There’s a new book out by a former National Public Radio correspondent named Eric Weiner, which seems to be yet another in a long line of works by secular Jews who suddenly discover that there are people who take their faith seriously. Whether the result is books like Hanna Rosin’s about Patrick Henry College or Lauren Sandler’s about the evangelical youth movements, there seems to be no end to the appetite of secular elites for finding what they see as bizarre religious enclaves.
Weiner’s book, at least according to reviews, seems to position itself more as a personal quest. But in the end, whatever personal longings he feels seem to be an excuse to study the odd religious practices of others. Here’s a bit from Joshua Hammer’s review in Sunday’s New York Times:
Still, Weiner’s odyssey feels unsatisfying. His quest for a religious identity isn’t particularly convincing; in fact, it often seems less a heartfelt search than a device cooked up by an enterprising journalist and his editors, a way to get him on the road again. We never believe, for example, that Weiner is genuinely drawn to the spirit world of shamanism or the spooky ceremonies of modern-day witchcraft. His peripatetic approach doesn’t allow for much depth. And while he deftly captures the kooky spirit of the fringe religions, he’s on far shakier ground trying to explain the concepts of, say, Buddhism and Taoism.
Weiner is impressed by the self-sacrifice of the Franciscans and the mysticism of the Sufis, but as with so many secular Jews (he calls himself a “gastronomical Jew”—ha, ha, he understands chopped liver and gefilte fish), he seems completely without a foundation for how to understand religion, let alone religions other than his own. And he has no basis for distinguishing between a serious intellectual tradition like Catholicism and, say, the UFO-believing Raëlians. His attitude seems to be: They all believe wacky things, so I should explore them all. This attitude is not uncommon among the Jews I know.
Even among those raised with a serious Jewish education, as I was, there seems to be an almost willful ignorance toward other faiths. It’s not that they are intolerant. It’s just that you can finish a Hebrew-school or day-school curriculum at the age of, say, 13 or 18 and not understand who Jesus was or what 98 percent of Americans believe about him. Whether it’s a nervousness on the part of teachers and parents that our kids will find out about Jesus and want us to go out and buy a Christmas tree, or just a sense that it simply doesn’t matter, Jewish parents and teachers are doing their kids a disservice, leaving them not only ignorant but spiritually adrift.
Not surprisingly, Weiner is simply ill-equipped or unwilling to rigorously evaluate the truth claims of any of the faiths he examines. He simply decides to keep them all. Of the God he has decided on, Weiner says, “His foundation is Jewish, but His support beams Buddhist. He has the heart of Sufism, the simplicity of Taoism, the generosity of the Franciscans, the hedonistic streak of the Raëlians.” The religion of chopped liver and gefilte fish sounds more serious.
