The Fiction of Our Lives: Creating Our Stories Over a Lifetime is my newest release published by Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2016. (Click on the image at left to download the Wipf & Stock ad that appeared on its debut in an issue of The Christian Century magazine.) This book is a blend of my two areas of training: science (psychology and neuroscience) and theology. It’s in part – unlike my other works – a memoir of my own life, as well as a cultural analysis of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s – those decades that we Baby Boomers shaped as they shaped us through song and story. Underneath it all, I argue that God’s Spirit and Call are at the center of our story – from our brain synapses – wired for song and story – to the historical circumstances that impinge on our lives.

In the Introduction I write: “on the surface, the title suggests that we sort of make it up as we go along, living lies in the process, creating fictions we tell to others, fictional masks to hide behind and cover up the truth of our lives. But in the deepest sense meant here, we do create our lives and our stories because this is what it means to be human – from our genes to our culture. We create and we re-create and co-create our stories over the course of the years we are given in order to make something of ourselves” in the process.

Here’s the text from the back cover. (The entire cover is visible here.)

We are the author of our own lives. We create, re-create, and co-create our stories over the lifetime we have been given in order to make something of ourselves in the process. Blending new findings from brain science and psychology with spiritual and theological insights, Sandra Levy-Achtemeier has written a readable work translating complex scientific and spiritual categories into practical terms that can inform our everyday selves. From our evolutionary roots that equip us to sing meaning into our living, to the cultural menus we now draw from to script new meaning into our days, she has given us an incredible wealth of wisdom to inform the rest of our life journeys. Underneath it all, Levy-Achtemeier makes the case that God's Spirit and call are at the center of our story – from our brain synapses to the historical circumstances that impinge on our lives.

This newest book has received four scholarly endorsements which may be read on the back cover or by clicking here.

As always, I welcome comments from my readers, and this book is no exception. You can contact me by clicking here.