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Girl Meets God
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.
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.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Lauren F. Winner
43 books328 followersLauren F. Winner is the author of numerous books, including Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath. Her study A Cheerful & Comfortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households of Eighteenth-Century Virginia was published in the fall of 2010 by Yale University Press. She has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Books and Culture, and Christianity Today. Winner has degrees from Duke, Columbia, and Cambridge universities, and holds a Ph.D. in history. The former book editor for Beliefnet, Lauren teaches at Duke Divinity School, and lives in Durham, North Carolina. Lauren travels extensively to lecture and teach. During the academic year of 2007-2008, she was a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, and during the academic year of 2010-2011, she was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. When she’s home, you can usually find her curled up, on her couch or screen porch, with a good novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 659 reviews
July 25, 2011
WARNING: Do not read this book if you do not want to grow spiritually.
January 30, 2008
Perplexing. A few thoughts on this account of a girl who converts to orthodox Judaism and then later decides to leave it for Christianity:
1 - I guess I don't know much about Christian theology but I find it strange that someone as clearly intelligent as this girl has no problem with the doctrine which to me seems so beyond human reason
2 - Reading about someone's mikva experience as she enters the jewish community followed by her baptism a few chapters later is nothing short of jarring
3 - It is ironic that in so many ways a convert has a hard time being fully accepted (she touches on this) and yet if he or she decides to leave it suddenly becomes so apparent how full fledged Jewish s/he is.
4 - The constant Jesus stuff is really hard to take
5 - The parallels between Christianity and Judaism as well as the non parallels are always of interest to me and it can make sense, paradoxically enough, that the same things can be attractive about both yet at the same time this is true of the ways in which they are different. I found it particularly interesting that she was encouraged to give up her passion - reading - for Lent, as this was considered a much more beautfiul sacrifice for Gd since it's something she truly loves. At first I found that repugnant - love for Gd is not manifest in sacrficing gifts He gives us! But then I was thinking how, lehavdil, we give up music for sefirah or take on extra things to show a sense of mourning or loss during Av or whatever, and it really is the same thing - all the more so if reading becomes idolotrous which even I (especially I?) can see.
6 - As an aside, while I'm taken by the premise and her turn of phrase, she can be really irritating at times and falls more under the second category of memoir writers (darn narcisist) than the more popular first (has a good story to tell).
Anyway just had to get all that down.
1 - I guess I don't know much about Christian theology but I find it strange that someone as clearly intelligent as this girl has no problem with the doctrine which to me seems so beyond human reason
2 - Reading about someone's mikva experience as she enters the jewish community followed by her baptism a few chapters later is nothing short of jarring
3 - It is ironic that in so many ways a convert has a hard time being fully accepted (she touches on this) and yet if he or she decides to leave it suddenly becomes so apparent how full fledged Jewish s/he is.
4 - The constant Jesus stuff is really hard to take
5 - The parallels between Christianity and Judaism as well as the non parallels are always of interest to me and it can make sense, paradoxically enough, that the same things can be attractive about both yet at the same time this is true of the ways in which they are different. I found it particularly interesting that she was encouraged to give up her passion - reading - for Lent, as this was considered a much more beautfiul sacrifice for Gd since it's something she truly loves. At first I found that repugnant - love for Gd is not manifest in sacrficing gifts He gives us! But then I was thinking how, lehavdil, we give up music for sefirah or take on extra things to show a sense of mourning or loss during Av or whatever, and it really is the same thing - all the more so if reading becomes idolotrous which even I (especially I?) can see.
6 - As an aside, while I'm taken by the premise and her turn of phrase, she can be really irritating at times and falls more under the second category of memoir writers (darn narcisist) than the more popular first (has a good story to tell).
Anyway just had to get all that down.
August 2, 2008
I enjoyed this book. I found it engaging. I liked the voice; I felt like I would enjoy talking to Lauren Winter if I met her. I liked reading it and will probably go back and read portions again.
I had a little trouble with the structure of the book. For the first third of the book or so, I was under the impression we were following a distinct through-line. There seemed to be a narrative going on, with lots of reflection, yes, but with a firm plot that everything tied in to. The book is structured to align with the liturgical year, which itself is a narrative, so it made sense that Winter was setting up her memoir to follow. However, after a while, the through-line seemed to fall apart, and the rest of the book became a collection of reflections on Judaism and Christianity just kind of loosely connected to the liturgical seasons without much connection to each other. I realize memoir doesn't always have the same kind of narrative that fiction does, but I still believe it requires some structure.
In addition, I found myself wishing that the story were being told by an older, more experienced Lauren Winter. Certainly her religious experiences are real, but they are still those of someone very young. I think a rewrite of this memoir in another five or ten or fifteen years would be really compelling.
Finally, I wished more attention had been given to why Winter chose the particular denomination of Christianity she did. The minimal explanation of her reasoning didn't seem to align with her thought process in choosing Orthodox Judaism over Reform or Conservative.
I had a little trouble with the structure of the book. For the first third of the book or so, I was under the impression we were following a distinct through-line. There seemed to be a narrative going on, with lots of reflection, yes, but with a firm plot that everything tied in to. The book is structured to align with the liturgical year, which itself is a narrative, so it made sense that Winter was setting up her memoir to follow. However, after a while, the through-line seemed to fall apart, and the rest of the book became a collection of reflections on Judaism and Christianity just kind of loosely connected to the liturgical seasons without much connection to each other. I realize memoir doesn't always have the same kind of narrative that fiction does, but I still believe it requires some structure.
In addition, I found myself wishing that the story were being told by an older, more experienced Lauren Winter. Certainly her religious experiences are real, but they are still those of someone very young. I think a rewrite of this memoir in another five or ten or fifteen years would be really compelling.
Finally, I wished more attention had been given to why Winter chose the particular denomination of Christianity she did. The minimal explanation of her reasoning didn't seem to align with her thought process in choosing Orthodox Judaism over Reform or Conservative.
April 30, 2008
I found this book deeply inspiring and somewhat related to my own struggles with faith. It was a gift to me (in a non-pushy way) from a friend of mine from church -- a peer who took a course with me called alpha where you have the opportunities to ask all sorts of questions about God and faith and challenges with it -- with structure and guidance. Being in a personal sort of environment combined with my ultra open self, she was very aware of both my Jewish and Catholic heritage and thought of me when she read this book.
The protagonist is much more certain of her belief in God then I am, and more devout. She grows up both Southern and Jewish, which she describes in utter conflict with each other. However, that is how she sees herself, and she becomes very involved in her community. She makes the decision to convert after years of study and commitment, and lives the life of an Orthodox Jew.
Her decision to then convert to Christianity during graduate school therefore had reprocussions throughout her life - how her family, her peers, and her collegues saw her, as well as how she saw herself.
I liked that the authors name is Lauren Winner, and I think how she reviews her situations and her struggles helps contribute to her success. She not only loved theology and reading and history, but has an admirable ability to weave them together. I like that she gave the book a timeline -- not just of how events transpired, but within the Christian and Jewish calendar year, marked by various fesitivies.
Thankfully much more then the chick lit I thought it might be.
The protagonist is much more certain of her belief in God then I am, and more devout. She grows up both Southern and Jewish, which she describes in utter conflict with each other. However, that is how she sees herself, and she becomes very involved in her community. She makes the decision to convert after years of study and commitment, and lives the life of an Orthodox Jew.
Her decision to then convert to Christianity during graduate school therefore had reprocussions throughout her life - how her family, her peers, and her collegues saw her, as well as how she saw herself.
I liked that the authors name is Lauren Winner, and I think how she reviews her situations and her struggles helps contribute to her success. She not only loved theology and reading and history, but has an admirable ability to weave them together. I like that she gave the book a timeline -- not just of how events transpired, but within the Christian and Jewish calendar year, marked by various fesitivies.
