Leaving Church - Barbara Brown Taylor [86]
Yale University, Furman University, Calvin College, The Christian Century, and Kanuga Conference Center all offered me early opportunities to explore the territory covered in these pages. Thanks to Jerry Streets, Elaine Nocks, Dale Brown, Jennifer Holberg, David Heim, Debra Bendis, and Susan Sloan for those invitations.
Finally, I acknowledge those nearest and dearest to me, many of whose names do not show up in this book although they have formed a circle around my heart for most of the years these pages describe. I bow low to Martha Sterne and Judy Barber. I remember my father, Earl, with fathomless love. I honor Grace, my own mother hen, to those same depths. I bless Katy and Jennifer, my prized sisters; Claire and Kathleen, my daughters by marriage and my friends by choice; and all the men and children whom these good women have brought into my life, namely, Dan, Mac, John, Hawley, Will, Maddie, Patrick, and Ava. As always, I end with thanks to Ed, for being my first and best reader as well as my heart’s safe shelter and my most trusted friend. Deo Gratias.
The Feast of Epiphany
2006
Recommended Reading
Earthly Good by Martha Sterne (Akron, Ohio: OSL Publications, 2003)
The Good Book by Peter J. Gomes (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996)
The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003)
A Hidden Wholeness by Parker Palmer (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004)
Learning to Fall by Philip Simmons (New York: Bantam Books, 2000)
Listening for the Heartbeat of God by J. Philip Newell (New York: Paulist Press, 1997)
Open Secrets by Richard Lischer (New York: Broadway, 2001)
The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975)
Secrets in the Dark by Frederick Buechner (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006)
The Solace of Fierce Landscapes by Belden Lane (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
What Are People For? by Wendell Berry (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1990)
A Whole New Life by Reynolds Price (New York: Athenaeum, 1994)
The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts (New York: Vintage Books, 1951)
The Wisdom Way of Knowing by Cynthia Bourgeault (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003)
Reader’s Guide
Introduction
Taylor says her central revelation of life is that “the call to serve God is first and last to be fully human.” What does that statement mean to you? How does it speak to your decisions about vocation, family, life?
Taylor notes that her search for real life has led her repeatedly through three distinct seasons of faith—finding life, losing life, and finding life again. How has this pattern occurred in your own faith journey?
What losses in your life have led you to surrender your life to God?
Taylor speaks of being far more sure, twenty years ago, about who God is, what God wants of her, and what it means to be a Christian in the world than she is today. Can you relate to that statement? What parts of your faith have become more certain over time? What parts have become less certain?
Finding
Chapter 1
How does the place where you live impact your faith?
Have you experienced a type of work-exhaustion or overload such as the burnout Taylor experiences? If so, how did it manifest itself?
What have been your experiences of seeking divine guidance? What do you think of Susan B. Anthony’s statement that “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires”?
When Taylor first sees the Episcopal church building in Clarkesville, her immediate reaction is that “simply to stand in the presence of that building was to rest.” When have you had such a visceral reaction to a place or building?
Chapter 2
Taylor observes that Clarkesville’s history as a resort town had made the residents more welcoming of newcomers than they might otherwise have been. How has the history