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Girl Meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life
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Average Rating:  out of 47 Reviews
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Price: $13.95
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Sale: $5.75
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Manufacturer: Shaw Books
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780877881070
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Lauren Winner
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Publisher: Shaw Books
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Dewey Decimal Number: 248.246
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Publication Date: 2004-01-20
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Reading Level: 320
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Description: The child of a Jewish father and a lapsed Southern Baptist mother, Lauren F. Winner chose to become an Orthodox Jew. But even as she was observing Sabbath rituals and studying Jewish law, Lauren was increasingly drawn to Christianity. Courageously leaving what she loved, she eventually converted. In Girl Meets God, this appealing woman takes us through a year in her Christian life as she attempts to reconcile both sides of her religious identity.
Here readers will find a new literary voice: a spiritual seeker who is both an unconventional thinker and a devoted Christian. The twists and turns of Winner’s journey make her the perfect guide to exploring true faith in today’s complicated world.
Praise for Girl Meets God:
“A passionate and thoroughly engaging account of a continuing spiritual journey within two profoundly different faiths.”
–The New York Times Book Review
“A charming, humorous, and sometimes abrasive recollection of a religious coming-of-age . . . a compelling journey from Judaism to Christianity.”
–The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“A book to savor . . . Winner is an all-too-human believer, and the rest of us can see our own struggles, theological and otherwise, in hers.”
–Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“[A] memoir, literary and spiritual, sharing Anne Lamott’s self-depreciating intensity and Stephen J. Dubner’s passion for authenticity . . . Winner’s record of her own experiences so far is a page-turning debut by a young writer worth watching.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[The] narrative’s real strength . . . is its addictive readability combined with the author’s deep knowledge of, delight in, and nuanced discussion of both Christian and Jewish teachings. . . . Intriguing, absorbing, puzzling, surprisingly sexy, and very smart.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Winner Slams Palin |
Date: 2008-10-04 |
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Details: On October 3, 2008 in Houston, Winner stood before a packed conference hall and said that she was just as qualified to be Vice President as Sarah Palin. I know this has nothing to do with the book, but it shows the type of person this author is when during a speech on the trinity she feels the need to expose her hatred for a person based on political affiliation. |
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Review Summary: Mixed feelings about this |
Date: 2008-07-17 |
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Details: (3.5 stars)
I found this book to be genuinely captivating, insightful, intelligent, and nicely-written. Ms. Winner is obviously extremely intelligent and well-read, and isn't a shabby writer at all. She's also very honest and emotional about her life and religious experiences, even when it could be argued that some of these details aren't relevant (for example, who really needs to know she wears fishnets and doesn't shave her legs?). My issues with the book lie elsewhere.
As she goes through the calendar year (mostly) according to Christian holidays and seasons in her newfound Episcopal Church, Ms. Winner weaves a nonlinear narrative of her religious upbringing (she was raised in a Southern Reform shul and Jewish by patrilineal descent), her growing level of observance as she became a young woman, her conversion to Orthodox Judaism to (as she saw it) make her Jewish identity legit in the eyes of everyone, her days as an undergrad at Columbia, the pull she felt towards Christianity only a couple of years after becoming officially Orthodox, her transition to the Episcopal faith while in Cambridge, and how she tries to make peace with her religious past and present without disrespecting either one. This story in itself could have been so much better had she chosen to write more about her second conversion. While there was ample material on her Jewish upbringing, her pull towards Orthodoxy, her first conversion, and the Orthodox life she lived in her late teens and early twenties, I was left wondering why exactly she decided to convert to Christianity, and why she chose Anglicanism/Episcopalianism in particular. Having a strange dream about mermaids and a Jesus who looks like Daniel Day-Lewis, and feeling drawn to the Christian art in a local museum, seem rather silly and shallow reasons for altering one's religious life so radically. Her attachment to her latest religion seems very sincere, but I wanted to know more about what exactly led her to it, why she decided to cross the point of no return.
Ms. Winner's reasons for leaving Judaism, the faith she had known her entire life, also seem rather shallow, unless there were some much deeper reasons she chose not to delve into. She says she felt like she'd never fully belong because she was a convert, but she also writes about all of the wonderful people who took her into their homes, hearts, and lives, holding her as surrogate family. Surely they should have mattered more to her than some snobby girls on campus and some guys who didn't want to date her because half of her family wasn't Jewish! She also says that the status of women in Orthodoxy grew to really bother her, so instead of deciding to leave for a more progressive denomination or to find a liberal Modern Orthodox shul which has such things as women-led prayer groups, she packs up and leaves the religion entirely? I really didn't like the prevailing attitude that set Orthodoxy up as the only valid denomination. Those of us who choose not to be Orthodox find such attitudes extremely offensive and hurtful. Additionally, Ms. Winner was extremely young when she converted. Had she stayed and engaged her doubts and crisis of faith, she might have emerged stronger when she was a little older. Instead she chose not to tell anyone she was having second thoughts after only a couple of years, people who might have been able to help her to regain her faith and find new energy (it's normal for the convert's zeal to wear off, but it doesn't mean it's time to quit the religion). It's kind of hypocritical how she writes about taking such great pains to avoid anyone from her former life, then writes an entire book talking about how she jumped ship.