Thankfully much more then the chick lit I thought it might be.
November 16, 2007
I admire the courage it may have taken to write this book, I couldn't write so briefly about my own spiritual journeys, certainly, but I found this book to be mainly trite, self-serving, and underwhelming. Ms. Winner claims at every turn to be over-analytical, and yet she barely scratches the surface of the meaning of her religious promiscuity.
She writes at length about the appeal of becoming a "real" orthodox Jew, and it sounds like she just really wants to be part of the club her absentee father is from, her protestant mother, with whom she grew up, might not have seemed so cool.
Why didn't she address these deeper sociological questions? Not to mention the ontological and deeper philosophical questions. A few of these are skimmed over, but every time I hoped we would start hearing a vulnerable soul writing about the existential struggle I was carried back to a dinner table and a flirtatious girl who probably talks a good talk but didn't bring it to the book. This could have been a fantastic companion to...say...Mere Christianity, if Ms. Winner had gone a little further, but no such luck
For a writer who must be fairly intelligent and has been through extremely rigorous religious scholarship, I expected a much more interesting read. Needless to say, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, and somehow I doubt she has either.
She writes at length about the appeal of becoming a "real" orthodox Jew, and it sounds like she just really wants to be part of the club her absentee father is from, her protestant mother, with whom she grew up, might not have seemed so cool.
Why didn't she address these deeper sociological questions? Not to mention the ontological and deeper philosophical questions. A few of these are skimmed over, but every time I hoped we would start hearing a vulnerable soul writing about the existential struggle I was carried back to a dinner table and a flirtatious girl who probably talks a good talk but didn't bring it to the book. This could have been a fantastic companion to...say...Mere Christianity, if Ms. Winner had gone a little further, but no such luck
For a writer who must be fairly intelligent and has been through extremely rigorous religious scholarship, I expected a much more interesting read. Needless to say, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, and somehow I doubt she has either.
January 26, 2008
Ms. Winner has a unique and intimate voice, and I enjoyed listening to her tell her story. Still, I agree with the other reviewers that she fails to offer any signs of awareness of her journey in a larger context. I have a ton of questions that this book brought up and it disappointed that she didn't seem able to offer any perspective - making this less of a memoir and more of a journal.
My questions that I was left with -
What does it mean to leave Judaim? Not just in a personal sense, but in the South, in America, in the post-Holocaust world.
How can she be sure that her new committment to Christianity isn't just another passionate phase?
What does it mean that her phases of faith coincide with phases of infactuation with boys of that faith?
And has she noticed that she seems to be searching for a real family at every stage of her spiritual and emotional journey? Has she found that home in Christianity? Her later books suggest she hasn't, and you sense that pervasive sense of displacement throughout this book.
Her writing style kept me reading, but the lack of reflection left me wondering how this book got published.
My questions that I was left with -
What does it mean to leave Judaim? Not just in a personal sense, but in the South, in America, in the post-Holocaust world.
How can she be sure that her new committment to Christianity isn't just another passionate phase?
What does it mean that her phases of faith coincide with phases of infactuation with boys of that faith?
And has she noticed that she seems to be searching for a real family at every stage of her spiritual and emotional journey? Has she found that home in Christianity? Her later books suggest she hasn't, and you sense that pervasive sense of displacement throughout this book.
Her writing style kept me reading, but the lack of reflection left me wondering how this book got published.
March 16, 2009
This is the story of how Lauren met her Savior, Jesus. Coming from a broken home with a Baptist mother and Jewish father Lauren's spiritual growth begins in the Jewish faith. She brings everything that she is to this quest. She immerses herself in study, in worship traditions, in community, into Orthodox community. She was an outsider and would remain an outsider no matter how hard she studied to be approved of by the community. The local Levite son would never become a marriage opportunity for her.
Lauren began to study Christianity, its history and practices while at the height of her Orthodox Jewish experience. Little by little, Jesus won her heart (her words). From this point on, we are given the opportunity to see what this actually costs Lauren as she "divorces" herself from her identity as Jewess.
We see her struggles to tell close friends and we see how the Lord placed kind and loving mentors in her life all along the way to help explain, encourage, champion, and bring her along to the next place in her spiritual journey. Next to the fainting plant, Lauren describes a dream of rescue and redemption to a devout Christian woman who acknowledges that an Orthodox Jew doesn't ordinarily have much room for Jesus. Lauren is convinced that this dream is from God and holds the truth that Jesus is God.
The very fact that Lauren has gone to seek out a known Christian, one known for her devout attention to the faith says a lot about Lauren's determination to find answers, much as a researcher looks for clues to a mystery. I love the detail that Lauren included in this vignette of dream telling. A fainting plant is one that is reactive. Lauren is certainly processing all the input she can find about this Jesus ,willing to see a reaction.
My favorite story in this book is an overheard conversation where 2 friends were discussing what category Lauren might fit into as she transitioned:
"Y. was saying, "You're pretty good friends with that Lauren girl. Is she some sort of fundamentalist Bible-thumper?"
I listen to Z. maneuver her way through. "Why do you ask?' asks Z.
"Well, there's her paper topic."
Fair enough. I am writing a paper about the history of the Eucarist in nineteenth-century America.
"And then you know, she always seems to be quoting the Book of Romans." I think Bible-thumper is something of a derisive term," says Z. and "She is quite religious, though. I think she calls herself an evangelical, I don't think I've ever heard her call herself a Bible-thumper, or a fundamentalist." Then Z. changes the subject back...and she and Y. walk away, leaving me to munch my scone and look around for a Bible to thump."
I find that I gain a lot of information from this particular book. I am more aware of the cost to an individual to leave a faith that identifies a family, for a closer relationship and walk with the living God.
I find that there is tremendous beauty and purpose in the various worship practices and festivals that God ordained for the Jewish people. These are linked to sacraments that are found in the Christian faith. I am challenged to be much more intentional about how and when I dedicate myself to time with my Lord.
There is tremendous value found in the community of faith. I believe that is the message Lauren found in the Mitford series books by Jan Karon. Lauren said that when she read these stories, she yearned for what the Christian community had in Jesus.
This was Lauren Winner's first book. It was definitely a good read!
Lauren began to study Christianity, its history and practices while at the height of her Orthodox Jewish experience. Little by little, Jesus won her heart (her words). From this point on, we are given the opportunity to see what this actually costs Lauren as she "divorces" herself from her identity as Jewess.
We see her struggles to tell close friends and we see how the Lord placed kind and loving mentors in her life all along the way to help explain, encourage, champion, and bring her along to the next place in her spiritual journey. Next to the fainting plant, Lauren describes a dream of rescue and redemption to a devout Christian woman who acknowledges that an Orthodox Jew doesn't ordinarily have much room for Jesus. Lauren is convinced that this dream is from God and holds the truth that Jesus is God.
The very fact that Lauren has gone to seek out a known Christian, one known for her devout attention to the faith says a lot about Lauren's determination to find answers, much as a researcher looks for clues to a mystery. I love the detail that Lauren included in this vignette of dream telling. A fainting plant is one that is reactive. Lauren is certainly processing all the input she can find about this Jesus ,willing to see a reaction.
My favorite story in this book is an overheard conversation where 2 friends were discussing what category Lauren might fit into as she transitioned:
"Y. was saying, "You're pretty good friends with that Lauren girl. Is she some sort of fundamentalist Bible-thumper?"
I listen to Z. maneuver her way through. "Why do you ask?' asks Z.
"Well, there's her paper topic."
Fair enough. I am writing a paper about the history of the Eucarist in nineteenth-century America.
