Kelsey Osgood | Godstruck

Join us for a theological conversation with Kelsey Osgood for her new book, Godstruck: Seven Women's Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion. Kelsey will be in conversation with Matthew Wickman, head of the BYU Humanities Center.

Tickets for this event are $5 and all proceeds go directly to our partner non-profit, Brain Food Books.

Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event. You may also pre-order your signed copy of Godstruck to be picked up at the event by either calling the store at 801-484-9100 or ordering online. If you cannot make this event, signed copies may be ordered from our website. Please specify in the comments if you would like your copy personalized.

Places in the signing line are reserved for those who purchase a copy from The King's English.

About the Book

A candid, thought-provoking exploration of contemporary women’s experiences of religious conversion and the relationship between faith and fulfillment in our time.

Religious involvement has been declining in the West for decades—and, though men have historically outnumbered women among the disaffiliated in the U.S., a greater share of the young adults leaving religion today are women. A young, secular Kelsey Osgood would have been surprised to hear that she would be among those moving in the opposite direction. And yet, after the conversion to Orthodox Judaism that transformed her life, she began to wonder about the other contemporary women who, like her, had been startled to find a home in organized religion.

In Godstruck, she profiles six other converts—some raised firmly atheist, others agnostic or religious—navigating independent paths to religious devotion. From Angela, a data-driven writer and journalist who finds herself drawn to Quaker meetings, to Hana, whose conversion to Islam leads her halfway around the world, to Christina, whose Amish faith transforms her relationship to modernity, these women’s unexpected revelations introduce them to new and sometimes radically different ways of living. Along the way, Osgood charts a fascinating course through a wide range of cultural references—from Saint Augustine, Simone Weil, and Tolstoy to desert hermits, Alcoholics Anonymous, and contemporary feminism—to explore some of our attempts to understand and cope with the mysteries of life and the human condition.

Driven by a profound curiosity and anchored by intimate reporting, Godstruck is a provocative, insightful, and refreshingly nuanced exploration of both the joys and the challenges of faith that reveals what these seekers can teach all of us about modern life and our own searches for meaning.

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