POULSBO — Local microbrewery Valholl Brewing has teamed up with local author Michael Camp to craft a specialty ale, “Confessions Ale,” to commemorate Camp’s new book, “Confessions of a Bible Thumper.”

The special brew will be lauched at Valholl on April 13 in Poulsbo.

A Poulsbo resident, Camp’s first book “Confessions of a Bible Thumper: My Homebrewed Quest for a Reasoned Faith” mixes the author’s faith journey with a love of craft beer in a way he believes opens discussion.

The book follows Camp’s spiritual evolution from conservative Christianity to a more progressive viewpoint.

A former Baptist missionary and aid worker for evangelical organizations, Camp said the book uses dialogue from conversations held in pubs to offer a dissemination of theological points.

In the book, Camp melds the sacred and the secular in a way that breaks down stereotypes and allows for an open dialogue on faith issues.

“People think you have to go to church to talk theology, but a pub works fine,” Camp told the Central Kitsap Reporter in June.

Camp said the dichotomy of beer and theology is a metaphor for freedom and, in many ways, the doctrine of grace he said is outlined in the Bible.

The book takes the metaphor of friends drinking in a pub discussing theology to delve into viewpoints concerning the inerrancy of the Bible, grace versus legalism, church structure, doctrines surrounding the existence of hell and other subjects that have been topics of debate in the church for thousands of years.

Camp said the book is not a platform from which he preaches, but is a memoir of his personal journey and a means of opening conversations involving faith.

“I try to open a dialogue and get people to think that it is OK to question and discuss these things,” he said.