Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: In Good Faith
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://mariapolonchek.com/
CITY:
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.countryliving.com/author/17941/maria-polonchek/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1979; married; children: three.
EDUCATION:University of Kansas, B.A., M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Brain, Brian, Mother, Child, Friendly Atheist. Greater Good Science Center, and Have Milk, Will Travel.
SIDELIGHTS
Maria Polonchek is the author of the child-raising guide In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a Religious World. “Maria began writing extensively on the motherhood experience,” declared the contributor of a biographical blurb to the author’s home page, the Maria Polonchek Website, “after having twins in 2005 and suffering from crippling postpartum depression.” The volume emerged partly from Polonchek’s experience growing up in an evangelical Christian family and partly from her experience dealing with her children’s questions about religion. “The book you hold now is inspired by my own search for answers as a nonreligious parent from a religious background in a religious world,” Polonchek wrote in her introduction to In Good Faith. “In the writing of this book, I’ve quickly discovered that my search for ‘parenting without religion’ isn’t really what I am searching for. There is no way to simply avoid religion as a parent, perhaps the first of my many mistaken assumptions. A more accurate description of what I’m looking for is ‘parenting without a religion, or … ‘parenting outside of religion.”
Such a situation in modern culture is virtually impossible to create, Polonchek discovered. “No matter what I share, or don’t share, with my children, the way religion permeates our world is almost as inconspicuous as the air we breathe. They hear it in the Pledge of Allegiance, read it on currency, see it along the highway like litter,” she continued in In Good Faith. “Raising children in a culture that nonchalantly evokes the sacred in our vernacular means it’s a question of when, not if, they begin to ask … questions.” “I accept now that there are no absolute answers to … existential questions and that the journey takes place in the asking,” Polonchek explained in In Good Faith. “The positive, concrete things religion offers—ceremony, community, service, comfort, reflection—these things are possible on a temporal level, without motivation from the divine. Even the consistent human desire for God’s existence is explained to me by breakthroughs in psychology and science.”
Critics appreciated the author’s approach to secular child-rearing. Polonchek’s book, reported a contributor to Country Living Online, focuses on bringing up children “with a sense of identity, belonging, and meaning outside of religion.” In Good Faith “is written in the style of a memoir,” stated Joyce McIntosh, writing in Booklist, but “those raising children will find the author’s ideas helpful.” Polonchek’s “moving exploration of the development of morality, meaning, and awe during childhood,” concluded a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “will be worth a look.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Polonchek, Maria, In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a Religious World, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2017.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, July 1, 2017, Joyce McIntosh, review of In Good Faith, p. 3.
Publishers Weekly, June 12, 2017, review of In Good Faith, p. 60.
ONLINE
Country Living Online, https://www.countryliving.com/ (April 18, 2018), author profile.
Maria Polonchek Website, https://mariapolonchek.com (April 18, 2018), author profile.
Maria Polonchek
Maria Polonchek is author of In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a Religious World (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, August 2017). Part memoir, part cultural exploration, In Good Faith examines how to raise children with a sense of identity, belonging, and meaning outside of religion. Maria holds a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Kansas. Her parenting essays can be found in outlets such as Brain, Child, Have Milk, Will Travel, The Greater Good Science Center, The Friendly Atheist and Brian, Mother. A Kansas native, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children. In addition to thinking, reading and writing about parenting, she is passionate about wellness, mindfulness, the outdoors, music, art—and the way all of these things relate to social justice.
about the author
PolonchekHeadshot
Maria Polonchek is a writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally from the Midwest, she holds an MFA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Kansas. She has published award-winning poetry, short stories, and essays in a variety of national publications.
Maria began writing extensively on the motherhood experience after having twins in 2005 and suffering from crippling postpartum depression. She now has three children and has written essays on motherhood for the literary magazine Brain, Child, contributed to the anthology Have Milk, Will Travel, and has chronicled her experience parenting outside of religion for Country Living, Spirituality and Health, The Greater Good Science Center, The Friendly Atheist, and Brain, Mother.
Maria is a Leo, a young Gen-Xer, and an ENFP. She is passionate about wellness, minimalism, and mindfulness. She likes to have a finger on the pulse of pop-culture but doesn’t want to jump right into the vein. She’s a Highly Sensitive Person, but can also be irreverent and outspoken. This combination often gets her into trouble.
Facebook analytics will tell you her main audience is made up of women in their 30’s-40’s, though she tends to think of her writing as being more universally accessible. Statistics indicate you’ll appreciate her work even more if you are one of her aunts.
In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a
Religious World
Joyce McIntosh
Booklist.
113.21 (July 1, 2017): p3.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a Religious World.
By Maria Polonchek.
Aug. 2017. 208p. Rowman & Littlefield, $34 (9781442270664); e-book, $33.99 (9781442270671).268.4.
Polonchek's expertise doesn't come from an academic degree or background in divinity or counseling--it
stems from her ability to write about her personal spiritual journey. She deftly shares her experience as a
parent and reflects on contemporary religious, nonreligious, and moral issues. As a parent, Polonchek has
found ways to approach the hope and challenge of teaching morality without religion, awe without it being
God inspired, and death without an afterlife. She also focuses on the importance of extended family and
community for all, outside of a Christian community. For readers who may find that last part to be a hurdle,
there are a number of helpful tips surrounding ways to find common ground and celebrate holiday
traditions. There are many books on spirituality for Christian parents but few for secular families--this will
fill an important gap. This is not a how-to parenting book. Although the book is written in the style of a
memoir, those raising children will find the author's ideas helpful. In Good Faith is a good addition to public
library parenting and religion collections.--Joyce McIntosh
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
McIntosh, Joyce. "In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a Religious World." Booklist, 1 July 2017, p. 3.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499862615/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=caea989e. Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499862615
3/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1521932048227 2/2
In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a
Religious World
Publishers Weekly.
264.24 (June 12, 2017): p60.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a Religious World
Maria Polonchek. Rowman & Littlefield, $34 (208p) ISBN 978-1-4422-7066-4
Poet and essayist Polonchek, having been pushed away from religion by the fire-and-brimstone theology of
her Christian youth, revels in her identity as an "apostate" and secular humanist: "Because my identity as a
child was so rooted in the religion given to me, my identity as an adult is rooted in my deconversion."
Polonchek notes that roughly 80% of Americans identify as religious and that most rely on religious
institutions to help educate their children, but then wonders how nonreligious families will provide for the
moral formation of their families. Embarking on a mission to fill this gap, she synthesizes the work of Dale
McGowan (Parenting Beyond Belief), Arnold van Gennep (The Rites of Passage), and Lawrence Kohlberg
and Jean Piaget, as well as the fresh, hilarious musings of Neil Carter on his blog, Godless in Dixie.
Religion may have failed Polonchek, but her well-researched, swiftly moving exploration of the
development of morality, meaning, and awe during childhood will be worth a look for readers interested in
childhood development. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"In Good Faith: Secular Parenting in a Religious World." Publishers Weekly, 12 June 2017, p. 60. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495720725/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=14df4638. Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495720725