"And then you know, she always seems to be quoting the Book of Romans." I think Bible-thumper is something of a derisive term," says Z. and "She is quite religious, though. I think she calls herself an evangelical, I don't think I've ever heard her call herself a Bible-thumper, or a fundamentalist." Then Z. changes the subject back...and she and Y. walk away, leaving me to munch my scone and look around for a Bible to thump."
I find that I gain a lot of information from this particular book. I am more aware of the cost to an individual to leave a faith that identifies a family, for a closer relationship and walk with the living God.
I find that there is tremendous beauty and purpose in the various worship practices and festivals that God ordained for the Jewish people. These are linked to sacraments that are found in the Christian faith. I am challenged to be much more intentional about how and when I dedicate myself to time with my Lord.
There is tremendous value found in the community of faith. I believe that is the message Lauren found in the Mitford series books by Jan Karon. Lauren said that when she read these stories, she yearned for what the Christian community had in Jesus.
This was Lauren Winner's first book. It was definitely a good read!
January 23, 2012
This is a memoir of one woman's conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity. The book was totally not what I was expecting and I loved it. I recently read a book by a Women of Faith speaker, and this was just so much more meaty, more meaningful, and more impactful to me. Lauren Winner is an intellectual, a woman who has not just professed her faith, but one who has struggled over it, studied it in depth, and tenaciously hung on. I can't help but admire her, leaving one faith for another in spite of the way her family and friends felt about it. Reading her story made me realize how paltry my own faith is in comparison.
The church that Winner attends is All Angels Episcopal Church in Manhattan, also home to one of my most beloved authors, Madeleine L'Engle. I've read L'Engle's books and marveled at her faith, at how someone in a liturgical setting could find so much meaning in the rituals, have so much reverence for the written prayers. However, reading her analogies and examples brought so much more meaning to the practices I take for granted at my own nondenomenational church. In Winner's story, I hear the echoes of L'Engle's own sentiments.
I think I appreciated this book so much because it's from an intellectual standpoint rather than an emotional one. She did tons of research, countless hours of reading, and years of soul searching to come to the place where she is. I can't help by respect her and hope that one day my own faith can be as strong.
The church that Winner attends is All Angels Episcopal Church in Manhattan, also home to one of my most beloved authors, Madeleine L'Engle. I've read L'Engle's books and marveled at her faith, at how someone in a liturgical setting could find so much meaning in the rituals, have so much reverence for the written prayers. However, reading her analogies and examples brought so much more meaning to the practices I take for granted at my own nondenomenational church. In Winner's story, I hear the echoes of L'Engle's own sentiments.
I think I appreciated this book so much because it's from an intellectual standpoint rather than an emotional one. She did tons of research, countless hours of reading, and years of soul searching to come to the place where she is. I can't help by respect her and hope that one day my own faith can be as strong.
December 4, 2007
On the whole, I think this book's big problem is that it's a memoir about a spiritual journey, which means it has two very different things to talk about, and both of them get short-changed because she's not a good enough writer to pull it off. The anecdotes about her life and the trajectory of her life feel scattered. She doesn't give me great faith that she could even pull off a straight memoir. Additionally, for someone who is so intellectually oriented, her discussions of religion feel very superficial.
March 26, 2013
Not quite what I expected - a little more bookish and tradition-oriented than I was thinking - but I liked it. Honest, thoughtful, and personably real. I have to wonder, though - how on earth does a grad student afford a $900 piece of art?
December 24, 2017
Some people just seem to have the religion gene. That’s definitely true of Winner, who was as enthusiastic an Orthodox Jew as she later was a Christian after the conversion that began in her college years. But rather than discussing her life in terms of a strict before and after, she drifts back and forth through the years, loosely linking her experiences under thematic headings and an overall chronological setup based on the liturgical year (from one Advent season to the next). I suspect the structure has made this challenging for many readers who want a straightforward picture of transformation. But “the ruptures are the most interesting part of any text,” Winner suggests: “in the ruptures we learn something new.”
I found a lot to relate to in the sense of being caught between competing influences and accepting that your past inevitably has a bearing on how you experience life in the present. Like Anne Lamott, Winner draws on anecdotes from everyday life and very much portrays herself as a “bad Christian,” one who struggles with the basics like praying and finding a church community and is endlessly grateful for the grace that covers her shortcomings. Winner’s bookishness also really appealed to me. One Lent season her pastor challenged her to give up something that would really hurt: reading. Can you imagine?!
Favorite lines:
“God is a novelist. He uses all sorts of literary devices: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, synecdoche, onomatopoeia. But of all these, His favorite is foreshadowing.”
“I have a hard time praying. It feels, usually, like a waste of time. It feels unproductive; my time would be better spent writing a paragraph or reading a book or practicing a conjugation or baking a pie. Sometimes whole weeks elapse when I hardly bother to pray at all, because prayer is boring; because it feels silly (after all, you look like you’re just sitting there talking to the air, or to yourself, and maybe you are); but above all because it is so unproductive.”
“I have never, not once, felt anything at the Eucharist. Not a thing. I have never felt stirred, or joyful, or peaceful, or sad. I have never felt closeness. I have never felt God at the communion rail. … I keep hoping one day God will give me some feeling at communion. In the meantime, I figure He is helping me become something else. He is calling me to know him in the Eucharist even though I don’t feel Him there. He is calling me to a place where He is truer than everything else, truer even than how I feel.”
“The Spirit is the reason we Christians can do anything, the reason we do not live paralyzed in fear of messing up. The Spirit is how we unfold God’s will this side of eternity. The Spirit is the reason we can build a church and have confidence that we will get it at least a little bit right.”
“how does one read the Hebrew Scriptures Christianly, without turning the Hebrew Scriptures into nothing but a prelude to Jesus?”
I found a lot to relate to in the sense of being caught between competing influences and accepting that your past inevitably has a bearing on how you experience life in the present. Like Anne Lamott, Winner draws on anecdotes from everyday life and very much portrays herself as a “bad Christian,” one who struggles with the basics like praying and finding a church community and is endlessly grateful for the grace that covers her shortcomings. Winner’s bookishness also really appealed to me. One Lent season her pastor challenged her to give up something that would really hurt: reading. Can you imagine?!
Favorite lines:
“God is a novelist. He uses all sorts of literary devices: alliteration, assonance, rhyme, synecdoche, onomatopoeia. But of all these, His favorite is foreshadowing.”
“I have a hard time praying. It feels, usually, like a waste of time. It feels unproductive; my time would be better spent writing a paragraph or reading a book or practicing a conjugation or baking a pie. Sometimes whole weeks elapse when I hardly bother to pray at all, because prayer is boring; because it feels silly (after all, you look like you’re just sitting there talking to the air, or to yourself, and maybe you are); but above all because it is so unproductive.”
“I have never, not once, felt anything at the Eucharist. Not a thing. I have never felt stirred, or joyful, or peaceful, or sad. I have never felt closeness. I have never felt God at the communion rail. … I keep hoping one day God will give me some feeling at communion. In the meantime, I figure He is helping me become something else. He is calling me to know him in the Eucharist even though I don’t feel Him there. He is calling me to a place where He is truer than everything else, truer even than how I feel.”
“The Spirit is the reason we Christians can do anything, the reason we do not live paralyzed in fear of messing up. The Spirit is how we unfold God’s will this side of eternity. The Spirit is the reason we can build a church and have confidence that we will get it at least a little bit right.”
“how does one read the Hebrew Scriptures Christianly, without turning the Hebrew Scriptures into nothing but a prelude to Jesus?”
July 27, 2011
I took my time with this one... enjoying the process of soaking it in. This is a book that I'm really glad I bought rather than borrowed. I want to go back and reread parts, to remind myself sometimes of what's important, about the beauty of our Faith...of Jesus' loving pursuit.
