Talking to strangers

Books Discussed

Visions: The Soul's Path to the Sacred. By Eddie Ensley, Chicago: Loyola Press, 2000. xvi+ 285 pp. $17.95 (cloth)

Spiritual But Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America. By Robert C. Fuller. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 203 pp. $25.00 (cloth).

Dematerializing: Taming the Power of Possessions. By Jane Hammerslough. Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus Publishing, 2001. x + 278 pp. $25.00 (cloth).

The Truth About God: The Ten Commandments in Christian Life. By Stanley M. Hauerwas and William H. Willimon. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1999. 144 pp. $11.00 (paper).

Preaching to Skeptics and Seekers. By Frank G. Honeycutt and William H. Willimon. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2001. 183 pp. $15.00 (paper).

The Loss of Happiness in Market Derocracies. By Robert E. Lane. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. x + 465 pp. $37.00 (cloth); $19.00 (paper).

Raising Faith-Filled Kids: Ordinary Opportunities to Nurture Spirituality at Home. By Tom McGrath. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2001. xii + 274 pp. $12.95 (paper).

Broken Tablets: Restoring the Ten Commandments and Ourselves. Edited by Rachel S. Mikva. Woodstock, Vt.: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1999. xx + 148 pp. $21.95 (cloth).

Quantum Change: When Epiphanies and Sudden Insights Transform Ordinary Lives. By William R. Miller and Janet C'de Baca. New York and London: The Guilford Press, 2001. xii + 211 pp. $15.95 (paper).

Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion. By Wade Clark Roof Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1999. 367 pp. $50.00 (cloth); $16.95 (paper).

The Zen Commandments: Ten Suggestions for a Life of Inner Freedom. By Dean Sluyter. New York: Putnam, 2001. 188 pp. $14.95 (paper).

Circle of Grace: Praying With--and for-Your Children. By Gregory and Suzanne M. Wolfe. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000. xiv + 370 pp. $25.00 (cloth).

The Doonesbury cartoon for October 6, 2001, recounts a conversation between Boopsie, the erstwhile actress, and the Reverend Scott, concerning Jerry Falwell's interpretation of the September 11th attacks. (You can see the whole thing at doonesbury.com by searching their archive.)

"God hates suffering so much," Scott explains, "that he allowed his only son to suffer and die, to show how much more powerful love is than evil."

"I know, Scott," she replies. "I know that to get through this I'll eventually have to invite him back into my life . Him, and Oprah, and lots of Mint Milanos."

"I think He'd be okay with that," Scott concludes. He knows what a dimwit Boopsie is, and so do Doonesbury readers. Gary Trudeau uses Scott's gentle response to point out that God's love is also more powerful than the easy narcissism of a prosperous society. If Boopsie does invite God back into her life, cookies will have to give way to Communion, and the ersatz chumminess of talk shows give way to real communities. Boopsie may be speaking Trudeau's mind when she confesses a need not simply for God but also for solid theology at times like these. It has been decades since the Doonesbury strip has spoken so astutely about contemporary life.

As we all know, church attendance surged after September 11th and, as of this point in mid-October, that trend has continued. If Gary Trudeau is rethinking religion in some personal way, who knows what's going on generally? So I have scanned my shelves looking for books useful in the effort to minister graciously to all the people who may be giving God another look in these times. More than once I have chuckled grimly that my part in a national emergency has been to sit drinking tea and reading books, but that does seem to be the case. And yet, as I read my way through these books, I realized what bounty I had found, ripe for harvest. It's an eclectic mix, but surely there is grace in that as well.

Robert Fuller's Spiritual But Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America recounts the long and vibrant history of unchurched spiritualities in the U.S. It is no post-'60s phenomenon, and no passing fad either. It's as American as our egalitarianism and "frontier" spirit, as deeply seated as our suspicion of the corrupt "old world" and its hierarchical ways. Fuller's historical sketch is quick, accurate, readable, and engaging: all the makings of a classic. To engage the American seekers who see themselves as "spiritual but not religious," religion ought to make use of modern knowledge generally, including science, technology, and world religions; religion ought to attend to what makes for a solidly meaningful life in the here-and-now rather than devoting all its energies to the vague hereafter, and, finally, religion should speak to and from the vital encounter with God (pp. 98-99). Surely Christianity can do all of that! Spiritual But Not Religious is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the future of Christianity in America.

Wade Clark Roof, in Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion, contends that contemporary religious practice has changed in response to the spiritual quest both for the experience of the sacred and for a unified self. The "spiritual marketplace" of Roofs title is the array of competing resources for that quest-not just churches but also personal social networks, the publishing industry, and the media. Chapter 5, "A Quest for What?" is particularly important for how carefully it construes the relationship between the (subjectively) spiritual and (institutionally) religious in our times. Like Robert Fuller, Wade Clark Roof refuses to impugn the motives or the maturity of individuals honestly seeking a deeper and personally transforming understanding of life, whether or not they have a rigorous, skillful command of systematic theological discourse.