Spiritual Perspective on Books September 23, 2013 ISSUE

Daring to be a community

Kim Shippey
book cover

When “Spiritual but Not Religious” Is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even the Church

Lillian Daniel
Jericho Books, 2013

Sometimes as I read Lillian Daniel’s third and latest book, When “Spiritual but Not Religious” Is Not Enough, I imagined I could hear another funny writer, Anne Lamott, chuckling in the background.

Lamott, religion writer and novelist, is popular for quips such as: “[What’s] the difference between you and God? God never thinks he’s you” (Help, Thanks, Wow, Riverhead Books). And Daniel can’t resist remarks such as, “If we could just kick out all the sinners, we might have a shot at following Jesus.” Even her latest subtitle brings a smile: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even the Church.

Both writers effortlessly blend gentle humor and spiritual insights in what we might describe as wide-ranging conversations with inquisitive friends, though Daniel may be required to show more circumspection than Lamott in the light of her responsibilities as senior minister of First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn, near Chicago.

Daniel’s pastoral experiences in Illinois, and previously in a church in Connecticut, have introduced her to many people who have stepped away from church in favor of nature worship, Sunday sports, newspaper reading, beach walks, or whatever they have identified as a more convenient religion of their own design. And they say they’re thankful. 

But Daniel points out that the hungry don’t get fed that way; the homeless don’t find shelter; and the world doesn’t change. “We can’t sit back and simply feel gratitude, or feel lucky,” she writes. “No, as Christians we expect more, way more, like a new heaven and a new earth, and because we follow Jesus, we better expect to be involved in making it happen, alongside other people.”

So she sets out to explain how the relationship between spirituality and religion has played out in her pastoral life and in her family. Her stories are loosely connected under chapter headings which, taken as a whole, shed light on the book’s title.

Without losing her irrepressible humor, her passion, or her compassion, Daniel takes us with her to Sing Sing Prison, Kentucky Fried Chicken, emergency rooms, and magic shows. She glides among people who have found God in airports, yoga classes, and committee meetings. She shows how their discoveries have lessons for all of us about stepping out of ourselves and daring to become a community.

But for sheer honesty, there’s nothing more comforting for the rest of us than the admissions in her chapter on “Things I Am Tired Of.” And when she’s over her little harangue, she confesses: “In criticizing others in their faith, I hardly live up to the best in my own faith. Perhaps the people who irritate me the most are exposing my own false doctrines. … This is why I need a community.” 

A community, perhaps, of fellow worshippers who share her love of God—and others.

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NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Testimony of Healing
Overcoming grief
September 23, 2013
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