In this memoir, Lauren Winner shares a year of her journey as a converted Jew-turned Christian. Her perspective is so different from my own, having lived by choice as a devout Orthedox Jew, following ancient Judaic traditions, festivals, rituals, customs...all to worship God..and then being drawn by Christ. She desperately longs to find for herself, and bring her reader to see as well, the connectedness, value, and meaning in the writings, prayers, and festivals of the Christian Church.
I also love reading about her memories of the rich traditions and the loving community she left behind to follow Christ. I sometimes envy the traditional meals, and recipes, and ceremonies passed through generations of Judaism. But I often miss the richness and meaning of the ones that have been celebrated for generations of Christ followers...Advent, Christmas, Lent, Communion, Easter, Pentecost ...
I feel her struggle to get past shallowness, distractions, and insecurities...to be aware of the eternal, to be Christ's body.
I'm more aware of my prayerlessness. my self sufficiency. my narrow-minded and short-sighted perspective of life. my sin. my redemption. my perfect Saviour.
In this memoir, Lauren Winner shares a year of her journey as a converted Jew-turned Christian. Her perspective is so different from my own, having lived by choice as a devout Orthedox Jew, following ancient Judaic traditions, festivals, rituals, customs...all to worship God..and then being drawn by Christ. She desperately longs to find for herself, and bring her reader to see as well, the connectedness, value, and meaning in the writings, prayers, and festivals of the Christian Church.
I also love reading about her memories of the rich traditions and the loving community she left behind to follow Christ. I sometimes envy the traditional meals, and recipes, and ceremonies passed through generations of Judaism. But I often miss the richness and meaning of the ones that have been celebrated for generations of Christ followers...Advent, Christmas, Lent, Communion, Easter, Pentecost ...
I feel her struggle to get past shallowness, distractions, and insecurities...to be aware of the eternal, to be Christ's body.
I'm more aware of my prayerlessness. my self sufficiency. my narrow-minded and short-sighted perspective of life. my sin. my redemption. my perfect Saviour.
May 12, 2017
Winner was the teenage girl who wanted to believe. She wanted to be on fire for something. Child of two faiths, with parents who had fallen away from their own faith traditions, she decides to immerse herself in Judaism, then because she loves study and is seeking a big, flaming, important all-consuming something to believe in, she converts and becomes Orthodox.
And she loves Judaism, and the friends she makes in shul and in studies. They are like a loving, challenging, encouraging family. She is...content.
One day, guess who knocks on her heart and asks to come in? Yeah, Jesus,the Jewish carpenter, which surprised, shocked and saddened a lot of those people who were her Jewish family. It takes her a while, but in true bookworm style she studies, and reads, and asks a lot of questions, and finally, she is baptized.
I like how all the knowledge that Winner's Orthodox Judaism gave her informs her understanding of the Bible. I feel like I got a crash mini-course in Modern Judaism 101.
Some of her story is hard for me to wrap my mind around, because I grew up in the church. I never had to seek it out, I knew from my earliest memories that Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so! I will never be able to come to Christianity new as an adult - and one with an academic outlook - the way Winner did, but I enjoyed her story. I have other books by her in my Nook, so I will find out what came after the beginning.
And she loves Judaism, and the friends she makes in shul and in studies. They are like a loving, challenging, encouraging family. She is...content.
One day, guess who knocks on her heart and asks to come in? Yeah, Jesus,the Jewish carpenter, which surprised, shocked and saddened a lot of those people who were her Jewish family. It takes her a while, but in true bookworm style she studies, and reads, and asks a lot of questions, and finally, she is baptized.
I like how all the knowledge that Winner's Orthodox Judaism gave her informs her understanding of the Bible. I feel like I got a crash mini-course in Modern Judaism 101.
Some of her story is hard for me to wrap my mind around, because I grew up in the church. I never had to seek it out, I knew from my earliest memories that Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so! I will never be able to come to Christianity new as an adult - and one with an academic outlook - the way Winner did, but I enjoyed her story. I have other books by her in my Nook, so I will find out what came after the beginning.
May 7, 2013
"Girl Meets G-d" is definitely difficult to categorize, and if I made a shelf just for it, would call it "Spiritual Autobiography-Chicklit." I enjoyed every minute of it, even when Winner frustrated me.
Lauren Winner goes back and forth between her life and journey into observant Judaism and then into Christianity. It felt jarring, going from one to the other, but is definitely a process that I can appreciate. She draws you into her struggle, but at times, pushes you away with her narcissism.
I felt, as a reader, neglected by her rejection of Orthodox Judaism-she doesn't bother to explain it in depth. Yes, some people were jerks to her - but is that really enough to change your life and make you abandon your religion? And if so, could you at least explain it in a bit more depth.
I have to say, I REALLY didn't like the Jews for Jesus bit. J for J is a very deceptive group, and she totally overlooks many of their methods and subtle messages. No matter how you spin it, saying that you're a "completed Jew" is downright condescending.
Lauren Winner goes back and forth between her life and journey into observant Judaism and then into Christianity. It felt jarring, going from one to the other, but is definitely a process that I can appreciate. She draws you into her struggle, but at times, pushes you away with her narcissism.
I felt, as a reader, neglected by her rejection of Orthodox Judaism-she doesn't bother to explain it in depth. Yes, some people were jerks to her - but is that really enough to change your life and make you abandon your religion? And if so, could you at least explain it in a bit more depth.
I have to say, I REALLY didn't like the Jews for Jesus bit. J for J is a very deceptive group, and she totally overlooks many of their methods and subtle messages. No matter how you spin it, saying that you're a "completed Jew" is downright condescending.
July 6, 2007
Enjoyed reading this as I do most memoirs. Lauren was raised Jewish, pursued Orthadox Judaism, them converted to Christianity after reading, I kid you not, Jan Karon's "At Home in Mitford." As an intellectual pursuing a PhD in History at some east coast university (Columbia?? can't remember - that's where she did her undergrad), she is somewhat sheepish about this. She doesn't fit my typical Christian box, which is why I enjoyed the book so much - it enlarged my view of who is a Christian and how God draws various people to himself.
September 12, 2020
An insightful, witty, well-written, frank memoir of a girl's conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Episcopalian Christianity. Interesting insights into modern day evangelicalism, the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and how your faith can affect every area of your life.
January 25, 2010
Lauren F. Winner's book was incredibly intriguing to me because I am keenly interested in the ways that Judaism and Christianity are similar. Further, as another Episcopalian, I have observed that the prayer lives of the faithful within Judaism and the Episcopal Church are also similar. The rhythm of prayer within both faith communities are incredibly similar and the importance of those rhythmic prayer lives show the balancing act of devotion, religion, and spirituality. I think that openness that Winner gives to her reader's about the rite of reconciliation is spot on. It is incredibly interesting to give another person a private confession and then wonder about what that other person thinks about what you have confessed. Further, the very act of confession to another person is a difficult experience and it is meant to be difficult and expository. However, the results of the exposition are incredibly beneficial to the penitent person.
I have found a similar situation in my own life that inner finds in her own. She wonders as to whether or not she is cheating on God by returning to Jewish prayers or a Jewish service. I find that the feeling and thoughts about whether or not I am cheating on God with an interest in other faith traditions and prayer rhythms have lessened in my life since reading this book. Perhaps, the question "Am I being adulterous towards Christ by being interested in and praying another faith traditions prayers and worship services?" is a common one and the importance of the question is that each person has to come to a conclusional answer for himself or herself. The importance is in the asking of the question. I appreciate the candor in which Winner describes the tension that she feels about finding a balance between the different traditions. I think that the struggles that Winner has about the two different faiths is common; further, the importance of the quest that Winner finds herself on is more important, in my own point of view, than the answers to the questions. Once questions are answered on the quest, I find that the answers provide for more and more questions. It can be infuriating; however, the importance of the quest is in the seeking.
