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Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others
The renowned and beloved New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark recounts her moving discoveries of finding the sacred in unexpected places while teaching the world’s religions to undergraduates in rural Georgia, revealing how God delights in confounding our expectations.
Barbara Brown Taylor continues her spiritual journey begun in Leaving Church of finding out what the world looks like after taking off her clergy collar. In Holy Envy, she contemplates the myriad ways other people and traditions encounter the Transcendent, both by digging deeper into those traditions herself and by seeing them through her students’ eyes as she sets off with them on field trips to monasteries, temples, and mosques.
Troubled and inspired by what she learns, Taylor returns to her own tradition for guidance, finding new meaning in old teachings that have too often been used to exclude religious strangers instead of embracing the divine challenges they present. Re-imagining some central stories from the religion she knows best, she takes heart in how often God chooses outsiders to teach insiders how out-of-bounds God really is.
Throughout Holy Envy, Taylor weaves together stories from the classroom with reflections on how her own spiritual journey has been complicated and renewed by connecting with people of other traditions—even those whose truths are quite different from hers. The one constant in her odyssey is the sense that God is the one calling her to disown her version of God—a change that ultimately enriches her faith in other human beings and in God.
Barbara Brown Taylor continues her spiritual journey begun in Leaving Church of finding out what the world looks like after taking off her clergy collar. In Holy Envy, she contemplates the myriad ways other people and traditions encounter the Transcendent, both by digging deeper into those traditions herself and by seeing them through her students’ eyes as she sets off with them on field trips to monasteries, temples, and mosques.
Troubled and inspired by what she learns, Taylor returns to her own tradition for guidance, finding new meaning in old teachings that have too often been used to exclude religious strangers instead of embracing the divine challenges they present. Re-imagining some central stories from the religion she knows best, she takes heart in how often God chooses outsiders to teach insiders how out-of-bounds God really is.
Throughout Holy Envy, Taylor weaves together stories from the classroom with reflections on how her own spiritual journey has been complicated and renewed by connecting with people of other traditions—even those whose truths are quite different from hers. The one constant in her odyssey is the sense that God is the one calling her to disown her version of God—a change that ultimately enriches her faith in other human beings and in God.
256 pages, ebook
First published March 1, 2019
About the author
Barbara Brown Taylor
55 books1,184 followersBarbara Brown Taylor is a New York Times best-selling author, teacher, and Episcopal priest. Her first memoir, Leaving Church (2006), won an Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association. Her last book, Learning to Walk in the Dark (2014), was featured on the cover of TIME magazine. She has served on the faculties of Piedmont College, Columbia Theological Seminary, Candler School of Theology at Emory University, McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, and the Certificate in Theological Studies program at Arrendale State Prison for Women in Alto, Georgia. In 2014 TIME included her on its annual list of Most Influential People; in 2015 she was named Georgia Woman of the Year; in 2016 she received The President’s Medal at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Mercer University and is working on her fourteenth book, Holy Envy, forthcoming from HarperOne in August 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 741 reviews
February 17, 2020
I’ll start by saying that the aims of this book are admirable, given Western Christians’ general ignorance of what people of other faith traditions believe and/or their unwillingness to learn. I absolutely think there’s so much good that other traditions illuminate and that Christians can honor without feeling threatened or that they have to give up their own beliefs and practices. I am very much on board with the premise of this book!
Having said this, it struck me that HOLY ENVY provided a surface treatment of the four non-Christian faiths it sets out to honor. Taylor spends little time explaining the beliefs of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam. Instead, the book explores each through field trips taken by Taylor’s Religion 101 class. I love the idea of learning about religions through spending time with its adherents. But the overall effect seems to suggest that beliefs—core truth-claims about the nature of God, humanity, reality, the material vs. spiritual world—don’t really matter, as long as you are becoming a good, loving person adhering to them.
The effect is that Taylor fails to seriously grapple with the *particularity* of other religions—which, in my view, is not honoring its adherents. The notion that all religions are several paths up one holy mountain does not honor the exclusive truth claims of many of the world’s religions, including those observed here. It doesn't make sense, for example, to claim that Hinduism and Islam are two streams leading to the same ocean; so fundamentally different are each’s teachings, they are more like separate oceans unto themselves. Ironically, by finding much to honor in other religions, Taylor in my view doesn’t really *see* other religions for what they are. The result is a kind of diminishment of the uniqueness of other religions in favor of more generalized practices of love and kindness that happen to accord well with a white educated Western worldview.
Finally—and this highlights why I’ve never been a huge BBT fan, although I know and respect plenty of people who are—throughout this book, references are made to a *type* of Christian over and against which Taylor defines her own spirituality. Those Christians are too dogmatic; they haven’t done enough higher criticism so they are thus ignorantly literalist when reading the Bible; they’re just a bit too obsessed with Jesus and the cross. They are too fearful. Taylor recounts several anecdotes in this book of Christians who serve as a foil to a more enlightened Christianity, one the author claims as her own. I kind of want to say: Do your thing, Barbara! No one at this point in your career is going to confuse you for these other Christians. Why the need to define your faith as over and against? To be fair, toward the end of the book Taylor grapples with her own impatience with other Christians; I guess for someone of Taylor’s clout and eloquence, I’d expect a bit more love and tolerance—the very qualities she admires in other religions.
Having said this, it struck me that HOLY ENVY provided a surface treatment of the four non-Christian faiths it sets out to honor. Taylor spends little time explaining the beliefs of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam. Instead, the book explores each through field trips taken by Taylor’s Religion 101 class. I love the idea of learning about religions through spending time with its adherents. But the overall effect seems to suggest that beliefs—core truth-claims about the nature of God, humanity, reality, the material vs. spiritual world—don’t really matter, as long as you are becoming a good, loving person adhering to them.
The effect is that Taylor fails to seriously grapple with the *particularity* of other religions—which, in my view, is not honoring its adherents. The notion that all religions are several paths up one holy mountain does not honor the exclusive truth claims of many of the world’s religions, including those observed here. It doesn't make sense, for example, to claim that Hinduism and Islam are two streams leading to the same ocean; so fundamentally different are each’s teachings, they are more like separate oceans unto themselves. Ironically, by finding much to honor in other religions, Taylor in my view doesn’t really *see* other religions for what they are. The result is a kind of diminishment of the uniqueness of other religions in favor of more generalized practices of love and kindness that happen to accord well with a white educated Western worldview.
Finally—and this highlights why I’ve never been a huge BBT fan, although I know and respect plenty of people who are—throughout this book, references are made to a *type* of Christian over and against which Taylor defines her own spirituality. Those Christians are too dogmatic; they haven’t done enough higher criticism so they are thus ignorantly literalist when reading the Bible; they’re just a bit too obsessed with Jesus and the cross. They are too fearful. Taylor recounts several anecdotes in this book of Christians who serve as a foil to a more enlightened Christianity, one the author claims as her own. I kind of want to say: Do your thing, Barbara! No one at this point in your career is going to confuse you for these other Christians. Why the need to define your faith as over and against? To be fair, toward the end of the book Taylor grapples with her own impatience with other Christians; I guess for someone of Taylor’s clout and eloquence, I’d expect a bit more love and tolerance—the very qualities she admires in other religions.
March 30, 2019
Barbara Brown Taylor is perhaps the best thinker and writer that I ever blew the chance to hear live. Several years ago, I attended a conference at which she and Miroslov Volf were the featured speakers. Volf was the opening plenary speaker, and Taylor was the closing plenary speaker. I was not familiar with Taylor at the time, and I had a fairly small menu of flights to choose from when I booked the flight. So I chose an evening flight back home that required me to miss the closing session. To make up for it, I bought An Altar in the World and read it in the flight. By the time I landed, I realized what a mistake I had made.
