Book excerpt: With warmth, wisdom, and compassion, David Arthur Auten invites us to reclaim the secretive, intuitive nature of authentic becoming. In a time when many are increasingly disenchanted with traditional demarcations between belief and unbelief, the sacred and secular, Auten offers a refreshing account of what faith can look like beyond the bounds of religion. Those thirsting for reacquaintance with true selfhood, and the ability to heed the gift of their own inner voice, will find consolation and inspiration in the author's story of leaving behind the church, ministry, and also God, not in exchange for an atheist or even humanist outlook, but as an act of faith itself. Transgressive, insightful, and candid, Leaving God Behind is a memoir of following God beyond God, to a place of self-compassion, surrender, and homecoming.