historian faith

I'm reading a book on the Reformation and the author is an Englishman whose family has been Anglican clergy continuously since 1890 and probably some before. He writes of himself:

I do not now personally subscribe to any form of religious dogma (although I do remember with some affection what it was like to do so).

How bittersweet that must be for him to write that on a book about the history of Christianity in his culture. To have nostalgia be the only tie to once firmly held beliefs must be traumatic (I'm sure interpreted by some as liberating) and I wonder how sad that experience must be. Much worse than a friendship that has faded maybe closer to a difficult divorce- but with no identifiable offending party or in the flesh person to blame.