Since then, I have come to see Barbara Brown Taylor as an indispensable Christian writer. She combines depth and clarity, which are two traits that are rarely found together in any kind of writing. Other Christian writers I admire are deep without being clear (Miroslov Volf, for example) and clear without being particularly deep (Rachel Held Evans fills this category for me). Taylor is both. She has enough theological sophistication to write profound--and unread--treatises for fellow academics. But she writes like, well, a writer. And a really good one.
Even though I knew this about her--her book Learning to Walk in the Dark was one of the best things that I read last year--I was fully prepared not to like Holy Envy. I don’t much like the term to begin with. Almost every time I have heard it used, it describes a sort of religious tourism that either 1) overly romanticizes distant religious practices (“look at all those noble savages worshipping God in their state of nature”) or just assumes that everything that another culture does is inherently superior to our own (“why can’t my Church look like the Sistine Chapel and have music by Bach?”) . Both of these attitudes drive me nuts.
Not only does Taylor not adopt these attitudes. She tackles them head on and talks about the ethics of learning from other people’s religions. We cannot simply appropriate other people’s beliefs into our own--lifting them from their original context and adding them to our spiritual practice to show how open-minded we are. I mean, we can, but it is not a very ethical way to treat others. Holy Envy is not the same thing as spiritual imperialism. Taylor calls this "spiritual shoplifting," and it is not a good thing.
Brown works out a much more nuanced approach. She grounds herself firmly in the Christian tradition, while, at the same time, acknowledging that this tradition is not uniquely or exclusively representative of God’s will. This is a very tricky position to occupy, since it involves reading against a fair bit of that tradition itself and very carefully interpreting its sacred texts. But she pulls it off and says something like (and I am paraphrasing here), “I am a Christian, and this is the context in which I experience God. It is a beautiful tradition, and I believe that it can lead me to God. But it is a tradition that works for people who have a specific set of experiences--and there are equally valid traditions that can lead people in different who experience the world differently to the same God, who is too big to be captured in any particular aspect.”
Learning from other traditions, then, requires empathy, understanding, respect, and a lot of effort. It requires us to learn what other people believe, why they believe these things, and what aspect of God they address. When we do this, we can see some of the gaps in our understanding that grow out gaps in our experiences. A religion is basically a set of narratives that help us make sense of our relationship to things that are outside of ourselves--including divinity, nature, history, the universe, and other people. These are such big things that no set of narratives can say everything (or even most things) about them. So there is value in understanding the ways that other people, and other cultures, try to grapple with the “big questions.” They are big questions precisely because they support many answers.
Perhaps the best metaphor for how Taylor sees religion is language. We all learn a language, and most of us are more comfortable using our own language than one we learned from others. However, learning another language can help us see things differently and understand concepts that we could never quite make clear in our own language. And usually, understanding another language teaches us things about our own language. (I never really understood how the subjunctive worked in English until I tried to learn how it works in Spanish). As Taylor puts it, “As natural as it may be to try to translate everything into my own religious language, I miss a lot when I persist in reducing everything to my own frame of reference” (34). Learning from the faith of others is very similar to learning from the language of others. And neither one can really be done without going to new places and meeting new people.
The main body of the book is highly reflective memoir of Taylor’s experiences teaching a Survey of World Religion course to students at Piedmont College. A typical semester involved teaching five major world religions: Hinduism Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. She documents her experiences with mainly Christian students encountering these religions for the first time. She addresses some of the aspects of these religions that have helped her supplement blind spots in her own point of view: the Muslim relationship to prayer, for example, or the Hindu embrace of multiple spiritual paths.
But she presents this as real work, not a tourist's vacation. We have to understand, not just the religions, but the people who practice them. She also flips the lens at the end of the book and shows the things about Christianity that can teach things to people of other faiths. Because this really isn’t a book about learning from other religions at all. It is a book about learning from other people who have religions. It is part of having humility and learning to love other people and to see them as fully human moral agents whose interactions with the divine are as valid and important as our own.
Since then, I have come to see Barbara Brown Taylor as an indispensable Christian writer. She combines depth and clarity, which are two traits that are rarely found together in any kind of writing. Other Christian writers I admire are deep without being clear (Miroslov Volf, for example) and clear without being particularly deep (Rachel Held Evans fills this category for me). Taylor is both. She has enough theological sophistication to write profound--and unread--treatises for fellow academics. But she writes like, well, a writer. And a really good one.
Even though I knew this about her--her book Learning to Walk in the Dark was one of the best things that I read last year--I was fully prepared not to like Holy Envy. I don’t much like the term to begin with. Almost every time I have heard it used, it describes a sort of religious tourism that either 1) overly romanticizes distant religious practices (“look at all those noble savages worshipping God in their state of nature”) or just assumes that everything that another culture does is inherently superior to our own (“why can’t my Church look like the Sistine Chapel and have music by Bach?”) . Both of these attitudes drive me nuts.
Not only does Taylor not adopt these attitudes. She tackles them head on and talks about the ethics of learning from other people’s religions. We cannot simply appropriate other people’s beliefs into our own--lifting them from their original context and adding them to our spiritual practice to show how open-minded we are. I mean, we can, but it is not a very ethical way to treat others. Holy Envy is not the same thing as spiritual imperialism. Taylor calls this "spiritual shoplifting," and it is not a good thing.
Brown works out a much more nuanced approach. She grounds herself firmly in the Christian tradition, while, at the same time, acknowledging that this tradition is not uniquely or exclusively representative of God’s will. This is a very tricky position to occupy, since it involves reading against a fair bit of that tradition itself and very carefully interpreting its sacred texts. But she pulls it off and says something like (and I am paraphrasing here), “I am a Christian, and this is the context in which I experience God. It is a beautiful tradition, and I believe that it can lead me to God. But it is a tradition that works for people who have a specific set of experiences--and there are equally valid traditions that can lead people in different who experience the world differently to the same God, who is too big to be captured in any particular aspect.”
Learning from other traditions, then, requires empathy, understanding, respect, and a lot of effort. It requires us to learn what other people believe, why they believe these things, and what aspect of God they address. When we do this, we can see some of the gaps in our understanding that grow out gaps in our experiences. A religion is basically a set of narratives that help us make sense of our relationship to things that are outside of ourselves--including divinity, nature, history, the universe, and other people. These are such big things that no set of narratives can say everything (or even most things) about them. So there is value in understanding the ways that other people, and other cultures, try to grapple with the “big questions.” They are big questions precisely because they support many answers.
Perhaps the best metaphor for how Taylor sees religion is language. We all learn a language, and most of us are more comfortable using our own language than one we learned from others. However, learning another language can help us see things differently and understand concepts that we could never quite make clear in our own language. And usually, understanding another language teaches us things about our own language. (I never really understood how the subjunctive worked in English until I tried to learn how it works in Spanish). As Taylor puts it, “As natural as it may be to try to translate everything into my own religious language, I miss a lot when I persist in reducing everything to my own frame of reference” (34). Learning from the faith of others is very similar to learning from the language of others. And neither one can really be done without going to new places and meeting new people.
The main body of the book is highly reflective memoir of Taylor’s experiences teaching a Survey of World Religion course to students at Piedmont College. A typical semester involved teaching five major world religions: Hinduism Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. She documents her experiences with mainly Christian students encountering these religions for the first time. She addresses some of the aspects of these religions that have helped her supplement blind spots in her own point of view: the Muslim relationship to prayer, for example, or the Hindu embrace of multiple spiritual paths.
