An Altar in the World
A Geography of Faith
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In the New York Times bestseller An Altar in the World, acclaimed author Barbara Brown Taylor continues her thoughtful spiritual journey by building upon where she left off in Leaving Church. With the honesty of Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and the spiritual depth of Anne Lamott (Grace, Eventually), Taylor shares how she learned to find God beyond the church walls in this guide to everyday spirituality, embracing the sacred as a natural part of everyday life. In An Altar in the World, Taylor shows us how to discover altars everywhere we go and in nearly everything we do as we learn to live with purpose, pay attention, slow down, and revere the world we live in, creating a personal geography of faith.
This beautiful field guide to a more grounded faith offers twelve spiritual practices to help you discover the divine, including:
Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life: Move beyond theory and embrace tangible, bodily practices—from walking on the earth to wearing skin—that connect you to the divine in the here and now.Finding God in the Ordinary: Learn to recognize the sacred in the most common places and activities, transforming a trip to the grocery store or a simple meal into an encounter with the Holy.Spiritual but Not Religious: For those who feel they are "spiritual but not religious", Taylor provides a welcoming path to a deeper connection with God that doesn't depend on church buildings or formal religion.The Practice of Paying Attention: Discover how slowing down and waking up to the world—from the color purple in a field to the stars in the night sky—can become your most profound form of prayer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Author of an acclaimed memoir (Leaving Church) and a gifted preacher, Taylor is one of those rare people who truly can see the holy in everything. Since everyone should know such a person, those who don't can no, must read this book, with its friendly reminders of everyday sacred. Taylor's 12 chapters mine the potentially sacred meaning of simple daily activities and conditions, like walking, paying attention, saying no to work one Sabbath day each week. Hanging laundry is setting up a prayer flag, for God's sake. Since Taylor, an Episcopal priest, no longer pastors a church, she can "do church" everywhere: in line at the grocery store interacting with the cashier, walking a moonlit path with her husband. Her candor is another of the book's virtues: she is a failure at prayer, and cannot explain why or how it is, or isn't, answered ("I do not know any way to talk about answered prayer without sounding like a huckster or a honeymooner"). Savor this book.
