I’ve written about it here on 43 Things.

I’ve written about it here on 43 Things.

This book is one I found in my church library. It interests me that it was written by a Presbyterian minister, and yet I did not find a single mention of the word “God.” The first and biggest of the nine self-sabotaging mistakes that nice people make is Perfectionism, and the author says that the cure for this is to “accept your acceptance,” your “unconditional acceptance.” I must be a fairly nice yet self-sabotaging person, who needs to work on accepting my acceptance, because I seem to make all nine of the mistakes on a regular basis. The book had some good ideas that I’ve tried to put into practice, but I can see I’m going to need LOTS of practice.

I thought the picture of Marley on the bookjacket looked a lot like gemmword’s beloved dog, Chloegoldenheart, and I thought that gemmword might enjoy this book. So I made a picture of the two dogs side-by-side and wrote to gemmword about it here.

I first found this book in the library several years ago, and then I decided to buy my own copy.

I never really finished consuming it, because I found myself pulling it from my bookshelf whenever I felt down and out. It has short chapters that are easily readable and therapeutic, and never fail to help me. I turned to it over the last holiday season when I came down with a case of Christmas blues.

I have a friend who was suffering from depression, and I gave her my copy. Don’t know if it helped her or not.

EDIT 3/2/2010:

Today I came across a note I’d saved about awhile back about this book review. A few days ago, I also came across a recent article in the NY Times Magazine, Depression’s Upside by Jonah Lehrer, which argues that talk therapy may have longer lasting benefits than medication in treating depression, because it encourages you to learn a new way of coping with problems. I believe this book does the same.

I finally took some extra time yesterday to locate an Oriental grocery store that I’d heard about. I had a great time browsing through all kinds of odd and unfamiliar food, but at the end I just chose a few familiar items.

They had sugar snap peas at about half the price that I pay in the regular grocery stores, so I bought about a pound of them and stir-fried them. Yum!

I loved this book. I took it to the beach with me to read last October, and kept laughing out loud and reading parts of it to my friend, who probably thought I was a little crazy. For me, the book was not only funny and entertaining, but also informative and thoughtful.

Like the author, I had a rather secular upbringing, and grew up to become an agnostic. Like the author, I too had an “Uncle Gil,” a religious fanatic who married my aunt, and who was thought by most of the family to take religion way too seriously, and who was a source of unending fascination for me.

For the author, “The Year of Living Biblically” means devoting a whole year of his life to studying the entire Bible and living out every commandment of God as literally as possible. From the ridiculous to the sublime, from stoning an adulterer (by throwing some pebbles at him) to learning how to pray, the author reads from Genesis through Revelation, travels from the Wailing Wall to an Amish farm, and consults an assortment of theologians, rabbis, ministers, a real shepherd, snake handlers, and even his Uncle Gil, as he tries to understand and live the Bible. I loved the stories he tells, and still find myself retelling some of them.

For me, living Biblically has lately meant starting to read the Bible again for the first time since childhood, attempting to live the Biblical commandments as I understand them, and worshipping regularly with a congregation. The latter activity is one the author seldom tried, which seems like a strange omission to me, since I have come to believe it is one of the most important Biblical practices. But that aside, the author’s year-long experiment changes him in surprising ways, and he becomes what he calls a “reverent agnostic,” by which he means

…whether or not there is a God, there is such a thing as sacredness — there is something transcendent beyond the everyday. It’s possible humans created this sacredness ourselves, but that doesn’t take away from its power or importance.

I bought a copy of this book some time ago in hopes of finding some material for a book discussion group at my church. I haven’t yet used any of it for the discussion group, and I’ve since loaned the book to a friend who hasn’t returned it, but I was thrilled just now to find three of my very favorite articles available on-line:

• The story “Brother John” by August Turak, available here.

• An interview about spirituality with Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterian pastor and author, available here.

• A wonderful review of the movie Groundhog Day, available here.

I think what appealed to me about these three pieces were their descriptions of what it means to live a Christian life. There are several other articles from the book that I enjoyed, and perhaps they too are available on-line. I just haven’t looked yet.

I liked this book a lot. In fact, I put in on one of my lists of bests. I can’t say that I’m any less fearful since reading it, but the book was entertaining and comforting and helped me not to feel so alone in being so afraid.

The one thing I remember most vividly was the author’s story of her own attempt to reconcile with her father by asking him for a valuable Japanese print from his print collection, and promising him to frame it properly and take care good of it. She was trying to illustrate the point that sometimes, when we attempt to face our fears and make a change, the universe seems to conspire against us. I won’t repeat the story here, except to say that it involves chicken schmaltz and cat pee, but it’s a funny story that I’ve told to a number people.

^{illustration of Psalm 137 from the Chludov Psalter, mid-9th century CE}

By the Rivers of Babylon was a song I learned years ago on a Linda Rondstadt album. Since then I’ve learned that the song lyrics were taken from Psalm 137, which is also the inspiration for this book. The book is a lament for the old mainline Christian denominations, which the author says have been driven into exile, squeezed out between the scientism of modern secular society on the one hand, and the reactionary dismissal of science by fundamentalist religion on the other. Like the psalm/song says, the author doesn’t want to sing his song in a strange land to those who can’t or won’t understand.

I myself feel exiled in the conflict between these two poles. I now find value and meaning in religion, but this is a recent development in my life. I can sympathize with the secular position, because it used to be my position. And my current position has not swung to the fundamentalist pole, but I can sympathize more with their position than previously. I’ve been thinking about these things at the start of a new Lenten season. I think people at both poles take things too literally and absolutely, and I think that the old mainline church failed as well to celebrate and transmit the myth, symbol, poetry, and mystery of religious traditions and what they have to teach about wisdom and the human condition in a way that is meaningful for people today.