But she presents this as real work, not a tourist's vacation. We have to understand, not just the religions, but the people who practice them. She also flips the lens at the end of the book and shows the things about Christianity that can teach things to people of other faiths. Because this really isn’t a book about learning from other religions at all. It is a book about learning from other people who have religions. It is part of having humility and learning to love other people and to see them as fully human moral agents whose interactions with the divine are as valid and important as our own.
March 25, 2024
I’ve always been the jealous sort, which is something I’m working on. I don’t have problems giving space, or even letting go of one sort of love to embrace another. I do - however - have problems letting go.
I’m essentially still in love with the first woman to lasso my heart, and the same is true for the first man. I’m just not built for leaving.
Said another way, I’m jealous for the finish line. For a lifetime of loving, regardless of impracticality and - as regards my first female love - laughable incompatibility.
This holds true with the God I’ve known from my mother’s womb. The one who sent his son to die as a gesture of humility & love for his own creation.
I do transcendental meditation twice a day when I can. Every alternate day of the week, I intentionally commune with the feminine divine in place of the masculine father I was raised to imagine. I do Buddhist chants to release suffering. I read sacred texts from the 5 “major” religions, and I constantly ask people to teach me how they encounter God in ways I don’t yet understand.
But at the end of the day, I’m a lot like this author, whispering goodnight to Holy Spirit, Jesus, and a Father much like my own, who sometimes feels emotionally distant in spite of texting me this a couple hours ago (I’m transitioning to tech during a tech layoff. Should I settle or stick to my guns!?):
I can’t help it, really. Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman is my rockstar. God the Father’s banner over me is love. And Holy Spirit is constantly hovering over the surface of [my] waters.
For this reason, I expected to love Taylor’s book (she's a lot like me in stepping past boundaries yet admitting to a mother tongue of the heart). Sadly, my expectations met with disappointment.
If this book had strictly consisted of a survey of five world religions, it would have rocked. Most “re-interpretations” of scripture the author provides rock me to my core.
But this author chose to interweave memoir without becoming sufficiently vulnerable to make that fly. I couldn’t connect to her on an emotional level because she never let me. I didn’t even know she was married until the last few chapters!
If she’d been a professor, I’d have loved her for it. But she tried to be both professor and more, significantly failing at the latter.
There are nuggets worth mining in this offering, but I left hungry for something more authentically human in delivery.
Book/Song Pairing: Goodness of God (CeCe Winans)
I’m essentially still in love with the first woman to lasso my heart, and the same is true for the first man. I’m just not built for leaving.
Said another way, I’m jealous for the finish line. For a lifetime of loving, regardless of impracticality and - as regards my first female love - laughable incompatibility.
This holds true with the God I’ve known from my mother’s womb. The one who sent his son to die as a gesture of humility & love for his own creation.
I do transcendental meditation twice a day when I can. Every alternate day of the week, I intentionally commune with the feminine divine in place of the masculine father I was raised to imagine. I do Buddhist chants to release suffering. I read sacred texts from the 5 “major” religions, and I constantly ask people to teach me how they encounter God in ways I don’t yet understand.
But at the end of the day, I’m a lot like this author, whispering goodnight to Holy Spirit, Jesus, and a Father much like my own, who sometimes feels emotionally distant in spite of texting me this a couple hours ago (I’m transitioning to tech during a tech layoff. Should I settle or stick to my guns!?):
I can’t help it, really. Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman is my rockstar. God the Father’s banner over me is love. And Holy Spirit is constantly hovering over the surface of [my] waters.
For this reason, I expected to love Taylor’s book (she's a lot like me in stepping past boundaries yet admitting to a mother tongue of the heart). Sadly, my expectations met with disappointment.
If this book had strictly consisted of a survey of five world religions, it would have rocked. Most “re-interpretations” of scripture the author provides rock me to my core.
But this author chose to interweave memoir without becoming sufficiently vulnerable to make that fly. I couldn’t connect to her on an emotional level because she never let me. I didn’t even know she was married until the last few chapters!
If she’d been a professor, I’d have loved her for it. But she tried to be both professor and more, significantly failing at the latter.
There are nuggets worth mining in this offering, but I left hungry for something more authentically human in delivery.
Book/Song Pairing: Goodness of God (CeCe Winans)
March 14, 2019
If you want to have some aspects of Christian elitism challenged, read this book.
If you want to face up to the fact that we are not always right, read this book.
If you want to find more understanding for other religions, read this book.
If you want examples from Barbara's Religion 101 class, read this book.
If you want to take an interest in other religions, read this book.
But I expected to learn more than I did.
If you want to face up to the fact that we are not always right, read this book.
If you want to find more understanding for other religions, read this book.
If you want examples from Barbara's Religion 101 class, read this book.
If you want to take an interest in other religions, read this book.
But I expected to learn more than I did.
August 28, 2019
I really love this book.
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“Ask anyone what she means when she says 'God' and chances are that you will learn a lot more about that person than you will learn about God.”
"Love God in the person standing right in front of you, the Jesus of my understanding says, or forget the whole thing, because if you cannot do that, then you are just going to keep making shit up."
“Religions are treasure chests of stories, songs, rituals, and ways of life that have been handed down for millennia - not covered in dust but evolving all the way- so that each new generation has something to choose from when it is time to ask the big questions in life. Where did we come from? Why do bad things happen to good people? Who is my neighbor? Where do we go from here? No one should have to start from scratch with questions like these. Overhearing the answers of the world's great religions can help anyone improve his or her own answers. Without a religion, these questions often do not get asked.”
"Existential dizziness is one of the side effects of higher education, and it affects teachers too.”
"The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. That self-canceling feature of my religion is one of the things I like best about it. Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.”
“I asked God for religious certainty, and God gave me relationships instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead—strange, funny, compelling, complicated human beings—who keep puncturing my stereotypes, challenging my ideas, and upsetting my ideas about God, so that they are always under construction.”
“The problem with every sacred text is that it has human readers. Consciously or unconsciously, we interpret it to meet our own needs. There is nothing wrong with this unless we deny that we are doing it, as when someone tells me that he is not 'interpreting' anything but simply reporting what is right there on the page. This is worrisome, not only because he is reading a translation from the original Hebrew or Greek that has already involved a great deal of interpretation, but also because it is such a short distance between believing you possess an error-free message from God and believing that you are an error-free messenger of God. The literalists I like least are the ones who do not own a Bible. The literalists I like most are the ones who admit that they do not understand every word God has revealed in the Bible, though they still believe God has revealed it. I can respect that.
I can respect almost anyone who admits to being human while reading a divine text. After that, we can talk - about we highlight some teachings and ignore others, about how we decide which ones are historically conditioned and which ones are universally true, about who has influenced our reading of scripture and how our social location affects what we hear. The minute I believe I know the mind of God is the minute someone needs to tell me to sit down and tell me to breathe into a paper bag.”
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“Ask anyone what she means when she says 'God' and chances are that you will learn a lot more about that person than you will learn about God.”
"Love God in the person standing right in front of you, the Jesus of my understanding says, or forget the whole thing, because if you cannot do that, then you are just going to keep making shit up."
“Religions are treasure chests of stories, songs, rituals, and ways of life that have been handed down for millennia - not covered in dust but evolving all the way- so that each new generation has something to choose from when it is time to ask the big questions in life. Where did we come from? Why do bad things happen to good people? Who is my neighbor? Where do we go from here? No one should have to start from scratch with questions like these. Overhearing the answers of the world's great religions can help anyone improve his or her own answers. Without a religion, these questions often do not get asked.”
