Soul and the City is a book by Marcy
\nHeidisk which subtitles itself “Finding God in the Noise and Frenzy of
\nLife.” This is certainly a worthwhile and much needed topic when the
\nspiritual life is often drowned out by just pure busyness and activity
\nafter activity. This book though is both hit and miss in
\ngiving answers to this topic. Where the book succeeds is when
\nthe author describes the struggles of people she knows to life a
\nspiritual life. Especially good were some of the stories from
\nwhen she worked in a homeless shelter of the people within and their
\nefforts at living a life of prayer. This book comes under the
\ncategory of “Christian Living” and so is rather generic when it comes
\nto a specific charism of spirituality. The author seems
\nwidely read among Catholic and Protestant sources and much of the
\nadvice given is solid such as working to see Christ in others among the
\nbusy streets. Of seeking quiet and simplicity while also
\ngiving of yourself to others. Not exactly surprising themes
\nand mostly an application of the Gospel in the specific context of city
\nlife. <\/p>\n
I found most of the advice as being too
\ngeneric such as visiting museums and cultural events to nourish the
\nspiritual life. Certainly seeking beauty through the arts is
\nquite necessary, but she offers no caveats as to the type of art we
\nwill often run into in modern life. My main complaint with
\nthe book is that it is rather too broad. While it does not
\nfall into the “I am spiritual, but not religious” trap, inadvertently
\nit comes close to it when it speak of spirituality. While
\ncertainly the book is Christian spirituality to me at times
\nspirituality comes before Christ. The chapters of the book
\nare also rather inverted in that worship Of God and gratitude for his
\ngrace are the last two chapters in the book. Though there are
\nreferences to the Gospels throughout and the Psalms.<\/p>\n
Despite these deficiencies I would have
\nseen this book as somewhat worthwhile for beginners in a life of pray
\nbut for the references to centering prayer. The author
\nherself recommends it and quotes Fr. Pennington throughout the book.
\n Maybe this explains the shallow spirituality of the book.
\n Centering prayer can turn into self-centering prayer and
\ntheir are plenty of horror stories of disaster to someone’s prayer life
\nwho have entered into this type of prayer as it can become a form of
\nself-hypnosis. Not that everybody will have problems such as
\nthese since some just practice centering prayer as a form of quieting
\nyourself to enter into prayer. I also wondered throughout the
\nbook exactly whether the author was Catholic. Lutheran, or some other
\nform of Protestanti. She seem to go to Mass and other
\nservices on a regular basis and this adds to generic spirituality of
\nthe book.<\/p>\n
Also lacking was any concept of growing in
\nholiness, of overcoming faults, and personal sin which is a major fault
\nfor any book addressing this topic. A growing love of God and
\nneighbor will only highlight our own faults and advancement in the life
\nof prayer requires more than the simple advice this book gives.
\n I also found that this book needed some editing since I
\nsometimes found mistakes in it such as using “Jesus’s” for the
\npossessive. In fact one mistake in the book had me laughing.<\/p>\n
“Holy people aren’t necessarily found
\namong the canonized saints.”<\/p>\n
I don’t want to pile on in this review,
\nbut the book left me unsatisfied. Here was a great premise of
\nSoul in the City as a play on Sex in the City and giving what could
\nhave been a popular treatment of the spiritual life in Christ amongst
\nthe hustle and bustle of everyday life. A promise made but not fulfilled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Soul and the City is a book by Marcy Heidisk which subtitles itself “Finding God in the Noise and Frenzy of Life.” This is certainly a worthwhile and much needed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}