Leaving Faith, Finding Meaning

Lynne Renoir was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1941. She was the eldest daughter of an evangelist who believed every word in the Bible had been dictated by God. This led him to the view that his child had been born in sin, and that it was his duty to belt the devil out of her. The frequent physical punishments Lynne received caused her not only psychological damage but a feeling that she had somehow failed God. This situation led her on a long quest to discover whether she was, in fact, a failure, or whether her father had been mistaken in his beliefs. In pursuing this question, Lynne completed a Master's degree in Psychology, followed by a PhD in Philosophy. She formed the view that her father's behavior was the result of serious deficiencies in his upbringing, together with his absorption of a distorted interpretation of the biblical text. Lynne was motivated to share her findings in two books, God Interrogated: Reinterpreting the Divine, and Leaving Faith, Finding Meaning: A Preacher's Daughter's Search for God. In these works Lynne analyzes the various ways thinkers have researched questions of ultimate reality. She concludes that there is no one correct answer in this complex area of thought, and that different approaches may lead to the kind of transformation that is sought by those who long for meaning in their lives.