"Existential dizziness is one of the side effects of higher education, and it affects teachers too.”
"The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. That self-canceling feature of my religion is one of the things I like best about it. Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.”
“I asked God for religious certainty, and God gave me relationships instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead—strange, funny, compelling, complicated human beings—who keep puncturing my stereotypes, challenging my ideas, and upsetting my ideas about God, so that they are always under construction.”
“The problem with every sacred text is that it has human readers. Consciously or unconsciously, we interpret it to meet our own needs. There is nothing wrong with this unless we deny that we are doing it, as when someone tells me that he is not 'interpreting' anything but simply reporting what is right there on the page. This is worrisome, not only because he is reading a translation from the original Hebrew or Greek that has already involved a great deal of interpretation, but also because it is such a short distance between believing you possess an error-free message from God and believing that you are an error-free messenger of God. The literalists I like least are the ones who do not own a Bible. The literalists I like most are the ones who admit that they do not understand every word God has revealed in the Bible, though they still believe God has revealed it. I can respect that.
I can respect almost anyone who admits to being human while reading a divine text. After that, we can talk - about we highlight some teachings and ignore others, about how we decide which ones are historically conditioned and which ones are universally true, about who has influenced our reading of scripture and how our social location affects what we hear. The minute I believe I know the mind of God is the minute someone needs to tell me to sit down and tell me to breathe into a paper bag.”
June 5, 2019
I haven't been "wow-ed" by all Barbara Brown Taylor's books -- some of them have seemed a bit fluffy -- but this is a good one. While I don't agree with everything she says, I do agree with her mostly, and she makes me think about why I believe as I do, which is always a good thing.
February 27, 2019
(3.5) After she left the pastorate, Taylor taught Religion 101 at Piedmont College, a small Georgia institution, for 20 years. This book arose from what she learned about other religions – and about her own, Christianity – by engaging with faith in an academic setting and taking her students on field trips to mosques, temples, and so on. The title phrase comes from a biblical scholar named Krister Stendahl who served as the Lutheran bishop of Stockholm. At a press conference prior to the dedication of a controversial Mormon temple, he gave a few rules for interfaith dialogue: “1. When trying to understand another religion, you should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies. 2. Don’t compare your best to their worst. 3. Leave room for holy envy.”
Taylor emphasizes that appreciating other religions is not about flattening their uniqueness or looking for some lowest common denominator. Neither is it about picking out the aspects that affirm your own tradition and ignoring the rest. Of course, the divisions within Christianity are just as noticeable as the barriers between faiths. This book counsels becoming comfortable with not being right, or even knowing who is right. A lot of Evangelicals will squirm at this relativist perspective, but this book is just what they need. Releases March 12th.
Some favorite lines:
“To walk the way of sacred unknowing is to remember that our best ways of thinking and speaking about God are provisional.”
“Once you have given up on knowing who is right, it is easy to see neighbors everywhere you look. … when my religion gets in the way of loving my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor.”
“I asked God for religious certainty, and God gave me relationships instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead—strange, funny, compelling, complicated human beings—who keep puncturing my stereotypes, challenging my ideas, and upsetting my ideas about God, so that they are always under construction.”
Taylor emphasizes that appreciating other religions is not about flattening their uniqueness or looking for some lowest common denominator. Neither is it about picking out the aspects that affirm your own tradition and ignoring the rest. Of course, the divisions within Christianity are just as noticeable as the barriers between faiths. This book counsels becoming comfortable with not being right, or even knowing who is right. A lot of Evangelicals will squirm at this relativist perspective, but this book is just what they need. Releases March 12th.
Some favorite lines:
“To walk the way of sacred unknowing is to remember that our best ways of thinking and speaking about God are provisional.”
“Once you have given up on knowing who is right, it is easy to see neighbors everywhere you look. … when my religion gets in the way of loving my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor.”
“I asked God for religious certainty, and God gave me relationships instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead—strange, funny, compelling, complicated human beings—who keep puncturing my stereotypes, challenging my ideas, and upsetting my ideas about God, so that they are always under construction.”
June 3, 2020
“Holy envy” is what author and Episcopal priest Barbara Taylor Brown calls the appreciation of the best of religions other than one’s own. While so many fear that learning about other major religions might shake one’s religious commitment, Taylor Brown found that it made her realize the commonalities among the world’s great faiths and caused her to appreciate all adherents. A wonderful read.
Special thanks to Lucy Waterbury for introducing me to a fabulous Sunday School and this book.
Special thanks to Lucy Waterbury for introducing me to a fabulous Sunday School and this book.
February 14, 2021
Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest, a World Religions professor, and an accomplished author. This is the first book of hers that I have read. I read and discussed it with my husband.
Holy Envy, as Dr Taylor explains, is seeing the practices of other religions and wishing you had them in your own. Roughly. She shares her journey as a professor, and how it led to the opening of her mind and heart to the practices of other faiths. She describes many odd little moments when she would see God, or Jesus, in the practices of their faiths. I loved her descriptions of those moments. And her prescription for being a neighbor.
This book is sometimes profound and sometimes angering, but it is never boring. I get the feeling she doesn’t mind if I disagree. And I loved the ending.
Holy Envy, as Dr Taylor explains, is seeing the practices of other religions and wishing you had them in your own. Roughly. She shares her journey as a professor, and how it led to the opening of her mind and heart to the practices of other faiths. She describes many odd little moments when she would see God, or Jesus, in the practices of their faiths. I loved her descriptions of those moments. And her prescription for being a neighbor.
This book is sometimes profound and sometimes angering, but it is never boring. I get the feeling she doesn’t mind if I disagree. And I loved the ending.
January 22, 2021
I found this book to be incredibly enlightening. I don't agree with everything the author writes, but I find her goal honorable because for the most part her entire narrative is based around this precept: "to find the bridge between my faith and the faith of other people so that those of us who draw water from wells on different sides of the river can still get together from time to time making the whole area safer for our children." (part 1 of 8, 47 minutes) As a teacher and librarian in a middle school that includes students from 47 different countries, I value this global perspective as I look on these children through the filter of their culture, trying to bridge any gap they may have that would impede their education. Any help I can get to see better into their world is welcome. My favorite quote comes near the end: "The unity of the Creator is expressed in the diversity of the creation." (part 7 of 8, 32 minutes). What a beautiful philosophy and one to which I personally prescribe: UNITY!! And the beauty of diversity. To anyone who wants to grow spiritually, I heartily recommend this book.
July 13, 2019
I went into this book knowing I might not agree with some of the author's conclusions, but I was trying to keep an open mind as I was interested to learn about other religions. I really wished I had liked this book more. However, I felt that this book was more of a memoir of the author's spiritual journey as she learned about other world religions (shockingly learning at the same time she was teaching a class about them!) Describing herself as a Christian, I felt she was very hard on Christians (and did make some valid complaints about them), while being much more positive towards the other religions, which just didn't feel like a fair comparison. She also seemed surprised to learn about the differences between denominations within Christianity (which surprised me because she was a Christian and pastor for so many years). I found this to be very naive and it made me distrust her. I also did not agree with her Biblical interpretations and her seeming insistence that loving others and believing there are many paths to god are mutually exclusive. I do not feel that I need to agree with others on everything - or even really big things like who God is - to love, respect, and care for them.
May 7, 2020
2.5 stars
Read for my book club. I found this book to be interesting, but from an academic viewpoint and from the view of a Christian who isn't afraid to analyze and look at things in a different way.
