Review

Title: When Church Is Hard
Author: Tyler Johnson
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Non-fiction
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 246
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-63993-182-8
Price: $18.99

Reviewed by El Call for the Association of Mormon Letters

The jacket blurb for When Church is Hard defines its audience as being for someone “struggling with questions and seeking to square [their] intuitive sense of the good found in the Church with questions about its history, doctrine, culture, or practices.” Based on the title and the marketing, I was hoping this book would, in fact, be for me. I anticipated having examples of how people made the church work for them in some way or another.

However, this book suffers from the problem of trying to reach two audiences at once: people for whom church is hard and people who don’t understand why church would be hard for others. When Church is Hard is much better suited for readers in that latter camp.

I can tell that the author, Tyler Johnson, is earnest in his efforts, and it does seem like he is genuinely trying to be helpful. I just think that if this book is going to be received well, it needs to be marketed better. The focus should be getting it into the hands of people who are confused about why others might leave the church.

In addition to the problem of how the book is marketed, I have a concern with the author’s heavy reliance on the work of Jonathan Haidt. Johnson uses too many examples directly from Haidt, an American social psychologist and author who has written several books on why people are happy.  While I’m not quite sure about the validity of these particular examples used by Johnson, I find Haidt difficult to trust, given that two of his recent books, The Anxious Generation and The Coddling of the American Mind, both rely on bad studies and cherry-picked examples.

When Church Is Hard is primarily a series of anecdotes and metaphors, and in general, does a good job in outlining why church can be hard. The personal stories Johnson shares from those he’s interacted with bring an element of realism that substantiates the idea of the difficulties faced at church. This approach does make the book feel a bit piecemeal, but overall, I do think I’d recommend When Church Is Hard for people who struggle not with church itself, but with the idea that other people would.