I think that the pressure that a lot of people feel to conform to one faith tradition or another is extreme in many cases. As a devoted Christian, Winner finds herself devoted to Christ and in some ways having to defend her devotion to her friends. I find that one of the joys of the specific brand of Christianity known as Episcopalianism is the ways in which we are supported in our searching of ideas that enhance our faith in ways that we may not have considered to begin with when the journey began. The importance of working through the questions and reflecting upon the eventsin anyone's life is important for personal growth. I am thankful that Winner has provided another place within contemporary literature that shows that the spiritual adventure continues on past the initial questions and becoming more of way of life than the ritual of church going. I find that the importance of the spiritual adventure and finding the ways that God interacts with each person on the individual's journey is important to far more than one individual. Often, people do not share their personal spiritual stories and others are left to question by themselves. I think that the importance of writing and sharing these stories and provided people with multiple questions and directions in which to further considering and living out faith can be done.
Finally, the most important thing for me in Winner's memoir is the way in which she continues to explore her faith, both, through the lenses of Christianity and Judaism. I think that the balance between the two is a concept that more people question than admit to questioning.
I have found a similar situation in my own life that inner finds in her own. She wonders as to whether or not she is cheating on God by returning to Jewish prayers or a Jewish service. I find that the feeling and thoughts about whether or not I am cheating on God with an interest in other faith traditions and prayer rhythms have lessened in my life since reading this book. Perhaps, the question "Am I being adulterous towards Christ by being interested in and praying another faith traditions prayers and worship services?" is a common one and the importance of the question is that each person has to come to a conclusional answer for himself or herself. The importance is in the asking of the question. I appreciate the candor in which Winner describes the tension that she feels about finding a balance between the different traditions. I think that the struggles that Winner has about the two different faiths is common; further, the importance of the quest that Winner finds herself on is more important, in my own point of view, than the answers to the questions. Once questions are answered on the quest, I find that the answers provide for more and more questions. It can be infuriating; however, the importance of the quest is in the seeking.
I think that the pressure that a lot of people feel to conform to one faith tradition or another is extreme in many cases. As a devoted Christian, Winner finds herself devoted to Christ and in some ways having to defend her devotion to her friends. I find that one of the joys of the specific brand of Christianity known as Episcopalianism is the ways in which we are supported in our searching of ideas that enhance our faith in ways that we may not have considered to begin with when the journey began. The importance of working through the questions and reflecting upon the eventsin anyone's life is important for personal growth. I am thankful that Winner has provided another place within contemporary literature that shows that the spiritual adventure continues on past the initial questions and becoming more of way of life than the ritual of church going. I find that the importance of the spiritual adventure and finding the ways that God interacts with each person on the individual's journey is important to far more than one individual. Often, people do not share their personal spiritual stories and others are left to question by themselves. I think that the importance of writing and sharing these stories and provided people with multiple questions and directions in which to further considering and living out faith can be done.
Finally, the most important thing for me in Winner's memoir is the way in which she continues to explore her faith, both, through the lenses of Christianity and Judaism. I think that the balance between the two is a concept that more people question than admit to questioning.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2015
I really enjoyed reading about Lauren Winner's journey from Judaism to Christianity. I was raised in a Christian home, but although Christianity is inextricably connected to Judaism, I honestly know very little about Judaism. It was fascinating to read about various Jewish beliefs and practices as Lauren described her Jewish upbringing and her decision to become Orthodox.
Lauren's subsequent awakening to Jesus and decision to follow Him (a decision that appeared to her Orthodox friends as a great act of betrayal) really resonated with me. I've spent most of my life in rather conservative branches of American Christianity, but as my understanding of Jesus has deepened through the years, my worldview has been transformed, often in ways that have not been understood or appreciated by some of my own fellow Christians. Lauren tells of one Orthodox friend who asked her, "You've spent all these hours studying Torah. How could you be taken in by that carpenter?" I, too, have been "taken in by that carpenter," and I suppose when He takes any of us in a direction different from that in which we previously walked, whether we are Jewish or Christian or Muslim, conservative or liberal or whatever, we will unavoidably be met with some amount of skepticism and questioning by those who believe we are abandoning the truth. But, although it can be a messy and uncomfortable transition learning to follow Him, as Lauren learned (and as I have learned), when one has been captivated by Jesus, the thought of turning back to older, "safer" ways is overshadowed by the prospect of walking with the Friend of sinners.
While the tone of this book is a little more intellectual and dry than what I am normally drawn to, I found the candor with which Lauren spoke of her ongoing journey refreshing. I love that she is real about her own shortcomings without losing faith in Jesus' love for her. I love that she is clearly a logical thinker while also demonstrating her own human capacity for emotion. This was a good read.
Lauren's subsequent awakening to Jesus and decision to follow Him (a decision that appeared to her Orthodox friends as a great act of betrayal) really resonated with me. I've spent most of my life in rather conservative branches of American Christianity, but as my understanding of Jesus has deepened through the years, my worldview has been transformed, often in ways that have not been understood or appreciated by some of my own fellow Christians. Lauren tells of one Orthodox friend who asked her, "You've spent all these hours studying Torah. How could you be taken in by that carpenter?" I, too, have been "taken in by that carpenter," and I suppose when He takes any of us in a direction different from that in which we previously walked, whether we are Jewish or Christian or Muslim, conservative or liberal or whatever, we will unavoidably be met with some amount of skepticism and questioning by those who believe we are abandoning the truth. But, although it can be a messy and uncomfortable transition learning to follow Him, as Lauren learned (and as I have learned), when one has been captivated by Jesus, the thought of turning back to older, "safer" ways is overshadowed by the prospect of walking with the Friend of sinners.
While the tone of this book is a little more intellectual and dry than what I am normally drawn to, I found the candor with which Lauren spoke of her ongoing journey refreshing. I love that she is real about her own shortcomings without losing faith in Jesus' love for her. I love that she is clearly a logical thinker while also demonstrating her own human capacity for emotion. This was a good read.
January 5, 2012
Initially, I picked up this book because a student had donated it to the classroom library. The title and back seemed intriguing. And though I enjoyed her voice and her intellectual approach, I will say that I was confused when the plot left a straight through and started jumping around in different years.
Yes, there were moments when I was challenged in my own faith, but this book also left a lot of questions. There's a lack of reflection on the writer's own part in resolving her own questions about whether this change in faith would be permanent, how she combats her infatuation with men of different faith, how those men seem to influence her own faith, and what it really means to reconcile relationships with other faiths. There seems to be a lot of new chapters in her life, but very few inter-religious friendships that remain.
Still a good read...just not the best memoir I've read.
Yes, there were moments when I was challenged in my own faith, but this book also left a lot of questions. There's a lack of reflection on the writer's own part in resolving her own questions about whether this change in faith would be permanent, how she combats her infatuation with men of different faith, how those men seem to influence her own faith, and what it really means to reconcile relationships with other faiths. There seems to be a lot of new chapters in her life, but very few inter-religious friendships that remain.
Still a good read...just not the best memoir I've read.
May 12, 2021
I fell head over heels in love with this book when I first read it cerca 2004. So much so that, when D and I moved to Washington D.C. in 2007, a roadtrip to the Mudhouse Coffeeshop in Charlottesville was a required weekend pilgrimage. Reading it again 17 years later was an experience both intimate and vulnerable, in that I became reacquainted with my teenage self and realized just how much I've grown since.