I think that Taylor does go a bit far to categorize Christians as being one certain way, when I know for a fact there is a huge spectrum and I don't even consider myself the same as how she was describing Christians. I just found myself hoping throughout this book that she would bring humanity into it all and she really doesn't delve into the HEART of different religions, just the practice. And that is a huge missing portion.
Glad I read it though, as I've been on a bit of an examination journey.
Read for my book club. I found this book to be interesting, but from an academic viewpoint and from the view of a Christian who isn't afraid to analyze and look at things in a different way.
I think that Taylor does go a bit far to categorize Christians as being one certain way, when I know for a fact there is a huge spectrum and I don't even consider myself the same as how she was describing Christians. I just found myself hoping throughout this book that she would bring humanity into it all and she really doesn't delve into the HEART of different religions, just the practice. And that is a huge missing portion.
Glad I read it though, as I've been on a bit of an examination journey.
July 1, 2019
A thoughtful and reflective journey through teaching a class on world religions, Barbara Brown Taylor's book offers insight and wisdom into the process of exploring the world of faith with open eyes. Having benefitted as a student from a similar world religions class in college, hearing her reflections brought those experiences back to life and reminded me that holy exists all around and within us, and exploring the faiths of others can only deepen our understanding of our own. Wonderful book.
April 9, 2019
An open message
This book is well written and expansive. I find the message to bring more questions than answers and that is a good thing. I recommend this for anyone who is interested in living peacefully in an interfaith world.
This book is well written and expansive. I find the message to bring more questions than answers and that is a good thing. I recommend this for anyone who is interested in living peacefully in an interfaith world.
June 14, 2019
Reviewed for THC Reviews
"4.5 star" Holy Envy was our latest book club pick. It’s part memoir as Barbara Brown Taylor details, to some extent, her time as a professor of world religions at Piedmont College. But really, as the sub-title says, it’s more of a discussion about how we can find God in the faith of others. The author has an interesting background, having grown up in a secular environment and not regularly attending church until she was a teen. Yet she ended up becoming an Episcopal priest. That later dovetailed into her becoming a professor of world religions which took her on yet another spiritual journey. During this time, she found much to appreciate in other religions, but still kept coming back to Christianity as her foundation. But along the way, she also discovered a healthy case of holy envy.
What is holy envy, you may ask? Well, it’s all about finding those things in the religions of others to which you can relate to and appreciate, things that perhaps you wish your own faith did better, and then allowing those things to help transform your own beliefs. If you think this sounds like cultural appropriation, it really isn’t. It’s more about finding common ground with those of other faiths and allowing it to deepen your own. I think that many of us are pretty ignorant of other faiths besides our own (if we adhere to one at all), and so by learning about what others believe, we can be more accepting of them. Since Rev. Taylor taught at a church-affiliated college in a predominantly Christian area of the country, many of her students identified as Christian. Some of them were bothered by her teaching methods, which included field trips to other religions’ houses of worship. But there were other students who drank it in as not only an educational, but a spiritual experience as well. In fact, through her teaching experiences, Rev. Taylor herself learned much and grew spiritually.
Rev. Taylor gives some background on each of the five major world religions she taught: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I learned a number things myself merely by reading this book, not just about other faiths, but also my own. I have to admit that there were some things that surprised me and maybe even made me a tad uncomfortable. Rev. Taylor said that happened to her as well, but over time, she’s worked through those issues. I think that’s where I am, as well, working through it all and figuring out exactly what I believe. But I love learning about all the ways in which the beliefs of other religions intersect with my own. I also enjoyed seeing certain Biblical passages interpreted in a different way from what I’m used to, offering fresh, new, valuable insights. As Rev. Taylor demonstrates through one of her metaphors, the reality is that, whatever our chosen faith, we’re riding just one wave in a much bigger ocean, and even within our chosen faith, there are so many divergent beliefs that it is pretty much impossible for one sect, denomination, or even an entire faith to have all the answers and be the only game in town. So for that reason, I highly recommend Holy Envy to anyone who is open to learning about other faiths or who might be searching for a way to peacefully co-exist in our religiously pluralistic society.
"4.5 star" Holy Envy was our latest book club pick. It’s part memoir as Barbara Brown Taylor details, to some extent, her time as a professor of world religions at Piedmont College. But really, as the sub-title says, it’s more of a discussion about how we can find God in the faith of others. The author has an interesting background, having grown up in a secular environment and not regularly attending church until she was a teen. Yet she ended up becoming an Episcopal priest. That later dovetailed into her becoming a professor of world religions which took her on yet another spiritual journey. During this time, she found much to appreciate in other religions, but still kept coming back to Christianity as her foundation. But along the way, she also discovered a healthy case of holy envy.
What is holy envy, you may ask? Well, it’s all about finding those things in the religions of others to which you can relate to and appreciate, things that perhaps you wish your own faith did better, and then allowing those things to help transform your own beliefs. If you think this sounds like cultural appropriation, it really isn’t. It’s more about finding common ground with those of other faiths and allowing it to deepen your own. I think that many of us are pretty ignorant of other faiths besides our own (if we adhere to one at all), and so by learning about what others believe, we can be more accepting of them. Since Rev. Taylor taught at a church-affiliated college in a predominantly Christian area of the country, many of her students identified as Christian. Some of them were bothered by her teaching methods, which included field trips to other religions’ houses of worship. But there were other students who drank it in as not only an educational, but a spiritual experience as well. In fact, through her teaching experiences, Rev. Taylor herself learned much and grew spiritually.
Rev. Taylor gives some background on each of the five major world religions she taught: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I learned a number things myself merely by reading this book, not just about other faiths, but also my own. I have to admit that there were some things that surprised me and maybe even made me a tad uncomfortable. Rev. Taylor said that happened to her as well, but over time, she’s worked through those issues. I think that’s where I am, as well, working through it all and figuring out exactly what I believe. But I love learning about all the ways in which the beliefs of other religions intersect with my own. I also enjoyed seeing certain Biblical passages interpreted in a different way from what I’m used to, offering fresh, new, valuable insights. As Rev. Taylor demonstrates through one of her metaphors, the reality is that, whatever our chosen faith, we’re riding just one wave in a much bigger ocean, and even within our chosen faith, there are so many divergent beliefs that it is pretty much impossible for one sect, denomination, or even an entire faith to have all the answers and be the only game in town. So for that reason, I highly recommend Holy Envy to anyone who is open to learning about other faiths or who might be searching for a way to peacefully co-exist in our religiously pluralistic society.
December 20, 2022
Convicting and affirming, I really enjoyed BBT’s look at teaching a university-level world religions class and what that taught her about herself and her personal faith. She is funny, honest, and relatable in her writing, and I appreciated her saying things I’ve always known in new ways so I can actually see them again.
“The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor…Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.”
“The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor…Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.”
September 28, 2023
This book raised thoughts that I’ve been trying to articulate for years and put words to so many of questions that I find myself wondering, and asking God.
Definitely something I eventually want to reread and now I’m looking into all the recommended reading at the back of the book! I’m very impressed by Barbara Brown Taylor and I’d love to read some of her other works eventually as well.
“I asked God for religious certainty, and God gave me relationships instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead- strange, funny, compelling, complicated human beings- who keep puncturing my stereotypes, challenging my ideas, and upsetting my ideas about God so that they are always under construction.”
Definitely something I eventually want to reread and now I’m looking into all the recommended reading at the back of the book! I’m very impressed by Barbara Brown Taylor and I’d love to read some of her other works eventually as well.
