An Altar in the World
A Geography of Faith
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4.7 • 36 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In the New York Times bestseller An Altar in the World, acclaimed author Barbara Brown Taylor continues her 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 by 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.
The eBook includes a special excerpt from Barbara Brown Taylor's Learning to Walk in the Dark.
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.
Customer Reviews
An Altar in the World
Taylor's books always speak to me in the deepest part of my being. While her book, Leaving Church, revealed, and then validated, the depth of pain I felt at leaving a church into which I had poured most of my life, An Altar illuminated glorious possibilities for walking more "wholly" through God's creation.
An Altar To The World
This book was given to me at a time in my life when I had almost given up on believing in anything religious or spiritual. I believed I was too human, that my life had to rise above all that humanity for me to be loved or have any kind of spiritual life. This book gave new hope and inspiration, just realizing that my humanness was a part of life that allowed me to practice spirituality through the simplest of activities. I think tomorrow I will read a poem to the beautiful trees in my yard.
A great help
I used this book with my church during Lent. They loved it. It gives great advice on the many ways to see God in our lives beyond our church doors. Highly recommended!