That Lauren Winner stole my heart was, in retrospect, a foregone conclusion. She is deliciously, passionately in love with the written word, hygge surroundings, and old liturgy. She wrestles with theology and reports back on whether it was a win, a loss, or a draw. Girlfriends meet for tea and the daily office; the rhythms of the liturgical calendar play out against the backdrop of cozy used bookstores and university campuses; an ideal date is marked by shared enthusiasm over Faulkner's grave. Her alarm clock is set to NPR's Morning Edition, she has opinions about particular galleries at the Met, and she name-drops Dostoyevsky, the venerable Bede, and Mikraot G'dolot as if they were no biggie. I was enamored. Remember, in the early 00s, Sex in the City dominated the airwaves; it would be a few more years before West Wing and the later seasons of Buffy portrayed "nerds" not as goofy asexual sidekicks in overalls but as fierce, brilliant, well-spoken coders, witches, and politicos. I found Lauren Winner's intellectual voraciousness and committed friendships deeply compelling.
Reading her memoir again in 2021, I realize that I have largely realized that aspiration. My bookshelves are as overfull and eclectic as hers... including heavily underlined copies of several books that she references which meant nothing to me the first time through. I have fiercely loyal, committed, intellectual relationships with an array of girlfriends scattered across the nation and Europe. I too live within the orbit of University campuses, though thankfully my own professional life is not so entwined. I have two cats, innumerable comfy sweaters, and longstanding relationships with many the local indie coffeeshop. I guess I succeeded in becoming the person that she inspired me to be.
This time through, however, there were a few things that I hadn't been in a position to notice the first time round:
- There’s an unspoken yearning to find a “home” where her unconventional religious education, intellectual voraciousness, and Southern heritage would, if not “fit,” at least be welcome. I empathized with her line about "not having gone to the right summer camps.” Urban, East Coast Jewry can be just as provincially closeminded as any southern debutante ball organizers.
- She went to the mikvah after completing only one semester at Columbia. What the hell kind of amateur bet din would allow that?!?! Especially for a 17 year old? Seriously phoning it in. Egregious.
- She mentions going to her friend Tova's Orthodox wedding in Memphis, and mentions her again as one of the friends she lost touch with post-baptism. This must be Tova Mirvis... which makes it that much more poignant that both women published memoirs about divorce (and in Tova's case, leaving a frum lifestyle) in the past decade.
- Somewhere around the halfway point, the narrative voice changes subtly and we go from carefully crafted memoir to something that is more expository, a blend of not-yet-thoroughly-processed journal entries and theological references. It reads like mini reflections for Christian audience, possibly adaptations of her columns in Christianity Today. Less and less is comprehensible - or interesting - to a non-Christian reader. Shame.
- Her depictions of Judaism grossly oversimplify the tribe. She doesn't seem to realize (or perhaps just can't comprehend) that only some Jewish religious communities are explicitly deist, places where words like "belief" and "faith" and "Truth" and "God" have meaning. Far more 20th and 21st century Jews consider Judaism to be a heritage, an intergenerational identity with a particular vocabulary, an inherited canon and set of incantations whose value is unrelated to creed. It's not that these communities (many Conservative, Reconstructionists, Renewal, Conservadox, etc) are anti-God... it's more like one's individual beliefs are irrelevant. I get it; her Jewishness is rooted in the two denominations most likely to assume deistic beliefs (Reform and Orthodoxy) and Judaism-as-a-belief-system is far more comprehensible to her Christian readership. But it saddened me to see something so beautifully complex flattened beyond recognition.
That Lauren Winner stole my heart was, in retrospect, a foregone conclusion. She is deliciously, passionately in love with the written word, hygge surroundings, and old liturgy. She wrestles with theology and reports back on whether it was a win, a loss, or a draw. Girlfriends meet for tea and the daily office; the rhythms of the liturgical calendar play out against the backdrop of cozy used bookstores and university campuses; an ideal date is marked by shared enthusiasm over Faulkner's grave. Her alarm clock is set to NPR's Morning Edition, she has opinions about particular galleries at the Met, and she name-drops Dostoyevsky, the venerable Bede, and Mikraot G'dolot as if they were no biggie. I was enamored. Remember, in the early 00s, Sex in the City dominated the airwaves; it would be a few more years before West Wing and the later seasons of Buffy portrayed "nerds" not as goofy asexual sidekicks in overalls but as fierce, brilliant, well-spoken coders, witches, and politicos. I found Lauren Winner's intellectual voraciousness and committed friendships deeply compelling.
Reading her memoir again in 2021, I realize that I have largely realized that aspiration. My bookshelves are as overfull and eclectic as hers... including heavily underlined copies of several books that she references which meant nothing to me the first time through. I have fiercely loyal, committed, intellectual relationships with an array of girlfriends scattered across the nation and Europe. I too live within the orbit of University campuses, though thankfully my own professional life is not so entwined. I have two cats, innumerable comfy sweaters, and longstanding relationships with many the local indie coffeeshop. I guess I succeeded in becoming the person that she inspired me to be.
This time through, however, there were a few things that I hadn't been in a position to notice the first time round:
- There’s an unspoken yearning to find a “home” where her unconventional religious education, intellectual voraciousness, and Southern heritage would, if not “fit,” at least be welcome. I empathized with her line about "not having gone to the right summer camps.” Urban, East Coast Jewry can be just as provincially closeminded as any southern debutante ball organizers.
- She went to the mikvah after completing only one semester at Columbia. What the hell kind of amateur bet din would allow that?!?! Especially for a 17 year old? Seriously phoning it in. Egregious.
- She mentions going to her friend Tova's Orthodox wedding in Memphis, and mentions her again as one of the friends she lost touch with post-baptism. This must be Tova Mirvis... which makes it that much more poignant that both women published memoirs about divorce (and in Tova's case, leaving a frum lifestyle) in the past decade.
- Somewhere around the halfway point, the narrative voice changes subtly and we go from carefully crafted memoir to something that is more expository, a blend of not-yet-thoroughly-processed journal entries and theological references. It reads like mini reflections for Christian audience, possibly adaptations of her columns in Christianity Today. Less and less is comprehensible - or interesting - to a non-Christian reader. Shame.
- Her depictions of Judaism grossly oversimplify the tribe. She doesn't seem to realize (or perhaps just can't comprehend) that only some Jewish religious communities are explicitly deist, places where words like "belief" and "faith" and "Truth" and "God" have meaning. Far more 20th and 21st century Jews consider Judaism to be a heritage, an intergenerational identity with a particular vocabulary, an inherited canon and set of incantations whose value is unrelated to creed. It's not that these communities (many Conservative, Reconstructionists, Renewal, Conservadox, etc) are anti-God... it's more like one's individual beliefs are irrelevant. I get it; her Jewishness is rooted in the two denominations most likely to assume deistic beliefs (Reform and Orthodoxy) and Judaism-as-a-belief-system is far more comprehensible to her Christian readership. But it saddened me to see something so beautifully complex flattened beyond recognition.
August 4, 2023
I envy this author's bookshelves and the amount of time she spends reading! Overall, I didn't enjoy this book as much as others I've read by this author.
April 15, 2009
I was expecting more from this memoir. Lauren Winner, daughter of a lapsed Baptist mother but raised as a Reform Jew in accordance with her Jewish father's wishes, found herself increasingly drawn to Orthodox Judaism as an adolescent. After undergoing an Orthodox Jewish conversion in college, Lauren gradually drifted from Orthodoxy into Christianity, converting to Episcopalianism. I found Lauren's trajectory intriguing and appreciated her writing voice but didn't particularly enjoy her memoir, which ended up being a loose collection of ruminations on aspects of Christian theology sprinkled with occasional reminisces about her earlier Jewish life and her ambivalence about some of the practices and beliefs she abandoned. I never got a clear sense of her actual journey and the accompanying thoughts and feelings; she alluded to people and incidents here and there, but I felt she never fully addressed the overall process.
Her memoir did raise some questions for me, though, about people who make dramatic lifestyle changes in the name of seeking spirituality, only to become disillusioned and then make more dramatic lifestyle changes. What is that about? Is this a symptom of chronic dissatisfaction and psychological instability, or are people like this merely deeper than the rest of us and therefore, unable to fit into a mold, try though they might? One goodreads reviewer claimed that Lauren's subsequent books suggest that she eventually became disillusioned with Christianity as well, which, if accurate, further begs this question.