It's clear, from her writing, that she misses a lot about her Orthodox life, like her friends, the food, the holidays (she even has one of those "Christian seders" with some friends of hers, and has a Pentecost equivalent of a laila tikkun, the all-night studying marathon on Shavuot), the community, the books, and the prayers. One later chapter talks about how she had to rebuild her Jewish library some years after she gave almost all of her Jewish books away when she left the fold. I can't help but feel that had she been older than just in her early twenties, she might have had more maturity and foresight to think through all of the consequences of her actions. Like many others, I also question why she chose to write this book while still a young woman. For all anyone knows, she might eventually grow tired of Christianity too and go back to Judaism or convert to a third religion someday. Ultimately, a lot of her actions just struck me as those of someone who's very young, naïve, impulsive, and spiritually promiscuous, bopping from one religion to another without taking much time in between to fix what's wrong in her current spiritual life before doing something so drastic. |
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Review Summary: Relevant... Honest... Transparent and Real - a Relatable Reflection of one Woman's Faith Journey |
Date: 2007-08-26 |
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Details: This book was a gift from a dear friend who said - "her writing style reminds me of yours" (which is actually probably true)- but even casting that aside - there was so much about this woman's journey of discovering her faith... and wrestling with all of that (how to walk it out... how to defend it to her friends, her family - even herself in the face of whatever it was that life threw at her... the big & small stuff) - that I could really identify with, and think that most people - and women could as well.
In fact, it was so much like looking in a mirror at some points that it was at times a bit unnerving... or at least very challenging.
I found myself at the end of it kind of/rather torn... smiling and almost grimacing all at once because of the way it ends. While I understand that the author had to end the book/story the way she did, I confess that I am slightly at odds with my reaction to it at the same time. (I waffle between "brilliant" and that slightly unsettled feeling you have when everything isn't all wrapped up at the end into neat Hollywood endings w/pretty bows and packaging).
Which I suppose is what made it all the more real, and true and resonant (sp?) and why, I suppose it was all the more perfectly suited for me.
I highly recommend this book. It's definitely the kind of thing you can pick up & put down... or read all at once, but I recommend savoring it. (Like really good dark chocolate - the kind you would LOVE to eat all at once - and are even tempted too... it's SO much better if you let it soak in over time). |
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Review Summary: And Next.. A Girl talks to Bhudda |
Date: 2005-01-29 |
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Details: Girl Meets God is a bodice-ripping tome on religion, or rather, religion-lite. It titilates, confesses, talks of food, sex, drink and,top it off, a little "Electra" thing going on with Daddy- Ms Winer wrote a little fairy tale for spiritual seekers- Jew or Christian- lost in the big woods, etc., etc. all egos are attended to.
Her theological choices seem to plucked out of a hat- let's see- - I am a non-observant, by name only, Jew--I think I'll become a Jew who stepped out of the middle ages- I will dress to call attention to my piety- observe the most obscure holidays- and find God- Why???- Why would one go from being a practicing nothing to a super religious Jew practicing customs the majority of Jews put aside at least 3 generations ago?--But- you know how it is with teenage girls- Well, she caught on pretty quickly; it isn't too easy to live like that. H'mm how about something a bit more mainstream; Church of England.- WoW! That one ought to get Papa's attention! And what better place to be Christianed an Episcopal than in England. That sweet chapel, the history, the organ, ahh. Ms. Winer's writing is amusing,lively and very simplistic theologically for such aself-described intellectual. The book makes short shrift of both Christianity and Judiasm; and diminshes both faiths. Perhaps she should have completed her Doctorate on religious history before she began competing with Venerable Bede and the esteemed Rabbis she refers to. Ms Winer might consider writing some "Chick Lit". I think she has just what it takes. Like "Prada went to Church" |
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Review Summary: A very easy book to relate to. |
Date: 2005-01-03 |
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Details: This book is a quick read and well as an interesting read. I read this book for a church book discussion group and was very glad we chose it. I felt that even though it's about her struggle with Judaism and converting to Christianity, it is so very applicable to me as a Christian who did not convert from anything. It reminds me of the basics of being a Christian and the struggles that we all face. The reason not for 5 stars is that even though there is a great deal of information from the author about the 2 religions, it was not a challenging book to read - but that's just my preference. |
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