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B o o k R e v i e w : Michael Lerner. Spirit Matters.
Charlottesville, Va.: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2000.
ISBN 1-57174-195-X.
Review by Paul Chaffee (paul@interfaith-presidio.org) for January 2005 InterfaithNews.net

The spiritual vacuum in left-of-center politics in the United States goes back at least half a century. Provocative, compelling contributions of early and mid-twentieth century Protestants like Walter Rauschenbusch, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Martin Luther King, Jr., whose visions wove together the head and the heart, are hard to find anywhere today in American religion.

During the sixties the ‘liberal’ church and synagogue brought a righteous fervor to issues like race, Vietnam, and poverty. Many of the faithful were thrilled, but many were profoundly alienated. Historically progressive religious communities and their members remain deeply divided, consumed in conflict, currently around family and gender-based issues.

Spirit Matters (2000) by Michael Lerner does not completely bridge that great divide, but it offers substantial grounds for reconciliation among secular and religious progressives, and more. The book is true to its title, exploring in some depth how and why Spirit matters in our lives. It is a love letter to those who have been alienated from faith and practice; at the same time calling the ‘faithful’ back to their own deepest values.

The first half of the text unpacks the meaning and experience of spirituality. It’s filled with assumptions shared by most people who are not religious exclusivists. Exclusivists, with the Truth in their corner, will never be comfortable with someone whose heart and mind are so open, but Lerner does offer important tools for cultivating respect and care among us all, including ‘true believers’ of all stripes.

This first part of the book concludes with a chapter about "Emancipatory Spirituality." In brief, but using his own words, "Emancipatory Spirituality...

... means a celebration of the wonder of the universe,
... means cultivating our capacity to see each other as ends, not means,
... affirms the equal worth of every human being,
... seeks the healing and transformation of the world,
... means cultivating our capacity to transcend our individual egos,
... means developing mindfulness,
... encourages us to develop rich inner lives connected to Spirit,
... means enhancing our capacity to play, to experience joy and pleasure,
... encourages non-goal directed aesthetic creativity,
... promotes a sexuality that is integrated with a sense of sanctity and reverence for others,
... means encouraging an overwhelming feeling of love toward others,
... promotes respect and care for the well-being of the entire universe, a desire to live ecologically sustainable lives,
... supports the deepening of our intellectual capacities so they can be directed toward ensuring the survival and spiritual flourishing of the human race,
... seeks an integration of our many capacities and strengths,
... supports "changing the bottom line" of society from an ethos of selfishness and materialism to an ethos of love and caring,
... encourages the spiritual evolution of the human race toward higher forms of knowing, sharing, and rejoicing." (pp. 167-73)

The second half of the book considers what an emancipatory spirituality could bring to our work lives and the professions – to medicine, law and education. The final chapter examines the juncture of spiritual practice and social engagement, and an afterward talks about becoming a "socially engaged soul."

The chapter on education is one of the most provocative, in part because Lerner sported doctorates in philosophy and psychology, founded the magazine TIKKUN, and garnered a reputation as a leading Jewish intellectual before discovering his own spirituality and becoming a rabbi. He starts the discussion of education with the judgment that "Nowhere have liberals more consistently missed the mark in the way they approach education. Over and over again, their focus is narrowly extrinsic and superficial." He admits, "If the goal of education is to ensure your competitive advantage in the marketplace, you will educate the way we currently educate." A few paragraphs later, Rabbi Lerner writes,

If your goal is to create a human being who is loving, capable of showing deep caring for others, alive to the spiritual and ethical dimensions of being, ecologically sensitive, intellectually alive, self-determining, and creative, there are ways of restructuring education to foster this kind of person. (p. 234)

He spends the next 30 pages considering such a reconstruction, evoking education… for awe and wonder at the sacred; for love, caring, and cooperation; for tolerance and diversity; and for citizenship. The chapter concludes by exploring priority curriculum areas for Lerner: the world of work, the miracle of the body, the meaning of life, cooperation and community, and birth and death.

This book is already five years old, but it is one I’ve been waiting to read all my life. The word needs to go out about it, particularly to those who were bitterly disappointed by the last election. Jonathan Kozol, Matthew Fox, Marianne Williamson, Thomas Moore, Cornel West, and Jim Wallis say extravagant, positive things about Spirit Matters. I can only second their opinions. Get the book. Read it. Share it.

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