Do religious and atheistic fundamentalists have more in common with each other than with the rest of us?

The Scandal of God is a provocative book, written for those who sense the destructiveness of the extremes but who have yet to find the solid middle ground. In it, Alan Jones, Dean Emeritus of Grace Cathedral, has a message for people looking for common ground and connection in a culture polarized by religious and secular zealots: you are not alone.

This book is for those who find themselves questioning the simplistic solutions of our age and who find arguing about the existence of God a waste of time—as if God were a super-being, a divine fixer or fascist. It is for those who are yearning for ways to connect that involve both faith and rationality: making room for God while being unwilling to check their brains at the door.

We (atheists and believers and all those in between) need to discover that we are on common ground. Religion tries to answer questions. “God,” on the other hand, deepens our questions and continually invites us into the unknown. The way forward is by our seeing the connections that are already there—the ever-present promise of communion and that most demanding of all questions—what does it mean to be human?