by Diana Butler Bass
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Product Description
In Strength for the Journey, Diana Butler Bass illustrates the dynamic strength and persistence of mainline Protestantism. While many baby boomers left the church, only to come back later in life, Bass was a "stayer" who witnessed the struggles and changes and found much there that was meaningful. Offering thought-provoking portraits of eight parishes she attended over two decades, she explores the major issues that have confronted mainline denominations, congregations, and parishioners during those years-- from debates over women clergy to conflicts about diversity and community to scrimmages between tradition and innovation.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Spirituality in a page-turning and educational context, 2007-03-28
Diana Butler Bass chronicles both her own journey and the journey of recent protestantism all in this one book, where each chapter describes a particular Episcopal parish in which she was a parishoner. The book is authentic and certainly interesting. Clearly, Bass' faith decisions were hard to make and the background information she gives both on the parishes and on the movements behind them add a lot to her story. Still, one wonders whether Bass' journey is truly faith-based--she makes decisions more on what's comfortable to her, not necessairly where God is leading her and might just be enamored with the institution of the Church, rather than God himself. In other words, she seems a bit too mechanical and well it works somewhat, this spiritual journey lacks a little spirit and a little heart.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Cherished Companion , 2007-02-24
Diana Butler Bass offers herself as a cherished and cherishing companion to the many souls whose journeys of faith have been erratic, halting, tentative, exuberant, and unorthodox. Her honesty as she shares her own sometimes limping, sometimes soaring travels (from a childhood Methodism through an evangelical path that she began to perceive as more and more restrictive, into the Episcopal church in several of its many manifestations), gives each reader permission to admit their own disappointments and dead ends, to grieve their losses and sorrows, and to celebrate their continually renewing and awakening relationship with the Living God who is Love Incarnate.
But this is more than an autobiography; it is a reflection on the anxious and hopeful state of the Christian church in the time and place of the 21st century United States. The diversity of faithful witness is heartening. The honesty of mistakes is not only comforting and amusing, but encouraging as transitions unfold from seeming tombs to radiant hope.
Diana Butler Bass is not only a highly trained observer, but a deeply skilled theologian. She is not content with simple answers or trite generalizations. She admits that she is a fallible witness, but that doesn't stop her from sharing the truth as she sees it.
You may not agree with everything she says, but you will be challenged and informed to deepen in your own reflections.
Well worth reading by anyone on a spiritual journey, including clergy, lay leaders, lifelong church-goers, brand-new converts, and anyone who wonders, "Who would ever want to go to church, anyway?"
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
 Strength comes from many places, 2003-10-31
Diana Butler Bass is a church goer. Always has been. Always will be. However her faith journey has been long and sometimes difficult. This is a very personal and compelling recounting of one woman's travels in the faith and also an interesting and thought provoking discourse on the condition of the Episcopal Church. Her church attendance has spanned the country. From Massachusetts to California and several places in between. She brings to the recounting of it, not only her description of her faith journey, but a scholar's understanding of the dynamics of the Faith. It is personal, it is uplifting and it is instructive. This is a wonderful book to read and reread.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A Tale of Faith Well Written, 2003-10-29
Diana Butler Bass has done a wonderful job of describing her faith journey. It is witty, intelligently written, well documented, and compelling. It probably helps to be an Episcopalian to enjoy it and to see one's self in parts of the book. Bass is a churchgoer. Always has been. Always will be. I understand where she is coming from. However, her education and experience at eight different parish churches from Massachusetts to California makes very entertaining reading as well as giving the reader much to reflect on and ponder. There is nothing flip about this book. It is serious stuff and it is also uplifting. Her path in the church does not mirror mine, but that just makes the twists and turns in her faith life more interesting. It also explains why the Episcopal Church can be so frustrating to many and misunderstood by others. It is a journey worth reading about and who knows, you may find strength for yours there also.
4 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
 Not an Evangelical or "Low Church Protestant" Episcopalian, 2003-04-12
As the daughter of a retired Episcopal priest and a "cradle Episcopalian," I was glad to see the term "Protestant" jettisoned along the way during my spiritual development in the Episcopal Church (when it was called the Protestant Episcopal Church until my late adolesence.) While not leaning to the "high church" (Roman Catholic format) of some Episcopal parishes, my father wasn't "low church," (Protestant) either--which to me is nearly synonomous with "evangelical". I saw him as one who leaned more toward the "catholic" side of the Episcopal church than the "protestant." He served in areas (i.e. towns and cities) very much influenced by protestant religious majorities, as well as where Roman Catholicism was the predominant religion, but retained his views throughout. He wore a clerical collar, not a coat and tie, at work. In some towns, my father was also my primary Episcopal priest, which can give an interesting perspective, as any clergy child can tell. Relocating to various areas of the country with him gave me a wide view of the Episcopal Church, including my father's attendance at an Episcopal seminary when I was an elementary school child. I was looking for a similar broad view in Bass' book, and it seems she rebelled for a very long time against anything but Evangelical worship practices which I found frustrating about her book. But to each his/her own in terms of what they like or don't like about the Episcopal Church. I miss the 1928 prayebook liturgy now as a forty-something year old, though I initially liked the modern language of the current prayerbook. Looking at the modern language now makes me miss the beautiful Elizabethan/Shakespearean language of the former liturgy.Bass' book was an OK overview of how broad the spectrum individual congregations of the Episcopal Church can be, but I'd recommend Nora Gallagher's two books over this one.
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