An Altar in the World

An Altar in the World – A Geography of Faith
Book Review by Carol  Hohle

“Do we build God a house in lieu of having God stay at ours?”

This question by author Barbara Brown Taylor sums up the whole book!

Taylor, a former Episcopal minister, and now religion professor, is also a prolific author.  She writes easily — as if she is having a conversation with you.  It is no wonder her books are so popular.  I first learned of her writing when her first memoir, Leaving Church, came out in 2006.

An Altar in the World, her second memoir, is about the importance of spiritual practice: “Wisdom is not gained by knowing what is right,” Taylor declares.  But, rather, “Wisdom is gained by practicing what is right, and noticing what happens when that practice succeeds and when it fails.”

Describing spiritual practices as basic as walking, carrying water, being with other people, and saying blessings, Taylor moves the sacred out of the church’s walls and into everyday life. “Human beings may separate things into as many piles as we wish – separating spirit from flesh, sacred from secular, church from world.  But we should not be surprised when God does not recognize the distinctions we make between the two.”

In advocating for a more holistic spiritual view, Taylor discusses eleven different spiritual practices:

1. Reverence
2. Incarnation
3. Walking
4. Wilderness
5. Community
6. Vocation
7. Sabbath
8. Physical Labor
9. Pain as Breakthrough
10. Prayer
11. Benedictions

A couple new ideas from reading the book, for me, had to do with Sabbath and Incarnation.  Sabbath is a lovely practice for taking time out, but I hadn’t thought about it as a practice for “saying ‘no’” and how important it is to know how to say “no.”  Karl Barth equates it with freedom – “A being is free only when it can determine and limit its activity.”

Incarnation, or as Taylor refers to it – “wearing skin,” is a curious and intriguing idea to me.  Incarnation, I suppose, is about the relationship one has with the divine.  Some theologies speak of it as the fleshly form of God in a very literal sense.  For me, I’m not so sure about that.  But, I do feel something other-worldly, almost divine, when I’m in nature.  There is something so holy to me about the natural world, and I feel I come close to understanding incarnation when I’m engaged in the practices of walking and reverence!

Have you read An Altar in the World OR been engaged in one or more of the spiritual practices discussed in the book?  Please share your thoughts and submit a comment below.