Forrest Church was the Senior Minister of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, until late 2006 when he was appointed as Minister of Public Theology. This book drew positive comments from authors as diverse as M. Scott Peck, Dan Wakefield and Sylvia Ann Hewlett. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. said, "The minister of a famous Unitarian church, himself the son of a notable patriot and lawmaker, demonstrates, with frequent and grateful reference to Scripture, spiritual strength based on experience and reason, and especially in times of sorrow."