Christian author Edward Boyd dies

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Edward K. Boyd, the Twin Cities man whose crisis of faith produced a best-selling Christian book, died Saturday of multiple health complications. He was 84.

The letters he exchanged with his son, the Rev. Greg Boyd of Woodland Hills Church in Maplewood, became "Letters from a Skeptic," which has sold thousands of copies and has been translated into 14 languages.

Edward Boyd worked for Uniroyal Tires in the Twin Cities, and he raised his family in Cottage Grove. In 1959, his wife, Arlyle Boyd, Greg's mother, died. Edward Boyd turned away from his faith.

Years later, Greg Boyd, then a professor at Bethel College in Arden Hills, decided to engage his father, who had moved to Florida, in a written conversation.

The result, in 1994, was the book.

When Arlyle Boyd was dying, all the children and Edward prayed a lot. Edward wrote to his son, "Maybe God doesn't listen to the prayers of sinful adults, but He should have at least heard the cries of you kids! ... It seems easier to simply conclude that He doesn't give a damn."

Greg Boyd answered his father that he, too, had raged at God for his mother's death. "Jesus suffers with us in our suffering. That's how He heals us of our suffering."

In 1992, Edward Boyd accepted Jesus as his savior, Greg Boyd said. "The man was as hearty a sinner as they come -- but he had a heart of gold," Greg Boyd said.