Rate this book

Surprised By God: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Religion (2008)

by Danya Ruttenberg(Favorite Author)

3.87 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0807010685 (ISBN13: 9780807010686)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Beacon Press

review 1: This was a book that touched me personally. We seemed to be having parallel lives 20ish years apart. She wrestles with many of the same issues I have and comes away with answers that work for her. I recommend reading it to my book group at the shul to jump start their thinking about the high holidays. The book group did not love the book. While she presents some intriguing topics for discussion (what is the role of ritual, when have you been surprised by G-d), this group wanted her answers and less her narrative. What was the surprise? We concluded that it was an adolescent, self-proclaimed avowed atheist that after some challenges winds up a believer in G-d, enriched enough by the study of religion (secular) that she enters the rabbinate. If she can do it, even after sex,... more drugs and rock and roll anyone can.
review 2: Ruttenberg's story helped me let my guard down and become more at ease with PDRs--public displays of religiosity (my term.) As a Jew-by-Choice, my early sense of simultaneous disorientation, fascination, and surprise at my journey were echoed in Ruttenberg's own journey from secular Jew to religious. I doubt the book will convince an atheist reader to the joy and benefits religious people find in their lives. But religious readers of any persuasion will understand where Ruttenberg is going here. On any spiritual journey, at some point you just "get it." And it's as impossible to explain that to someone who doesn't believe in Deity as it would be to explain it to yourself the day before. It's a feeling, a sensing, and at some point you just go with it because you can't not. This is Ruttenberg's story of how she did that. (Just don't look for the story of how she became a rabbi--she left that out on purpose.) less

Download links for: Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion

Advertising