Synopses & Reviews
New York Times Bestseller | One of NPR’s Best Books of 2015
What if that person you’ve been trying to avoid is your best shot at grace today?
And what if that’s the point?
In Accidental Saints, New York Times best-selling author Nadia Bolz-Weber invites readers into a surprising encounter with what she calls "a religious but not-so-spiritual life." Tattooed, angry and profane, this former standup comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve. But God keeps showing up in the least likely of people—a church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious Bishop and a gun-toting member of the NRA.
As she lives and worships alongside these "accidental saints," Nadia is swept into first-hand encounters with grace—a gift that feels to her less like being wrapped in a warm blanket and more like being hit with a blunt instrument. But by this grace, people are transformed in ways they couldn’t have been on their own.
In a time when many have rightly become disillusioned with Christianity, Accidental Saints demonstrates what happens when ordinary people share bread and wine, struggle with scripture together, and tell each other the truth about their real lives. This unforgettable account of their faltering steps toward wholeness will ring true for believer and skeptic alike.
Told in Nadia’s trademark confessional style, Accidental Saints is the stunning next work from one of today’s most important religious voices.
Review
"To say this is a book about God working through imperfect people is to reduce a work of profound, unvarnished truth-telling to the very cliché it so masterfully avoids. Accidental Saints is a triumph in faithful storytelling. In just a few lines of description and dialog, Nadia Bolz-Weber manages to capture all that is beautiful and maddening and frightening about our shared humanity, including her own inconsistencies and struggles as a Jesus-loving sinner-saint. This is one of those rare books that will make you simultaneously wince with recognition and sigh with relief. A must read for every screw-up and asshole caught up in God’s grace." Rachel Held Evans, author of A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Searching for Sunday
Review
"If Saint Augustine were to return to life and live among us now, he would be Bolz-Weber; and if his Confessions were to be written in 21st century rhetoric and style, they would be this book. Accidental Saints is what every Christian yearns to know is possible." Phyllis Tickle, author of The Divine Hours and The Great Emergence
Review
"Engaging and accessible…Bolz-Weber is clear-eyed about the personal travails faced by the marginalized and those without faith." Booklist
Review
"Compulsively readable… [Bolz-Weber’s] love for God and for humankind shines through on every page." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Unflinchingly honest (and funny)....You don’t have to be religious to get something out of this book." NPR’s "Best Books of 2015"
About the Author
Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. She is the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Pastrix. Nadia has been featured on CNN and in the Washington Post, Bitch Magazine, NPR’s Morning Edition, More Magazine, and the Daily Beast.