In Search of Grace: A Journey Across America's Landscape of Faith (Quill)

This book offers an interesting look into one woman's search for the meaning and experience of spiritualty. I think the book's layout (chapters devoted to different branches of religion, along with the brief histories of each group given at the start of the chapter) lend's itself to be (mis)interpreted as a non-fiction anthology. At times I felt the book was misinforming, especially on Unitarian Universalism, which is my own leaning. However, in retrospect, I think the author never intended to be an authority. Through this book I saw Catholic practices and rituals in a new light and with renewed inspiration, and had my interest piqued about Sikhs, Mormons, Amish and the Scientologists. I found the writing to be a little too "pop" for me at times, and generally like the content of the accounts more than her way of telling about them.

Kristin Hahn's book was a wonderful find for me. Not only did I grow up feeling like a religious outsider myself, but I could easily relate to her tolerant and often humorous approach to each and every belief system that she experiences. I say "experiences" because that is exactly what this book is all about. How do people of widely differing beliefs experience the transcendent? And how does that inform their personal and communal lives?Though this book is by no means a comprehensive or exhaustive approach to the pluralistic society in which we live (how could any book achieve that?), it shared with me many fascinating (and sometimes secretive) glimpses of the diverse American religious topography that we have inherited. What makes this a five-star review is that Kristin Hahn shares her spiritual awakening with the reader in such melodic prose that I have ordered this book with the hope of revisiting it from time to time when I will inevitably find myself viewing the world through mono-chromatic glasses. In Search of Grace will always remind me of how much richer the world of spirituality and belief is when viewed as a tapestry of differing shades of grey.

I am going through a spiritual journey now, and reading up on many different religions and beliefs. This book is so refreshing. Most books on religion are 3rd person, very bland, and sometimes biased. This book is the complete opposite:1st person POV, so interesting and personal, and very open towards different beliefs. She wants to experience faith, not just learn what people believe. Some experiences she is involved in: An Native american spiritual prayer/blessing ceremony; a retreat w/benedicte (spelled it wrong)monks and nuns, amish, roman catholics, mormons, everybody. This is an actual hands-on experience that sheds so much light into people's spiritual life. This book in no way advocates one belief or another. I feel this is a great experience reading this book because it has opened my eyes so much during my journey. I only wish I had this book when I began my journey, enlightening me on every course I later look into.

In my frequent conversations with Christians, I am often surprised at how many think this is a Christian nation, founded by Christian Fathers. It is true, of course, that most people here claiming religion claim one form or other of Christianity, but it is also true that there is no national religion here and that plenty of the Founding Fathers were not Christians or were even anti-Christian. Given our national history, it is not at all surprising that we should be a religious melting pot. None of the organized religions had included Kristin Hahn when she was growing up. Pushing thirty, tired of working in Hollywood, she determined that she would hit the road to see what religions in America had to offer. The picaresque result, _In Search of Grace: A Religious Outsider's Journey Across America's Landscape of Faith_ (Morrow) came after three years of what was essentially a religious quest. She was not shopping for a religion she could call her own. She was looking to find what universal qualities sincerely religious people seek and display. The broad answers are unsurprising, but the variations in detail of practice and belief in each particular sect are worth reading about. She did not, of course, shun Christianity, there being more chapters devoted to that belief than to others. She did, however, look into some unusual aspects of different sects of that practice. She had little luck penetrating Harmony, an Amish community, beyond what a usual tourist sees. She participated in prayers with nuns and monks in a Benedictine abbey. Most of us have been visited by Mormon missionaries, but Hahn went testifying with them. The closest she gets to disbelief is at a Unitarian Universalist church, where she is told that although that particular church is "Christian-leaning," the last time Jesus Christ's name was spoken inside the church was when the janitor bumped his head on the basement rafter. In her non-Christian endeavors, she took some peyote with Native Americans. She kept the Sabbath with Reformed and Orthodox Jews. She fasted with Muslims during Ramadan. She used the bogus e-meters of the Church of Scientology. She tortured herself with the rigors of Kundalini yoga, and of different forms of Hindu and Buddhist meditation. She went to a Wiccan convention in a Las Vegas casino, of all places. It's a wide-ranging survey. Sometimes she is exhausted or perplexed, obviously a tourist within deeply mysterious lands, but she is able to convey the strangeness with clarity. She has been gentle even with the strangest of beliefs, preserving a wide-eyed and seldom critical stance that makes for good understanding and reporting. For each of the main beliefs she has described, she gives a useful capsule history of the faith and its main ideas before going into her own experience of it. No, Hahn did not find a religion she could join. During the time of this intelligent search, she did find a husband, and bore a child, and she wisely inc

A colorful look at the beliefs, practices, and culture of many of the religions practiced in the U.S. I've read several books on religion, but they were missing the element of experience that this book offers. Through Ms. Hahn I feel as though I have been given a glimpse into what it is that holds people to the religions they embrace.