Lauren F. Winner

Winner found God and related her experience of discovering God and converting from Judaism to Christianity in Girl Meets God. She thought finding God was a done deal, that she was finished with struggle.

Then she divorced her husband and found that God was gone.

Winner was bereft, filled with anxiety, filled with depression and fears. She felt abandoned, alone. She did not know what to do.

She began to do what she does best: she researched others who felt they had lost God and she talked with show more people about losing God and she began to write about it and think about it. And somehow she found God again in the middle of all the struggle and she realized this would be something she would deal with every day of the rest of her life.

Winner is smart and soulful and funny and poignant. I loved reading this book and I imagine that I will read it again one day. I recommend it for all of us who struggle with our faith (and that is all of us, I think). show less

“That finally is the questions, that is the anguish — to abide in God’s hiddenness is one thing, to abide in God’s absence is altogether something else.”

I loved Lauren F. Winners book [Mudhouse Sabbath] in which she reflects and look back at some of the Jewish practices that she misses after converting to the Christian faith.

In Still we find Lauren in a crisis of faith after going through a divorce and she finds herself spiritual lost and bewildered.

There is a movement toward show more finding some solace in the presence of God - although He’s still rather elusive.

“Some days I am not sure if my faith is riddled with doubt, or whether, graciously, my doubt is riddled with faith. And yet I continue to live in a world the way a religious person lives in the world; I keep living in a world that I know to be enchanted, and not left alone. I doubt; I am uncertain; I am restless, prone to wander. And yet glimmers of holy keep interrupting my gaze.”

These glimmers of holy - of the enchanted world keep popping up in the journal-like entries, that are deeply personal - it's a vulnerable soul who shares her loss and pain but also the light and beauty. show less

Flows like an in-depth personal conversation. Honest and intelligent, but left feeling a bit like Winner values religious tradition and human intellect slightly more than God's word. I think it's just that at the writing of this book, that like the rest of us, she's simply still learning to fully trust and listen to God.

For Jews, the essence of the thing is a doing, an action. Your faith might come and go, but your practice ought not waver. (Indeed, Judaism suggests that the repeating of the practice is the best way to ensure that a doubter's faith will return.)

Lauren F. Winner has written a fine book on spiritual disciplines. She's a Christian with a Jewish background - and in short chapters she reflects and look back at some of the Jewish practices that she misses in her newfound Christian faith - show more disciplines she tries to work into her spiritual life.

It's a very personal and honest book - and she shares both funny and serious incidents from her own life.

I liked best the chapters on food, hospitality, body and aging. It's a book I will return to, no doubt. show less