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Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age
Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age | Katherine Ozment
5 posts | 1 read | 1 reading | 5 to read
Meet the Nones In this thought-provoking exploration of secular America, celebrated journalist Katherine Ozment takes readers on a quest to understand the trends and ramifications of a nation in flight from organized religion.Studies show that religion makes us happier, healthier and more giving, connecting us to our past and creating tight communal bonds. Most Americans are raised in a religious tradition, but in recent decades many have begun to leave religion, and with it their ancient rituals, mythic narratives, and sense of belonging.So how do the nonreligious fill the need for ritual, story, community, and, above all, purpose and meaning without the one-stop shop of religion? What do they do with the space left after religion? With Nones swelling to one-fourth of American adults, and more than one-third of those under thirty, these questions have never been more urgent.Writer, journalist, and secular mother of three Katherine Ozment came face-to-face with the fundamental issue of the Nones when her son asked her the simplest of questions: what are we? Unsettled by her reply Nothing she set out on a journey to find a better answer. She traversed the frontier of American secular life, sought guidance in science and the humanities, talked with noted scholars, and wrestled with her own family s attempts to find meaning and connection after religion.Insightful, surprising, and compelling, Grace Without God is both a personal and critical exploration of the many ways nonreligious Americans create their own meaning and purpose in an increasingly secular age."
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review
alisahar
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This was an ambitious book-- personal, thoughtful, and deeply reported. I'm not sure it left me convinced that any secular ritual or search for meaning is quite the same as religion but I loved how hard and honestly she searched without agenda. I was most skeptical of her use of small-sample-sized and likely unreplicable studies, but the personal parts were very strong and beautifully written. Highly recommend.

review
alisahar
Pickpick

This was an ambitious book-- personal, thoughtful, and deeply reported. I'm not sure it left me convinced that any secular ritual or search for meaning is quite the same as religion but I loved how hard and honestly she searched without agenda. I was most skeptical of her use of small-sample-sized and likely unreplicable studies, but the personal parts were very strong and beautifully written. Highly recommend.

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alisahar
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OSChamberlain Yessss. Been wanting to read this for sooo long! 8y
alisahar @OSChamberlain enjoying it so far. The big question, of course, is how far she can go in answering the huge problem she poses in the part I just quoted... 8y
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alisahar
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It's kind of weird to be reading this book in bed on a Sunday morning instead of going to church-- would have been unthinkable to me a few years ago.

ReadingOver50 I am sitting in the church parking lot right now, looking at Litsy before I go in 😄 8y
alisahar @ReadingOver50 she talks about how a lot of people who don't practice or identify as religious are conflicted about it, and I relate to that quite a bit. 8y
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extinctath0n
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Ten years of CCD and I never knew what it stood for until today. Smh.
In other news, 14 pages into this book and I'm already learning new things!

brendanmleonard Catholic from 14 to 22 and I didn't know either! The more you know! 9y
alisahar I'm reading this for the Harvard Book Store event coming up in September! (Noticed you're from Boston too. 😊) 8y
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