Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith

I use this book for a course I teach on American religion. Gallagher provides an account of her experience as a seeker, as someone on her own restless quest, in terms that many students can relate to. Her world of uncertainty is one we can all understand. But she points beyond mere "spirituality" to the meaningfulness of Christianity lived within a liturgical cycle, in a community with a tradition and a sense of vocation to serve God and humanity. Highly recommended.

I reviewed this book on November 19, 1999, and gave it 5 stars back then. If I could, I'd award it 10 stars. I have re-read THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN several times since then and it NEVER disappoints. I am sorry to see an obviously fundamentalist reviewer give it only 3 stars, but, Jerrod, all I can tell you is that when I want to read a book that strictly "agrees with what the bible says", I read the Bible. Everything else is someone's experience of their faith described on paper, which is as it should be. When I pick up a book about a person's spiritual journey, I come to it prepared not for a perfect regurgitation of Biblical quotes, but of that individual's unique relationship with God. I have a unique relationship with God, don't you? Or do we prefer to have our faith force-fed to us? We have souls AND minds- best not to waste either God-given gift.I have given or recommended this outstanding book to many friends, including several priests and others in ministry. It continues to be, as my rector put it, a seminal book in my faith journey.

Christian living is not a matter of assent to a certain set of truths, nor of wearing "WWJD" bracelets and a big smile. Christian living is the often heart wrenching process of walking each day -- each hour -- in the presence of the living God. Nora Gallagher is not a theologian -- she's a journalist -- and Things Seen and Unseen is a reporter's notebook, a journal of life in the Christian front lines. Her church family falls into division, and pulls together over the selection of a new pastor. The soup kitchen in the parish hall draws criticism from the neighbors -- and from members of the congregation. Gallagher's beloved brother, Kit, grows ill and moves toward death.None of this is earth shattering, but as Christians, we all live in a shattered -- and reclaimed -- world. Gallagher reminds us of that mysterious reality on each page.Some things are seen, and other's unseen. Gallagher reminds us that what we see often depends on where we look. For that, her book is a treasure.

If you've ever kept a personal journal so honest you should burn it, you'll know what it feels like to read "Things Seen and Unseen." On the other hand, if you have a hard time telling the truth even to yourself, you'll ask how Nora Gallagher brings herself to the task of telling her truth without burning herself in the process. She's as human as any of us is. And if life can be redeemed by writing about it, she finds salvation by writing truthfully about her human being.

I read an excerpt of Nora Gallagher's "Things Seen and Unseen" in Utne Reader magazine almost a year ago. I remember sitting in the cafe at B & N, and feeling drawn to the religion section to immediately hunt down this book. As a "recovering Catholic", I was amazed that someone else felt as I did- that I had a deep, quiet longing for God but felt too alienated from the church of my childhood, and too isolated in my desire, to reach out to organized religion. In fact, I went through a long period of fascination with Wicca and other nature religions, always remaining on the fringes of involvement, and never feeling quite comfortable with "worshipping" pagan gods & goddesses. Even though I still feel that there are healthy expressions of the divine missing from traditional religious life, I now know that those facets are available to us if we refuse to define God in the narrow terms fed to us. This book led me to explore the Episcopal faith, and while there is enough in common with Catholicism to keep it from feeling too foreign to me, there are so many clear and beautiful differences that I feel that I have found a spiritual home at last. Just as Ms. Gallagher describes, my church encourages outreach and involvement with each other AND with those outside our comfortable circle. It is an inclusive environment that expects everyone to participate in ministry. AND, our priest is a woman, which of course, is lightyears away from my previous experience. Nora Gallagher writes in a way that, when read, actually changed my breathing! It felt like lectio divina, and prompted me to dive deep and allow myself to love God again.