With a penetrating gaze reaching deep inside his own soul, Hill touches a universal nerve of all humanity: a desperate need for God. //

When Dorothea von Ertmann, a friend and student of Beethoven’s, lost her only young child, Beethoven learned of her inconsolable grief. Instead of offering words of consolation, he sat at the piano and played for her, improvising for an hour before he squeezed her hand and left. It was Beethoven’s highest offering: using his greatest gift to express ideas and emotions of comfort and solace.

Dr. Jason Hill performs a similar service for readers in his moving new book, Letters To God From A Former Atheist. Hill, a philosophy professor at DePaul University, reasoned that if he were to find his way back to God, it also would come through his most developed faculty and his greatest gift, that of writing.

Hill shares this powerful journey of faith through his real-life story written as invocations to God: an autobiography told through the fearless and humble language of unfiltered and impassioned prayers.

“I seek to find You in these letters,” he prays.

These consecrated letters are filled with pathos, intimacy, joy, and a depth that is difficult to attain through other literary forms, helping to account for their unparalleled sublimity. //

Dorothea von Ertmann later recalled that Beethoven’s impromptu recital “said everything to me” and “finally gave me consolation.” I am confident this book will give similar consolation to its readers as only unvarnished prayer can.

Hill prayed to become the person he most wanted to be with a heart for humanity and a hunger for God’s presence in life’s every aspect. To his delight, he was not disappointed, and neither will the reader be.