Lauren also raised the interesting question of whether she would have been drawn to Christianity had she ended up marrying one of her Orthodox Jewish ex-boyfriends. I wondered that as well, especially since Lauren seemed particularly vulnerable to falling intensely in love with various men who later proved to be the wrong ones. Was there any connection between that tendency and her spiritual ups and downs?
I found questions like this interesting to ponder, and I give the memoir credit for raising them. Overall, though, not a particularly enjoyable read for me.
Her memoir did raise some questions for me, though, about people who make dramatic lifestyle changes in the name of seeking spirituality, only to become disillusioned and then make more dramatic lifestyle changes. What is that about? Is this a symptom of chronic dissatisfaction and psychological instability, or are people like this merely deeper than the rest of us and therefore, unable to fit into a mold, try though they might? One goodreads reviewer claimed that Lauren's subsequent books suggest that she eventually became disillusioned with Christianity as well, which, if accurate, further begs this question.
Lauren also raised the interesting question of whether she would have been drawn to Christianity had she ended up marrying one of her Orthodox Jewish ex-boyfriends. I wondered that as well, especially since Lauren seemed particularly vulnerable to falling intensely in love with various men who later proved to be the wrong ones. Was there any connection between that tendency and her spiritual ups and downs?
I found questions like this interesting to ponder, and I give the memoir credit for raising them. Overall, though, not a particularly enjoyable read for me.
November 14, 2015
I found this difficult to read for two reasons.
The first was that the author is a self-identified "Southern girl", and the reader is meant to understand that this means she's white, moneyed, and genteel. She repeatedly discusses loving antebellum literature and fashion, and casually mentions hanging out at Monticello and admiring the works there. This would be kind of lowkey disturbing at anytime, because I know those sorts of people (I grew up with them) and they tend to be morally bankrupt and racist to the extreme, but on top of that, she's often discussing this backdrop to her life in the context of Christianity. Christianity was used in America to justify all kinds of brutality, including chattel slavery and systemic racism. To not mention that at all, to breezily fetishize the nature of the "South" without ever stopping to consider that Thomas Jefferson would have been happy to discuss his own personal beliefs about the objective inferiority of black people, is to be grossly complicit in a way I'd have trouble with in a book published in 1980, much less 2002.
Secondly, look. I don't care what your faith is: at some point if it calls you to morality, you ought to attempt to internalize that morality. The author comes across as someone who'd rather self-flagellate over the difficulty of forgiving everyone than actually attempt to do it. Her understanding of Christianity is literary and performative long before it's moral. That's fine, but why in the world would I want to read an entire memoir about it? "I'm kind of a callow and dull person" is not a very good premise for 200+ pages of talking about yourself. Nor is "I'm immensely immature and compare my religious beliefs to my failure to find a boyfriend like 900000 times with no apparent self-awareness or development". Just, nah.
(I can't speak to the parts where she talks about Orthodox Judaism with any authority, but she waffles just as much during those and takes the supposed life-changing beliefs just as faux-seriously with just as much performative anxiety and just as little genuine feeling or belief, so.)
The first was that the author is a self-identified "Southern girl", and the reader is meant to understand that this means she's white, moneyed, and genteel. She repeatedly discusses loving antebellum literature and fashion, and casually mentions hanging out at Monticello and admiring the works there. This would be kind of lowkey disturbing at anytime, because I know those sorts of people (I grew up with them) and they tend to be morally bankrupt and racist to the extreme, but on top of that, she's often discussing this backdrop to her life in the context of Christianity. Christianity was used in America to justify all kinds of brutality, including chattel slavery and systemic racism. To not mention that at all, to breezily fetishize the nature of the "South" without ever stopping to consider that Thomas Jefferson would have been happy to discuss his own personal beliefs about the objective inferiority of black people, is to be grossly complicit in a way I'd have trouble with in a book published in 1980, much less 2002.
Secondly, look. I don't care what your faith is: at some point if it calls you to morality, you ought to attempt to internalize that morality. The author comes across as someone who'd rather self-flagellate over the difficulty of forgiving everyone than actually attempt to do it. Her understanding of Christianity is literary and performative long before it's moral. That's fine, but why in the world would I want to read an entire memoir about it? "I'm kind of a callow and dull person" is not a very good premise for 200+ pages of talking about yourself. Nor is "I'm immensely immature and compare my religious beliefs to my failure to find a boyfriend like 900000 times with no apparent self-awareness or development". Just, nah.
(I can't speak to the parts where she talks about Orthodox Judaism with any authority, but she waffles just as much during those and takes the supposed life-changing beliefs just as faux-seriously with just as much performative anxiety and just as little genuine feeling or belief, so.)
July 18, 2009
This is an enjoyable memoir about the author's journey back and forth between Judaism and Christianity. As someone who eventually became a professor at a divinity school, she raises many classic theological questions such as the mystery of Christ's Incarnation. She also illustrates through her stories how religious conversion involves not just abstract questions of theology, but whole communities of people who can be affected by one's personal religious decisions.
The first 200 pages were very engaging, including a mermaid dream and a colorful love life, but the final 100 pages dragged a bit--it was more of the same, began to feel more disjointed and less dramatic and thought-provoking, and ended abruptly.
Toward the end, the author briefly explained that her journey has contained both Christianity and Judaism because those religions are on the same "path," and will not likely ever include Buddhism because that religion is on a different path. I'm sure one could take a different perspective, however, given that Christianity co-exists with Buddhism in Asia, and there are blended Christian-Buddhist families just as her own family was blended Christian-Jewish. Also, I was a little surprised that, amidst all her church-hopping and theological study, she never even mentioned--much less considered--atheism or any of its variants, such as the possibility that religious experience is a kind of psychological illusion, or the possibility that God exists but doesn't demand anything from us in the way of religious affiliation. Her implicit assumption is that God exists, specifically as Jesus, and it's hard to tell whether she has simply never considered the alternative or whether she has considered it but retains strong faith nonetheless.
The first 200 pages were very engaging, including a mermaid dream and a colorful love life, but the final 100 pages dragged a bit--it was more of the same, began to feel more disjointed and less dramatic and thought-provoking, and ended abruptly.
Toward the end, the author briefly explained that her journey has contained both Christianity and Judaism because those religions are on the same "path," and will not likely ever include Buddhism because that religion is on a different path. I'm sure one could take a different perspective, however, given that Christianity co-exists with Buddhism in Asia, and there are blended Christian-Buddhist families just as her own family was blended Christian-Jewish. Also, I was a little surprised that, amidst all her church-hopping and theological study, she never even mentioned--much less considered--atheism or any of its variants, such as the possibility that religious experience is a kind of psychological illusion, or the possibility that God exists but doesn't demand anything from us in the way of religious affiliation. Her implicit assumption is that God exists, specifically as Jesus, and it's hard to tell whether she has simply never considered the alternative or whether she has considered it but retains strong faith nonetheless.
March 5, 2018
4.5 stars.
Really fond of how Winner portrays herself in this memoir.
There is a sincerity to how she describes the complexity of her coming to faith. She is vulnerable without reveling in her follies. She is honest about questions without turning uncertainty into it's own kind of confession.
She has been a friend as I wonder about how people learn to follow Jesus in my own context; where many faith traditions intersect in a rich intellectual world. I am grateful for her self-awareness of what being a person of Christian faith looks like in a pluralistic and thoughtful city; she is both winsome and a woman of conviction.
