Finding God in the World

Barbara Brown Taylor is a remarkable writer. At one point she was considered one of the top preachers in the country. But she left the parish a number of years ago to teach in college. Her book about that, Leaving Church was quite a memoir and challenge. In the past year she published another book, An Altar in the World which I just finished. She has lost none of her spirit or style.

She takes a chapter each to discuss the ways an altar can be found or made in the world of daily living. She riffs off Jacob's first dream in the wilderness when he saw angels ascending and descending stairs into heaven. When he awoke he built an altar there since "God was surely in this place."At first I was afraid it was going to be one of those "just look around you and see God" kind of spiritual advice, self-help books. But I couldn't believe that Brown would write that kind of book.

I read through the first chapters, enjoying her writing but finding it a little dissatisfying. Until I reached the chapter on wilderness. That caught me. She talks later about pain. For when she gets down to the areas of life that are most troublesome and challenging, she is nowhere near the "self-help" genre. She is seldom glib, and never stops with the easy answers. At first glance they may seem that way, but she takes it and moves forward with depth and hope.

It is a wonderful book that will not leave you unchanged. I found myself identifying situations and times in my life that were like the ones she talks about. Yes, those were moments when, if only in hindsight, I was convinced that God was there. The world is the only place, in the end, where we can most fully discover the ways of the soul.