Reading a Book I'd Never Write<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've just finished Sara Miles's memoir Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion, but I don't think I can write my usual style of review. \u00a0Miles was raised by\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/reading-a-book-id-never-write.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reading a Book I'd Never Write\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I've just finished Sara Miles's memoir Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion, but I don't think I can write my usual style of review. \u00a0Miles was raised by\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/reading-a-book-id-never-write.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-16T01:54:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-03T15:03:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/files\/2012\/01\/sundays-good-book.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/reading-a-book-id-never-write.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/reading-a-book-id-never-write.html\",\"name\":\"Reading a Book I'd Never Write\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-16T01:54:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-03T15:03:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"I've just finished Sara Miles's memoir Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion, but I don't think I can write my usual style of review. \u00a0Miles was raised by\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/reading-a-book-id-never-write.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/reading-a-book-id-never-write.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/reading-a-book-id-never-write.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Reading a Book I’d Never Write\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. 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{"id":1442,"date":"2012-01-15T20:54:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T01:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=1442"},"modified":"2012-12-03T10:03:06","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T15:03:06","slug":"reading-a-book-id-never-write","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/reading-a-book-id-never-write.html","title":{"rendered":"Reading a Book I’d Never Write"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just finished Sara Miles\u2019s memoir Take this Bread: A Radical Conversion<\/a><\/em>, but I don\u2019t think I can write my usual style of review. \u00a0Miles was raised by atheists (although she had missionaries a couple generations back), is a liberal lesbian, and converted to\u00a0Episcopalianism\u00a0in midlife. \u00a0I\u2019m always interested in the logic of converts, especially when they\u2019re a good match for me demographically, but Miles and I are way too far apart conceptually for me to have anything substantive to say about her change.<\/p>\n

Miles, while visiting a church, was seized with a deep longing for the Eucharist. \u00a0She hadn\u2019t been particularly religious before, but suddenly felt a powerful yearning. \u00a0Since she was at an Episcopal church that practiced open communion, she got in line to\u00a0receive\u00a0and was overwhelmed by a sense of Jesus\u2019s presence. \u00a0She became more and more involved with that church, eventually becoming a deacon and opening a food pantry.<\/p>\n

And I, of course, read this wondering when there would be theology and other scholarly stuff. \u00a0How could you have all these feelings and not want to thrash them out and formalize them? \u00a0So this memoir was too far from my way of thinking to grapple with, but it may be of interest to some of the blog readers.<\/p>\n

And I will say, in defense of my hyper-logical approach, that there was one part of the book that seemed to be crying out for more theology, even if it wasn\u2019t a major part of Miles\u2019s conversion. \u00a0As she becomes more involved with the church, Miles tends to think a lot of doctrines and practices are obstacles to a relationship with Christ (closed communion, only the priest gives blessings, etc). \u00a0She seems to resemble that \u201c Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus<\/a>\u201d guy.<\/p>\n

What bugs me is that she seems to be arguing primarily from the strength of her intuitions and a few proof-texts (Jesus doesn\u2019t turn anyone away, etc), but without a meta-guide for how to read and interpret the bible. \u00a0She just asserts that her citations trump the traditions and understandings of people on the other side of the issue, and, as far as I can tell, there isn\u2019t a truth-telling thing they have in common to settle the dispute.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t understand how you could be persuaded of a religion\u2019s claims without acquiring some kind of epistemological framework for judging their truth. \u00a0I can see that one might get\u00a0inconclusive\u00a0answers, but there would still be some kind of evaluation you were performing.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"