supercheesegirl

Full title: Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up with Has Lost Its Meaning.

I really liked this book. A well written and thoughtful exploration. McLennan's take is that spirituality is like a mountain--anyone can climb it, and everyone should give it a try; the top of the mountain, the destination, is not the point, but rather the journey. He advocates picking a path (ie, a religious tradition) and starting the journey, rather than doing tons of research to decide on Your Permanent Religion--he says, you can always change later, and you probably will, but pick a path and get started. He refers to religion and faith as a process rather than something you have or you don't; there are certain stages of belief that pretty much everyone passes through. I liked the idea of religion as a process; I liked the idea that you don't have to choose something and stick with it, but rather should just follow wherever the heart leads. I feel a bit more confident about embarking on some spiritual exploration after reading this.

One thing I noticed (due in large part, I suspect, to the presence of people like

pocketwitch and

lady_anemone in my life) is that he doesn't mention the modern wicca/witch/pagan/goddess/whatever tradition at all. He also doesn't spend much time on Native American traditions, but at least those get mentioned--I'm guessing these weren't covered because there's not a central authority body like there is with some other faiths. He spends the most time on the major religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism. UUs (he's a UU minister himself) and Baha'is get some time as well. For the most part his writing is pretty inclusive--the book is written for people who have never had a faith, or who have lost touch with the faith they were raised in, and mostly his writing works for people raised in just about any faith.