“I asked God for religious certainty, and God gave me relationships instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead- strange, funny, compelling, complicated human beings- who keep puncturing my stereotypes, challenging my ideas, and upsetting my ideas about God so that they are always under construction.”
December 11, 2019
I got this as a delightful gift from a church member, who went to the trouble of getting it actually signed by Barbara Brown Taylor...and as a bookmark, provided a picture of Barbara Brown Taylor signing the actual book I was reading. Which was 1) just so danged nice, and 2) perhaps peak Barbara Brown Taylor.
One can't go wrong with her writing, which is gracious and inviting and as warm as a hearth in winter. It's a thought provoking meditation on faith and the interplay between faiths, told from the perspective of one who teaches and explores with an open soul.
It's a funny thing, though...I don't really feel that holy envy. Not really much at all. I mean, I'm in an interfaith marriage, and as a Christian pastor raised Jewish kids. I have Muslim and Buddhist and atheist friends, and have been known to chat happily with Wiccans.
But I'm not really envious. I feel no sense of lack, no desire to be other than I am, no particular discontent with just following Jesus and being fine with that. Perhaps it's that as I've grown more and deeply aware of the wild polycultural variety in Christian faith, it feels like there's enough richness and complexity in my own tradition to fill well more than my meager lifetime. I've got enough work to do on the Jesus front, eh? It's not that I don't see commonalities, and don't find value even in the difference. I'm just not feeling that what I have isn't enough. "Daiyenu," as they say at a pesach seder. "It's enough."
Even though I don't really feel that same yearning, this was still a delightful book.
One can't go wrong with her writing, which is gracious and inviting and as warm as a hearth in winter. It's a thought provoking meditation on faith and the interplay between faiths, told from the perspective of one who teaches and explores with an open soul.
It's a funny thing, though...I don't really feel that holy envy. Not really much at all. I mean, I'm in an interfaith marriage, and as a Christian pastor raised Jewish kids. I have Muslim and Buddhist and atheist friends, and have been known to chat happily with Wiccans.
But I'm not really envious. I feel no sense of lack, no desire to be other than I am, no particular discontent with just following Jesus and being fine with that. Perhaps it's that as I've grown more and deeply aware of the wild polycultural variety in Christian faith, it feels like there's enough richness and complexity in my own tradition to fill well more than my meager lifetime. I've got enough work to do on the Jesus front, eh? It's not that I don't see commonalities, and don't find value even in the difference. I'm just not feeling that what I have isn't enough. "Daiyenu," as they say at a pesach seder. "It's enough."
Even though I don't really feel that same yearning, this was still a delightful book.
March 19, 2019
One of Ms Brown Taylor's students answered the question on the final exam like this:
"When the imam told us...is my holy envy. He told us how he doesn't wish to convert us to Islam. He just wants us to be the best people we can be, regardless of religion. This was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard, and it's my holy envy because I wish Christianity was this way."
I love to look at each religion Ms Brown Taylor taught to students at Piedmont College in Georgia, and, because I also follow Christ, I am especially enlivened by her looks at particular scriptures. The Tower of Babel, for example: "For reasons no one may ever understand G-d decided it would be helpful for people to be different instead of the same, if only because it would slow them down a little bit. G=d decided it would be good for them to have to stop on a regular basis and say, 'Could you say that a different way, please? I don't understand what you mean,' or 'Could you show me with you hands?' G-d decided it would be GOOD for them to stop taking their communication for granted and work a little harder at trying to understand each other."
I feel like this book makes it even more possible to understand and value that there are many ways to say something important, beginning with HASHEM, BRAHMAN, SUNYATA, HOLY TRINITY, ALLAH.... I would add the many Indigenous ways too.
"When the imam told us...is my holy envy. He told us how he doesn't wish to convert us to Islam. He just wants us to be the best people we can be, regardless of religion. This was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard, and it's my holy envy because I wish Christianity was this way."
I love to look at each religion Ms Brown Taylor taught to students at Piedmont College in Georgia, and, because I also follow Christ, I am especially enlivened by her looks at particular scriptures. The Tower of Babel, for example: "For reasons no one may ever understand G-d decided it would be helpful for people to be different instead of the same, if only because it would slow them down a little bit. G=d decided it would be good for them to have to stop on a regular basis and say, 'Could you say that a different way, please? I don't understand what you mean,' or 'Could you show me with you hands?' G-d decided it would be GOOD for them to stop taking their communication for granted and work a little harder at trying to understand each other."
I feel like this book makes it even more possible to understand and value that there are many ways to say something important, beginning with HASHEM, BRAHMAN, SUNYATA, HOLY TRINITY, ALLAH.... I would add the many Indigenous ways too.
March 23, 2019
As an enthusiastic reader of all this author’s work, it isn’t even a little surprising that I love this one as much as I do. Brown Taylor’s spiritual journey is reminiscent of my own, and I found much to appreciate in the way she describes her devotion to and preference for the Christian faith in which she has flourished, while simultaneously expanding her knowledge of and appreciation for other religions and their means for attempting to define and worship a dine being. The broadening of her religious mind that has come as a result of her interaction with people of radically different religious faiths (even other Christians) has allowed her to appreciate and envy the most meaningful and beautiful aspects of others’ devout faith.
It’s a wonderful book that is encouraging to the evolving faith of the contemporary Christian who wants to be more “authentically human” in the experience of receiving and sharing the life-changing love of God. This is one of those titles that will stick with me as I attempt to exemplify the values of the generous Christian in a multicultural, multi-religious, and ever changing spiritual world.
It’s a wonderful book that is encouraging to the evolving faith of the contemporary Christian who wants to be more “authentically human” in the experience of receiving and sharing the life-changing love of God. This is one of those titles that will stick with me as I attempt to exemplify the values of the generous Christian in a multicultural, multi-religious, and ever changing spiritual world.
July 12, 2020
Aside from some interesting anecdotes about teaching undergrads about world religions, this is basically a philosophy of religions for dunces.
I wish I could un-read it.
I wish I could un-read it.
March 21, 2021
Taylor’s book about teaching an introductory college course on world religions is not so much about any content of the course she taught as about the changes that came about in her attitude toward religion. Taylor is an ordained Episcopal minister whose background was an extensive one in Christian theology. She writes that she had reached a point of what she calls “compassion fatigue” where she began to lose enthusiasm and just felt as though her religious feelings were drying up. She was asked to teach a religion course at a nearby college and accepted, thinking that learning about other religions would offer a new challenge.
The teaching of the course certainly did that. The title is apt as she notes that in learning about a new religion which in her course included Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, the initial reaction is often one of a form of “envy.” Religious insights about humanity’s relationship to the eternal seem new and compelling, especially in contrast with one’s old and established beliefs (in Taylor’s case, Christianity), On reflection, though, a new respect is gained for both. One religion does not replace another, but makes a questioner value the best practices of each. Often, the forms and practices of one religion, when looked at closely are not so much opposed but overlap one another. For example, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, all trace their sources back to Abraham. Or the crucifixion of Christ and the Hindu Shiva’s dancing in a ring of fire – no one rises again without first being destroyed.
There are many obstacles to appreciating another religion. A basic concern is a certain defensiveness about one’s own religion. One of Taylor’s students questioned her with a naive but honest question, “If you really are a Christian, then are you going to help us see what is wrong with these other religions?” When she said no, that was not her aim, the student dropped the class
She mentions a guide to examining other religions, that of not comparing your best to their worst, whether it be beliefs or practices. The goal should be, “Instead compare your best to their best so that each becomes better in its own distinct way.” She likens it to two top athletes, say tennis players, who shake hands at the end of a match, acknowledging not only good sportsmanship but one another’s excellence.
