tradition, and authority can form an image of God that demands survival rather than trust. Centering Jesus as the faithful revelation of God, it invites readers to rediscover holiness without emotional terror, authority without volatility, and justice flowing from love.
Questions this book helps you face
- What is the central claim of the book?
- What do you mean when you say some believers learned to fear God while loving Jesus?
- How do you distinguish reverence from fear-based formation?
What this page connects
The specific relationships around this book.
These named resources continue or deepen the conversation in The God We Were Taught.
READER PATHWAY P02
Faith Foundations Restored
Reexamine inherited Christian language with Jesus at the center and without using fear as the engine of faith.
Explore this pathway →Continue to the next volume · CATALOG 43161Saved From What?
Continue the The Faith We Inherited sequence with the next connected volume.
View this book →ORIENTATION BOOK · CATALOG 43087Bourne Again: Awake. Align. Act.
Use this title to understand the wider Bourne Again vision and how the Living Library is organized.
View this book →WRITTEN INTERVIEW · CATALOG 43160The conversation behind The God We Were Taught
Will Bourne discusses why this book was written, the questions it addresses, and the formation he hopes it serves.
Read the Written Interview →ARTICLE MOVEMENTHonest Faith, Repentance, and Forgiveness
Creates room for hard questions while distinguishing repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, restored access, and safety.
Explore this article movement →ARTICLE MOVEMENTScripture, Mystery, and Difficult Questions
Approaches difficult texts, Christ-centered reading, uncertainty, discernment, mystery, spiritual injury, and faithful questions with context, humility, accountable authority, and responsible care.
Explore this article movement →Written Interview
Enter the conversation behind the book.
The conversation opens in a place many believers recognize before they have words for it: loving Jesus while quietly bracing themselves around God. The language of faith may still be present, yet underneath it can live the expectation that God is volatile, distant, or waiting for failure.
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