Born Again and Again

Recently a friend recommended Verily, Verily: The KJV - 400 Years of Influence and Beauty by Jon M. Sweeney. Checking Amazon.com and finding it available for Kindle, that was my order. My friend also mentioned another Sweeney book, Almost Catholic. 

Browsing the Amazon site led to a perusal of Sweeney’s other books, and one that caught my eye was Born Again and Again: Surprising Gifts of a Fundamentalist Childhood. The title rang a bell in the far recesses of the mind. My childhood was not fundamentalist strictly speaking, Episcopal, but lovingly shepherded by my mother, whose Southern Baptist upbringing influenced me so very positively in so many ways. 

Born Again and Again is autobiographical, Sweeney’s delightful story of his nondenominational Baptist rearing and his faith journey. By the end of this book he was an Episcopalian, but it seemed clear that his spiritual hunger was not satisfied, his quest not ended. Checking the book Almost Catholic disclosed that Sweeney is now Roman Catholic, and hopefully settled and content in the Lord. This morning my finger pressed Two-Day 1 Click and a very cheap “very good” used copy of Almost Catholic is on the way to me now. 

Though I’m not going anywhere, it may be fascinating to discover how Sweeney, who began life under the strict and judgmental but nevertheless for him positive and unshakeable influence of the Christian far Right,” slowly traveled to the left, could not find spiritual contentment, and found his way back to the Right, but in a satisfyingly mystical Orthodoxy. 

TW+