Another notion that strikes her in her comparison of religions is that while she is a Christian she hadn’t realized that the knowledge of Christ is not “owned” by Christians. Hindus may see him as avatar who manifests the divine, Buddhists may see him in a lotus position as a Bodhisattva, a compassionate being. Jews see him as the shepherd of a deviant brand of Judaism, and Muslims as a prophet. There as many views of Christ as there are of God.
Her conclusion, and I think a wise one, is that in seeking what is called God, a definitive notion, is not to be found in any one organized religion. That’s not to say that religions don’t contain truths but what becomes more important for her are human relationships. God comes to her, she hopes, in individual human beings who, whatever their professed beliefs, challenge her ideas and constantly revise them.
The teaching of the course certainly did that. The title is apt as she notes that in learning about a new religion which in her course included Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, the initial reaction is often one of a form of “envy.” Religious insights about humanity’s relationship to the eternal seem new and compelling, especially in contrast with one’s old and established beliefs (in Taylor’s case, Christianity), On reflection, though, a new respect is gained for both. One religion does not replace another, but makes a questioner value the best practices of each. Often, the forms and practices of one religion, when looked at closely are not so much opposed but overlap one another. For example, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, all trace their sources back to Abraham. Or the crucifixion of Christ and the Hindu Shiva’s dancing in a ring of fire – no one rises again without first being destroyed.
There are many obstacles to appreciating another religion. A basic concern is a certain defensiveness about one’s own religion. One of Taylor’s students questioned her with a naive but honest question, “If you really are a Christian, then are you going to help us see what is wrong with these other religions?” When she said no, that was not her aim, the student dropped the class
She mentions a guide to examining other religions, that of not comparing your best to their worst, whether it be beliefs or practices. The goal should be, “Instead compare your best to their best so that each becomes better in its own distinct way.” She likens it to two top athletes, say tennis players, who shake hands at the end of a match, acknowledging not only good sportsmanship but one another’s excellence.
Another notion that strikes her in her comparison of religions is that while she is a Christian she hadn’t realized that the knowledge of Christ is not “owned” by Christians. Hindus may see him as avatar who manifests the divine, Buddhists may see him in a lotus position as a Bodhisattva, a compassionate being. Jews see him as the shepherd of a deviant brand of Judaism, and Muslims as a prophet. There as many views of Christ as there are of God.
Her conclusion, and I think a wise one, is that in seeking what is called God, a definitive notion, is not to be found in any one organized religion. That’s not to say that religions don’t contain truths but what becomes more important for her are human relationships. God comes to her, she hopes, in individual human beings who, whatever their professed beliefs, challenge her ideas and constantly revise them.
July 11, 2019
Rather than a stale recounting of the tenets of the major world religions Taylor has crafted instead a memoir of her time teaching world religions in Piedmont College, a small liberal arts institution in Georgia. The work narrates her interactions with the variety of students she meets reared in the Bible belt and her own spiritual searching in the midst of her instruction. She speaks at times with amusement, surprise, wonder, disappointment, frustration, and most of all honesty. Stories are told of trips to synagogues, temples, and mosques and interesting interactions between her students and the faith leaders there. She relates the transformation in students that she witnesses and is always engaging when using them to reflect on her own spiritual views. The book, like her class, is mainly a narrative of encounter and reflection.
The title of the book “Holy Envy” is taken from famous (Lutheran) New Testament scholar Krister Stendhal. When we look to other religions Stendhal argued we should not compare our best to their worst but actively look for the best in other religions and covet those aspects for ourselves. While the things Taylor envied in other religions are not the same things I would envy I really enjoyed the principle. In order to look at another’s religion with envy means that we see that religion enriching the life of our neighbor. Taylor’s use of this concept is rich and helpful against other responses usually given to the problem of other religions. Practicing “holy envy” means actively searching for things that are unique and distinct about every religion not insisting that every religion is really the same. It involves deep listening, paying attention, and heroic levels of intellectual and spiritual humility.
Sometimes we hear things more clearly from the perspective of an outsider. Taylor takes things she hears from faith leaders and practitioners of other religions and uses them to hone her understanding of her own religion. Taylor is at her best in analyzing stories about Jesus and speaking about them in new ways given the wisdom of these encounters she has had with other faith traditions. Jesus, under these new eyes, holds himself before us as utter mystery and all our attempts to clasp onto him as Truth (capital intentional) show that we don’t have him at all. Taylor squares this with her own experience:
“I asked God for religious certainty, and God gave me relationships instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead – strange, funny, compelling, complicated human beings – who keep puncturing my stereotypes, challenging my ideas, and upsetting my ideas about God, so that they are always under construction. I may yet find the answer to all my questions in a church, a book, a theology, or a practice of prayer, but I hope not. I hope God is going to keep coming to me in authentically human beings who shake my foundations …”
While your foundations may not be totally shaken by reading this book you will appreciate this honest work by a noted Christian author which ends in a confession and closes on a note of gratitude and wonder. You might walk away with more questions than answers but this is entirely the point. Jesus gives you freedom so that the faith of your neighbor is neither an error nor a threat. You are free to practice “Holy Envy” so that aspects of their faith become a gift to you as you give thanks for the many ways it imparts life to them.
The title of the book “Holy Envy” is taken from famous (Lutheran) New Testament scholar Krister Stendhal. When we look to other religions Stendhal argued we should not compare our best to their worst but actively look for the best in other religions and covet those aspects for ourselves. While the things Taylor envied in other religions are not the same things I would envy I really enjoyed the principle. In order to look at another’s religion with envy means that we see that religion enriching the life of our neighbor. Taylor’s use of this concept is rich and helpful against other responses usually given to the problem of other religions. Practicing “holy envy” means actively searching for things that are unique and distinct about every religion not insisting that every religion is really the same. It involves deep listening, paying attention, and heroic levels of intellectual and spiritual humility.
Sometimes we hear things more clearly from the perspective of an outsider. Taylor takes things she hears from faith leaders and practitioners of other religions and uses them to hone her understanding of her own religion. Taylor is at her best in analyzing stories about Jesus and speaking about them in new ways given the wisdom of these encounters she has had with other faith traditions. Jesus, under these new eyes, holds himself before us as utter mystery and all our attempts to clasp onto him as Truth (capital intentional) show that we don’t have him at all. Taylor squares this with her own experience:
“I asked God for religious certainty, and God gave me relationships instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead. I asked for solid ground, and God gave me human beings instead – strange, funny, compelling, complicated human beings – who keep puncturing my stereotypes, challenging my ideas, and upsetting my ideas about God, so that they are always under construction. I may yet find the answer to all my questions in a church, a book, a theology, or a practice of prayer, but I hope not. I hope God is going to keep coming to me in authentically human beings who shake my foundations …”
While your foundations may not be totally shaken by reading this book you will appreciate this honest work by a noted Christian author which ends in a confession and closes on a note of gratitude and wonder. You might walk away with more questions than answers but this is entirely the point. Jesus gives you freedom so that the faith of your neighbor is neither an error nor a threat. You are free to practice “Holy Envy” so that aspects of their faith become a gift to you as you give thanks for the many ways it imparts life to them.
June 12, 2022
Growing up in the evangelical church I was never encouraged to read outside of my own bubble. In fact, it’s was discouraged. In my adulthood I have found a wealth of benefit to my own spiritual life and tradition by reading outside my circles.
