Understanding God is an examination of the damaging effects of thinking you need to perform "works" to get God to love you, using the author's life as a case study. This work examines the journey from faith to disbelief and back to faith by finally hearing with great clarity the good and gracious word that God is communicating to us.

Tom Cleary was raised Catholic and explains his upbringing in that world in a way that will illuminate what it is to be raised full-immersion Catholic, with all its uniqueness and eccentricities, and under the thrall of having to perform works to earn God's grace.

This work also examines in detail the invidious prevalence of works righteousness in the Protestant world and how it got there, with a historical journey that examines in plain language the theological traps that led so many Protestants down this road throughout the centuries.

Understanding God concludes with a call to return to the good news of simply believing in the radical, new thing God has done through His Son and to reach out specifically to those who have given up, thinking that there isn't any good news to hear about Jesus the Christ.

Understanding God will amuse, sadden, enrage, enlighten, and ultimately challenge you to accept the simple desire of God to have His children believe in Him and His love and forgiveness of us.