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Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome

A Memoir of Humor and Healing

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Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome

By: Reba Riley
Narrated by: Reba Riley
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About this listen

Written with humor and personality, this debut memoir recounts a woman's spiritual quest of experiencing thirty religions before her thirtieth birthday. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome is for questioners, doubters, misfits, and seekers of all faiths, and tackles the universal struggle to heal what life has broken.

On her twenty-ninth birthday, while guests were arriving downstairs, Reba Riley was supposedly upstairs getting dressed. In actuality, she was slumped on the floor sobbing about everything from the meaning of life to the pile of dirty laundry on the floor.

Life without God was crashing in on her. And she was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. She uttered a desperate prayer, and then the idea came to her—thirty by thirty. And thus she embarked on a year-long quest to experience thirty religions by her thirtieth birthday. During her spiritual sojourn, Riley:

  • Was interrogated about her sex life by Amish grandmothers
  • Disco danced in a Buddhist temple
  • Fasted for thirty days without food—or wine
  • Washed her lady parts in a mosque bathroom
  • Was audited by Scientologists
  • Learned to meditate with an urban monk
  • Snuck into a Yom Kippur service with a fake grandpa in tow
  • And finally discovered she didn't have to choose a religion to choose God

In a debut memoir that is funny and earnest, Riley invites questioners, doubters, misfits, and curious believers to participate in the universal search to heal what life has broken. Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome takes you by the hand and reminds you that sometimes you first have to be lost in order to be found.

©2015 Reba Riley. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Biographies & Memoirs Christian Living Christianity Personal Development Religious Studies Women Celebration

What listeners say about Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome

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Excellent humorous treatment

Enjoyed this book. Took a while to get used to the author / reader but warned to her. Feelings of hurt and betrayal from church fundamentalism genuine but her response to it by exploring and facing head on disdain for religion unusual yet admirable. Recommended

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This book found me at the most perfect of times

Beautifully written, honestly told and so so so relatable. Highly recommended to all on the spiritual rediscovery and deconstruction path.

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Just what I needed to hear

Like so many people I have been hurt by the church, or by people who go to church. I laughed and cried while listening to this book.

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Victories come between each heartbeat of broken.

Loved this book! A beautiful honest journey of love, faith, pain, friendship and miracles.

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Amen a book that tells the truth about faith.

As a past church goer i found this book extremely interesting and navigational in my faith walk. I'm on track Amen.

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Game changer

I don’t tend to enjoy religious or Christian books specifically because of PTCS! This book was a game changer for me. Such great humour, warmth and beautiful insights, and some great characters to meet. Absolutely recommend.

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Really engaging & interesting

It’s not what I expected, it’s better! Reba took me on a journey, and I could relate to a lot of it, but I also learned a lot and was inspired to keep on searching through my own journey and to not give up.

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Triggering

I was very excited to listen to a book which I thought I could relate to given that it’s title. I didn’t expect her to be willing to seek other religion after she’s left one. Not to say I am saying that her experiences are wrong, just that they are different from mine - and it wasn’t what I was expecting to listen to is all. Sad to say I can’t finish it.

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Worship of Self in the end

This was not the book I thought it would be. I had hopes it would reveal some clear thinking and arguments as to why someone would consider de-converting from Christianity that could be engaged with. There is no engaging with the premise of this book or the author’s “journey” though. While it has moments of raw struggle and a form of honesty (especially in relation to her chronic illness), the underlying theme is that of someone choosing they did not want to believe in a just and holy God, therefore making a mockery of him and Jesus, his Son. As I went through this I cringed at the blasphemy, groaned at what were meant to be the moments of tremendous spiritual insight, and was generally saddened by her own lack of consistency, morality, and self-indulgence. This project’s culmination was no great shock. What else would represent this kind of journey of self-love and mockery of Jesus than a mirror ball? When don’t want to accept God as he has revealed himself, you will be sure to choose yourself as the supreme centre of the universe.

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