by Leah Koenig
Where doubting God’s existence is an acceptable form of religious identity
Jennifer Anne Moses, author of Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou (University of Wisconsin Press, $26.95) is caught in a crisis of faith. As an East Coast liberal Jew, Moses is accustomed to a world where smoked salmon and doubting God’s existence are acceptable forms of religious identity. Then her husband accepts a professorship at Louisiana State University and moves with Moses and their children to Baton Rouge. Moses’ relationship with God has always been tenuous, but now she must struggle to define her faith in a community where there is a church on every corner and one cannot walk down the street without “bumping up against Jesus.”