Customer Reviews

Prayer Is a Place: America's Religious Landscape Observed

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just had to put it down ...

After it grabbed me, I had to break its hold so I could stop and contemplate what it said for a while before I could continue. It was much more than I expected.

I expected a handbook on prayer, but it was instead an autobiography on me. And you. And also -- the author. It was our story of faith through this part of the twentieth century into the new millennium. It was the remembering of all we have lived through together in the unconscious forgetting of daily life into the remembering of a storyteller recounting a shared adventure.

At first it was like a rich meal that I could only nibble. Then intrigued, I went back for ever more substantial and surprising feasts.

Here were all the confusing fragments I had struggled with and dropped in my life of blind labyrinthine faith now organized for me into an objective whole. Like a map from above to see where I had been.

All in a personal and very human story of the stuff of real life on this bizarre planet in this confusing time. A life of faith and questions through illness, death, love and loss. Of the wandering in the wilderness of faith to the knowing that God brings in his way, in his time.

But the author lied. A very big lie. She said she was no novelist. What is this book but a novel of the journey of shared lives and shared faiths in the greatest of adventures?

I had the pleasure and honor of hearing Ms. Tickle give a presentation to a small group here in Memphis. She won me over with her knowledge and grace, so I requested one of her books for Christmas. Much to my delight, I received Prayer is a Place.

For those who know Ms. Tickle through her meditational writing, this is a bit different. The book is autobiographical in nature, covering a period from 1992 through 2003. As religion editor for Publisher's Weekly, she was exposed to many of the trends that have rocked faith communities over the decade. She examines these trends and provides unexpected conclusions that leave the reader hopeful for the future. She is also frank in her journey, exposing hurt and fear that we all face in our daily lives. Her writing is truly about America's Religious Landscape Observed.

If you are interested in this religious and sociological subject, then this book is very highly recommended.

If you're attracted to Phyllis Tickle's work and you're staring at the long list of books with her name attached on an Amazon search screen -- let me help you by pointing out: This is the book to buy if you really want to get to know Phyllis herself.

Yes, it's a fairly in-depth interpretation of events in American religious life as she has explored them as a journalist and scholar. But, really, you should read this book to enjoy "meeting" Phyllis and learning about her way of seeing our spiritual landscape.

It's possible to study this book with a small group, but this one is designed more for individual reading, I think. It's rewarding and will unlock your understanding of the broad range of other projects Phyllis has undertaken over the past decade.