One particularly wonderful moment is where Winner wonders about how a historian might evaluate her life and conversion to Christianity (she is herself an historian learning to do the same). She can see how an historian might assess family of origin, circumstance, social pressure and a number of other factors to conclude why Winner becomes a Christian. But she can also see that they might miss the most important factor in their inquiry:
"There would be some truth in all those theories. Bu this is why those historians would be wrong, why all those scholars who try to explain away the Great Awakening are wrong, why my senior thesis is wrong. They recognize that conversation is complicated, that it is about family, and geography, and politics, and psychology, and economics. They just forget that it is also about God." (p.64)
Also, she made me want to read more books.
Really fond of how Winner portrays herself in this memoir.
There is a sincerity to how she describes the complexity of her coming to faith. She is vulnerable without reveling in her follies. She is honest about questions without turning uncertainty into it's own kind of confession.
She has been a friend as I wonder about how people learn to follow Jesus in my own context; where many faith traditions intersect in a rich intellectual world. I am grateful for her self-awareness of what being a person of Christian faith looks like in a pluralistic and thoughtful city; she is both winsome and a woman of conviction.
One particularly wonderful moment is where Winner wonders about how a historian might evaluate her life and conversion to Christianity (she is herself an historian learning to do the same). She can see how an historian might assess family of origin, circumstance, social pressure and a number of other factors to conclude why Winner becomes a Christian. But she can also see that they might miss the most important factor in their inquiry:
"There would be some truth in all those theories. Bu this is why those historians would be wrong, why all those scholars who try to explain away the Great Awakening are wrong, why my senior thesis is wrong. They recognize that conversation is complicated, that it is about family, and geography, and politics, and psychology, and economics. They just forget that it is also about God." (p.64)
Also, she made me want to read more books.
May 13, 2012
Possibly the biggest take-away of this book for me was her value of liturgy in worship. I grew up as a fairly devout Catholic (rosary every night, sometimes 2x's/night, etc...) and believed everything that was placed in front of me. However, I can't say that I partook in communion with as much thought and reverence as I ought to have. I can't say that I recited each "Hail Mary" and "Our Father" with sincerity. Each time I dipped my finger in to the holy water and knelt before the altar as I made the sign of the cross, I cannot say that I approached such an act with a worshipful attitude. Something like that ought to have brought me to a sense of awe, and yet it did not.
Lauren's personal testimony, though very candid and fun, reminded me that we are to approach a holy God carefully and yet intimately. This was convicting for me, now an evangelical who so boasts in the "approachable, come-just-as-you-are" God. Don't get me wrong--I still believe those things to be true. However, I've found that my lack of awe gets in the way of humility before the One who is worthy of all praise and glory.
On a lighter note:
I enjoyed this fun read in between heavier ones. I relate it to spontaneously having a friend over for tea to talk about both nothing and everything at the same time for hours on end. And it has fragments. The good kind.
Lauren's personal testimony, though very candid and fun, reminded me that we are to approach a holy God carefully and yet intimately. This was convicting for me, now an evangelical who so boasts in the "approachable, come-just-as-you-are" God. Don't get me wrong--I still believe those things to be true. However, I've found that my lack of awe gets in the way of humility before the One who is worthy of all praise and glory.
On a lighter note:
I enjoyed this fun read in between heavier ones. I relate it to spontaneously having a friend over for tea to talk about both nothing and everything at the same time for hours on end. And it has fragments. The good kind.
January 7, 2019
This is m first Lauren F. Winner book, and presumably a good one to start with since it is where the author begins in recounting her story. I think one of my
Goodreads friends introduced me to this author - in the back of my mind I took note and then this week I ordered one of her books online. A trip to the library yesterday netted two of the same author’s books and so I was given the chance to start at the beginning with “Girl Meets God”. Lauren F. Winner is engaging from the start of her story, introducing herself as a history grad student and warning us that while “evangelical friends of mine are always trying to trim the corners and smooth the rough edges” of her “born-again conversion narrative” she will “tell it like it is” (my words, not the authors). It is such an interesting story, and, no doubt, she engages because she is willing to be honest about herself and her journey in this book. It was certainly no chore for me to read (when do I ever finish the better part of a book in one day) and it holds all kinds of gems for me to reflect on concerning my own spiritual life and how it is fleshed out with others in my community. Next up is another book by the same author “Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis” and somewhere in there “Putting on God” the book that is coming in the post should arrive.
Goodreads friends introduced me to this author - in the back of my mind I took note and then this week I ordered one of her books online. A trip to the library yesterday netted two of the same author’s books and so I was given the chance to start at the beginning with “Girl Meets God”. Lauren F. Winner is engaging from the start of her story, introducing herself as a history grad student and warning us that while “evangelical friends of mine are always trying to trim the corners and smooth the rough edges” of her “born-again conversion narrative” she will “tell it like it is” (my words, not the authors). It is such an interesting story, and, no doubt, she engages because she is willing to be honest about herself and her journey in this book. It was certainly no chore for me to read (when do I ever finish the better part of a book in one day) and it holds all kinds of gems for me to reflect on concerning my own spiritual life and how it is fleshed out with others in my community. Next up is another book by the same author “Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis” and somewhere in there “Putting on God” the book that is coming in the post should arrive.
March 10, 2012
What I find most interesting about Winner's story is that she chooses to label herself as Christian, and not as a Messianic Jew. I love how even though those in her Orthodox Jewish community can't believe that she fell for "that carpenter", here she is, writing about how her relationship with Jesus Christ came to be. Also, to read about Christianity through the lens of Judaism is fascinating; it strikes me that because the Jews are God's chosen people, there must be such a greater depth of richness in the belief of a Jewish Christian.
To say that this book was refreshing or inspiring wouldn't quite capture the sentiment; I think what I most appreciated about it was the honesty as to the challenging reality of following Christ. There were many instances of spiritual double-takes; the author has the gift of taking some fundamental aspect of Christianity, and then crafting an explanation of her understanding with such simplicity that it brought back the freshness and intensity to some of those basic elements to which I had become jaded. Love it. (=
To say that this book was refreshing or inspiring wouldn't quite capture the sentiment; I think what I most appreciated about it was the honesty as to the challenging reality of following Christ. There were many instances of spiritual double-takes; the author has the gift of taking some fundamental aspect of Christianity, and then crafting an explanation of her understanding with such simplicity that it brought back the freshness and intensity to some of those basic elements to which I had become jaded. Love it. (=
June 25, 2010
I was really looking forward to reading this book. Being a girl who has struggled over the years with my faith, I was very interested in another girl's point of view on faith and religion. I also was looking forward to learning more about Judaism and the differences from Christianity. Unfortunately, I found the book to be confusing!!! The author jumps all over the place throughout her journey that I had trouble keeping track of where she was with her faith. Another thing abut the book that I struggled with was all the references to Judaism that went right over my head. She did some explainations of holidays and/or practices but other times she refers to certain Hebrew words that went right over my head. It would have been helpful if there was some sort of glossary. I eventually gave up on the book. Maybe if I had continued to read it would have all come together for me but I just didn't feel it was worth it after a while.
January 17, 2011
I really loved this book. Lauren has a unique perspective on the Christian faith, as learned through Jewish customs and traditions. I love her journey of connecting things that she thought she always knew to things that she was starting to believe. She is an avid reader and very intellectual -- and I think this has once again shown me that you can think critically about the bible and theology and what it still comes down to is faith. I love that she acknowledges that her life before Christianity was being led in that direction -- that God has a plan for all of us and we might not realize it except in hindsight, if at all.
One of my favorite sections was when she talked about the story of Ruth -- and how that story paves the way for Jesus' story in different ways. So insightful and such a different take on the story than I've ever read before.
Highly recommended :)
One of my favorite sections was when she talked about the story of Ruth -- and how that story paves the way for Jesus' story in different ways. So insightful and such a different take on the story than I've ever read before.
Highly recommended :)
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