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“I had drifted away a little bit. This book has brought me back into the fold. I was so incredibly struck in writing these stories by the incredible power faith had in people’s lives, it has made a profound impact on me in my belief. That’s been the completely unexpected effect of writing this book. I am in the process of rediscovering my own faith again.” So explains the New Yorker writer  Malcolm Gladwell , describing the effect of writing his new book David and Goliath .

He is not, he explains to our friend Sarah Pulliam Bailey, a member of a church, though he’s drawn back to the Mennonite tradition in which was raised. And though he now calls himself a Christian, his understanding of Christ isn’t (yet) all one would wish. But when asked if he’d had a conversion experience, he responded:


I realized what I had missed. It wasn’t an “I woke up one morning” kind of thing. It was a slow realization something incredibly powerful and beautiful in the faith that I grew up with that I was missing. Here I was writing about people of extraordinary circumstances and it slowly dawned on me that I can have that too.


 It’s a cheering story , and a testimony to the effect of godly lives upon others.


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