BBT and I don’t share all the same beliefs but I really value her writing and have gained a lot from it. I would say that I even have “holy envy” of how she sees humanity and creation. The biggest gain I receive from her writings is her ability to see the Imago Dei in people. She is the dead opposite of folks like John Piper who have sermons titled “the sin of empathy”. BBT and Piper are on opposite ends of the spectrum. For me I can hear the heart and compassion from BBT that stirs a deeper love for people in me. To me that reflects Jesus and the Gospel as it should.
I take away from Taylor humility and compassion. It’s hard to go wrong with those as a starting place. In a world that is full of “in and out” groups her ability to see people is refreshing.
If I had a negative take on her book it would be her section on evangelism. Although I agreed with her on several points and have some of the same concerns. (Even though I have spent my life as a minister and missionary). However, this is one area that she seemed to have the least amount of grace and also assigned motives to peoples actions without justification. I don’t think the best of us have purely altruistic motives but her take was harsh and honestly just inaccurate on why people evangelize. She was right on many points about the way it is done, the disrespect that is often communicated towards others and their beliefs, the white savior mentality and so forth. But she was not right in assigning motive. It was the one area in the book I didn’t think she gave a fair assessment.
BBT and I don’t share all the same beliefs but I really value her writing and have gained a lot from it. I would say that I even have “holy envy” of how she sees humanity and creation. The biggest gain I receive from her writings is her ability to see the Imago Dei in people. She is the dead opposite of folks like John Piper who have sermons titled “the sin of empathy”. BBT and Piper are on opposite ends of the spectrum. For me I can hear the heart and compassion from BBT that stirs a deeper love for people in me. To me that reflects Jesus and the Gospel as it should.
I take away from Taylor humility and compassion. It’s hard to go wrong with those as a starting place. In a world that is full of “in and out” groups her ability to see people is refreshing.
If I had a negative take on her book it would be her section on evangelism. Although I agreed with her on several points and have some of the same concerns. (Even though I have spent my life as a minister and missionary). However, this is one area that she seemed to have the least amount of grace and also assigned motives to peoples actions without justification. I don’t think the best of us have purely altruistic motives but her take was harsh and honestly just inaccurate on why people evangelize. She was right on many points about the way it is done, the disrespect that is often communicated towards others and their beliefs, the white savior mentality and so forth. But she was not right in assigning motive. It was the one area in the book I didn’t think she gave a fair assessment.
December 9, 2020
"...(Holy Envy) is the story of a Christian minister who lost her way in the church and found a new home in the classroom, where the course she taught most often was not Introduction to the New Testament, Church History, or Christian Theology, but Religions of the World. As soon as she recovered from the shock of meeting God in so many new hats, she fell for every religion she taught. When she taught Judaism, she wanted to be a rabbi. When she taught Buddhism, she wanted to be a monk. It was only when she taught Christianity that the fire sputtered, because her religion looked so different once she saw it lined up with the others. She always promised her students that studying other faiths would not make them lose their own. Then she lost hers, or at least the one she started out with. This is the story of how that happened and what happened next."
Biblical scholar Krister Stendahl shared three rules of religious understanding:
"1. When trying to understand another religion, you should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies.
2. Don't compare your best to their worst.
3. Leave room for holy envy."
"(British theologian John) Hick argues that it is past time for a Copernican revolution in theology, in which God assumes the prime place at the center and Christianity joins the orbit of the great religions circling around."
Biblical scholar Krister Stendahl shared three rules of religious understanding:
"1. When trying to understand another religion, you should ask the adherents of that religion and not its enemies.
2. Don't compare your best to their worst.
3. Leave room for holy envy."
"(British theologian John) Hick argues that it is past time for a Copernican revolution in theology, in which God assumes the prime place at the center and Christianity joins the orbit of the great religions circling around."
September 4, 2019
I will be honest, I was hesitant to read this book. I think if you have grown up as a Christian you will have similar 'warning signs' going off that tells you....don't go there. Yet there was the overpowering urge to read it as I question my thinking.
The thing is, my thinking has been challenged and changed over the last 5 years and what I know and grew up with is not congruent with I believe now.
Holy Envy however brings a new perspective on the verses and passages I have learnt over the years. It challenges me to review my lens and perspective and in doing that, upgrading it.
Man! I love how this book is making me think about 'how I love others as I do myself'. I would encourage you to read this if you're questioning your beliefs. It has not changed my beliefs, it has in fact brought back my faith and given a new frame.
Regarding my rating - I rate it based on the impact it's had on me.
The thing is, my thinking has been challenged and changed over the last 5 years and what I know and grew up with is not congruent with I believe now.
Holy Envy however brings a new perspective on the verses and passages I have learnt over the years. It challenges me to review my lens and perspective and in doing that, upgrading it.
Man! I love how this book is making me think about 'how I love others as I do myself'. I would encourage you to read this if you're questioning your beliefs. It has not changed my beliefs, it has in fact brought back my faith and given a new frame.
Regarding my rating - I rate it based on the impact it's had on me.
April 20, 2021
Reading this book for class and had very low expectations. Based on the title, I expected this to be pretty corny. To an extent, that expectation was correct, but this book did a great job of introducing questions around the possibility of religious pluralism, the construction of God’s identity, and who owns “God(s).” I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about religious pluralism, but hasn’t had much background on the topic. As someone who majored in theology, I sometimes forget how inaccesible those texts are to new religious learners, but this one is great.
June 3, 2019
I came to this with high expectations: have enjoyed other books by Taylor, enjoyed hearing her speak, and anticipating hearing stories about her teaching experiences at a small rural Georgia college. I was not disappointed.
She writes well, she is thoughtful and inspires thought in others, and has meaningful stories to share.
Book is about her experiences & frustrations teaching World Religions course & some of the things about other religions that inspired envy in her, that she wished she had in her own Christian faith. Very nice to hear about the hospitality shown to her & students as they made visits to Hindu & Buddhist temples, mosque, and synagogue in the Atlanta area.
This book is not about saying one faith is better than others but does say that there are many paths to God. And sometimes, she says, one realizes how radical Jesus really was when looking from outside the Christian Church.
She writes well, she is thoughtful and inspires thought in others, and has meaningful stories to share.
Book is about her experiences & frustrations teaching World Religions course & some of the things about other religions that inspired envy in her, that she wished she had in her own Christian faith. Very nice to hear about the hospitality shown to her & students as they made visits to Hindu & Buddhist temples, mosque, and synagogue in the Atlanta area.
This book is not about saying one faith is better than others but does say that there are many paths to God. And sometimes, she says, one realizes how radical Jesus really was when looking from outside the Christian Church.
November 1, 2019
I need to issue an apology, a public one. Sometimes I’ve thought of Barbara Brown Taylor as a lightweight, but this book shows otherwise. I have been wrong and I’ll never malign her name again, even if her books don’t delight.
In this book, se gives words to my experiences of other religious traditions. She helped me hear myself in my own preaching. She helped me want to again engage in interfaith dialogue, and reminded me of this passion which has been for the last few years dormant in myself.
I even sent the book to my best friend, a Jew.
I loved it. What a delight filled read!
In this book, se gives words to my experiences of other religious traditions. She helped me hear myself in my own preaching. She helped me want to again engage in interfaith dialogue, and reminded me of this passion which has been for the last few years dormant in myself.
I even sent the book to my best friend, a Jew.
I loved it. What a delight filled read!
November 21, 2019
I'm obsessed with Barbara Brown Taylor, so this is a bit biased, but this book was excellent. I loved thinking about how Christianity falls amongst other religions, and how we should be existing amongst one another. I listened to the audiobook and there were so many truth nuggets, I think it's something I'd want to go back and reread so I can grasp it all. Really helps answer some of my questions about world religions.
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