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Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith
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Average Rating:  out of 30 Reviews
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Price: $13.95
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Sale: $5.45
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Manufacturer: Vintage
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780679775492
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Nora Gallagher
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Publisher: Vintage
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Dewey Decimal Number: 200
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Publication Date: 1999-12-07
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Reading Level: 256
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Description: "I came to this church five years ago as a tourist and ended up a pilgrim," writes Nora Gallagher, speaking of her year at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara. It started with an occasional Sunday visit, a shy toe dip into the Episcopal Church. Eventually she delved into a yearlong journey to discover her faith and a relationship with God, using the Christian calendar as her compass. What Kathleen Norris did for the language of the church in Amazing Grace, Gallagher does for the Christian calendar--finding contemporary meaning in an ancient calendar that is often misunderstood or overshadowed with oppressive dogma. Starting with the chapter titled "Advent," and ending with "Ordinary Time," Gallagher speaks to the biblical and historical themes of the church's calendar, then offers a translation for living in America at the end of the millennium. Most touching is her raw honesty, whether writing about feeding the homeless in the Community Kitchen or the unglamorous job of caring for a friend with AIDS. Indeed, it is Gallagher's humble interpretations of faith that make her seasonal wisdom so trustworthy. "I learned something about faith, its mucky nature, how it lies down in the mud with the pigs and the rabble," she says when writing about the darkness of Advent. "...God is not too good to hang out with jet-lagged women with cat-litter boxes in their dining rooms, or men dying of AIDS, or, for that matter, someone nailed in humiliation to a cross." --Gail Hudson
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Report from the front lines of Faith |
Date: 2000-05-12 |
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Details: Christian living is not a matter of assent to a certain set of truths, nor of wearing "WWJD" bracelets and a big smile. Christian living is the often heart wrenching process of walking each day -- each hour -- in the presence of the living God. Nora Gallagher is not a theologian -- she's a journalist -- and Things Seen and Unseen is a reporter's notebook, a journal of life in the Christian front lines. Her church family falls into division, and pulls together over the selection of a new pastor. The soup kitchen in the parish hall draws criticism from the neighbors -- and from members of the congregation. Gallagher's beloved brother, Kit, grows ill and moves toward death. None of this is earth shattering, but as Christians, we all live in a shattered -- and reclaimed -- world. Gallagher reminds us of that mysterious reality on each page. Some things are seen, and other's unseen. Gallagher reminds us that what we see often depends on where we look. For that, her book is a treasure. |
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Review Summary: Changed my life- opened a door that I had long ago closed. |
Date: 1999-11-05 |
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Details: I read an excerpt of Nora Gallagher's "Things Seen and Unseen" in Utne Reader magazine almost a year ago. I remember sitting in the cafe at B&N, and feeling drawn to the religion section to immediately hunt down this book. As a "recovering Catholic", I was amazed that someone else felt as I did- that I had a deep, quiet longing for God but felt too alienated from the church of my childhood, and too isolated in my desire, to reach out to organized religion. In fact, I went through a long period of fascination with Wicca and other nature religions, always remaining on the fringes of involvement, and never feeling quite comfortable with "worshipping" pagan gods & goddesses. Even though I still feel that there are healthy expressions of the divine missing from traditional religious life, I now know that those facets are available to us if we refuse to define God in the narrow terms fed to us. This book led me to explore the Episcopal faith, and while there is enough in common with Catholicism to keep it from feeling too foreign to me, there are so many clear and beautiful differences that I feel that I have found a spiritual home at last. Just as Ms. Gallagher describes, my church encourages outreach and involvement with each other AND with those outside our comfortable circle. It is an inclusive environment that expects everyone to participate in ministry. AND, our priest is a woman, which of course, is lightyears away from my previous experience. Nora Gallagher writes in a way that, when read, actually changed my breathing! It felt like lectio divina, and prompted me to dive deep and allow myself to love God again. |
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Review Summary: 5 star reviewer revisits |
Date: 2001-01-09 |
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Details: I reviewed this book on November 19, 1999, and gave it 5 stars back then. If I could, I'd award it 10 stars. I have re-read THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN several times since then and it NEVER disappoints. I am sorry to see an obviously fundamentalist reviewer give it only 3 stars, but, Jerrod, all I can tell you is that when I want to read a book that strictly "agrees with what the bible says", I read the Bible. Everything else is someone's experience of their faith described on paper, which is as it should be. When I pick up a book about a person's spiritual journey, I come to it prepared not for a perfect regurgitation of Biblical quotes, but of that individual's unique relationship with God. I have a unique relationship with God, don't you? Or do we prefer to have our faith force-fed to us? We have souls AND minds- best not to waste either God-given gift. I have given or recommended this outstanding book to many friends, including several priests and others in ministry. It continues to be, as my rector put it, a seminal book in my faith journey. |
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Review Summary: An excellent introduction to Christianity! |
Date: 2002-06-08 |
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Details: I use this book for a course I teach on American religion. Gallagher provides an account of her experience as a seeker, as someone on her own restless quest, in terms that many students can relate to. Her world of uncertainty is one we can all understand. But she points beyond mere "spirituality" to the meaningfulness of Christianity lived within a liturgical cycle, in a community with a tradition and a sense of vocation to serve God and humanity. Highly recommended. |
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Review Summary: Burn it! |
Date: 2000-01-05 |
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Details: If you've ever kept a personal journal so honest you should burn it, you'll know what it feels like to read "Things Seen and Unseen." On the other hand, if you have a hard time telling the truth even to yourself, you'll ask how Nora Gallagher brings herself to the task of telling her truth without burning herself in the process. She's as human as any of us is. And if life can be redeemed by writing about it, she finds salvation by writing truthfully about her human being. |
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