March 3, 2003
Spiritual homecoming stories are often predictable in both form and content, but Johnson's account of his passage from skepticism to faith is exceedingly refreshing and pure in its honesty. Raised in a Kentucky community that is home to the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani, Johnson, a novelist (Crossing the River
and Scissors, Paper, Rock) grew up in a Catholic family that was intimately acquainted with the monastery's monks. But in leaving home and living as a gay man, he closed the door on religion only to come face to face with it again at Gethsemani in 1996. When, as an invited observer at an international gathering of Buddhist and Christian monks and lay contemplatives, Johnson was unable to lift his hand to join in making the sign of the cross, he became aware of a deep anger within. To delve into it, he set out on "a skeptic's journey" in which he explored both Buddhist and Christian monastic life. His quest recalls that of Thomas Merton, Gethsemani's most famous monk, who was known for his interest in Buddhist monasticism. Johnson's sensitively written tale is also notable for dealing with homosexuality in the Kentucky monastery, even as some Catholic leaders discuss banning homosexuals from priesthood. Because the faith Johnson has found departs from certain official church lines, this memoir is unlikely to resonate with traditionalist readers. However, its authenticity and depth will appeal to a varied audience of skeptics and believers.
March 15, 2003
Johnson, raised Catholic in a small southern town, is gay and for many years was fiercely angry at the church, which he felt rejected him for being himself. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he watched friends, acquaintances, and his lover die of AIDS as the church stood by in silence, and later he saw the church as failing to confront an epidemic of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, his spiritual journey was cyclical, from Catholicism to Zen Buddhism and back to Catholicism, though the Catholicism he embraces now isn't the Catholicism of his youth. He had grown up near the Trappist abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, and one day became a member of the community. Something about that experience and its rituals touched him deeply, and he came to understand his profound anger at the church, in particular, and at institutionalized religion in general. His account of his journey is a fine and erudite combination of memoir, history, and personal reflection, in which faith and desire finally meet at a crossroads in a particular life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)