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Girl Meets God: On the Path to a Spiritual Life
Like most of us, Lauren Winner wants something to believe in. The child of a reform Jewish father and a lapsed Southern Baptist mother, she chose to become an Orthodox Jew. But as she faithfully observes the Sabbath rituals and studies Jewish laws, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Christianity. Taking a courageous step, she leaves behind what she loves and converts....more
288 pages
Published
September 16th 2002
by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
(first published 2002)
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WARNING: Do not read this book if you do not want to grow spiritually.
I enjoyed this book. I found it engaging. I liked the voice; I felt like I would enjoy talking to Lauren Winter if I met her. I liked reading it and will probably go back and read portions again.
I had a little trouble with the structure of the book. For the first third of the book or so, I was under the impression we were following a distinct through-line. There seemed to be a narrative going on, with lots of reflection, yes, but with a firm plot that everything tied in to. The book is structure...more
I had a little trouble with the structure of the book. For the first third of the book or so, I was under the impression we were following a distinct through-line. There seemed to be a narrative going on, with lots of reflection, yes, but with a firm plot that everything tied in to. The book is structure...more
Perplexing. A few thoughts on this account of a girl who converts to orthodox Judaism and then later decides to leave it for Christianity:
1 - I guess I don't know much about Christian theology but I find it strange that someone as clearly intelligent as this girl has no problem with the doctrine which to me seems so beyond human reason
2 - Reading about someone's mikva experience as she enters the jewish community followed by her baptism a few chapters later is nothing short of jarring
3 - It is i...more
1 - I guess I don't know much about Christian theology but I find it strange that someone as clearly intelligent as this girl has no problem with the doctrine which to me seems so beyond human reason
2 - Reading about someone's mikva experience as she enters the jewish community followed by her baptism a few chapters later is nothing short of jarring
3 - It is i...more
view all 4 comments
This is the story of how Lauren met her Savior, Jesus. Coming from a broken home with a Baptist mother and Jewish father Lauren's spiritual growth begins in the Jewish faith. She brings everything that she is to this quest. She immerses herself in study, in worship traditions, in community, into Orthodox community. She was an outsider and would remain an outsider no matter how hard she studied to be approved of by the community. The local Levite son would never become a marriage opportunity for...more
What I find most interesting about Winner's story is that she chooses to label herself as Christian, and not as a Messianic Jew. I love how even though those in her Orthodox Jewish community can't believe that she fell for "that carpenter", here she is, writing about how her relationship with Jesus Christ came to be. Also, to read about Christianity through the lens of Judaism is fascinating; it strikes me that because the Jews are God's chosen people, there must be such a greater depth of richn...more
Apr 30, 2008
Samantha
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
those interested in learning about faith
I found this book deeply inspiring and somewhat related to my own struggles with faith. It was a gift to me (in a non-pushy way) from a friend of mine from church -- a peer who took a course with me called alpha where you have the opportunities to ask all sorts of questions about God and faith and challenges with it -- with structure and guidance. Being in a personal sort of environment combined with my ultra open self, she was very aware of both my Jewish and Catholic heritage and thought of me...more
Jan 25, 2008
Sarita
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People who want to have lots of sex and then become a national spokesperson for abstinence
Ms. Winner has a unique and intimate voice, and I enjoyed listening to her tell her story. Still, I agree with the other reviewers that she fails to offer any signs of awareness of her journey in a larger context. I have a ton of questions that this book brought up and it disappointed that she didn't seem able to offer any perspective - making this less of a memoir and more of a journal.
My questions that I was left with -
What does it mean to leave Judaim? Not just in a personal sense, but in th...more
My questions that I was left with -
What does it mean to leave Judaim? Not just in a personal sense, but in th...more
I admire the courage it may have taken to write this book, I couldn't write so briefly about my own spiritual journeys, certainly, but I found this book to be mainly trite, self-serving, and underwhelming. Ms. Winner claims at every turn to be over-analytical, and yet she barely scratches the surface of the meaning of her religious promiscuity.
She writes at length about the appeal of becoming a "real" orthodox Jew, and it sounds like she just really wants to be part of the club her absentee fa...more
She writes at length about the appeal of becoming a "real" orthodox Jew, and it sounds like she just really wants to be part of the club her absentee fa...more
Feb 24, 2012
Indah
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
memoirs,
the-good-news
What I like about the book is its honesty. It's not trying to be pious, instead it's just frankly speaking about the ups and downs of Winner's spiritual journey. It's not commercial. I don't know if anybody would think that it sounds superficial, but I clearly don't think so.
One's point of view can differ deeply than others, let alone one's way of life. But reading Winner's book reminds me of my own spiritual life, the feelings and thoughts that I had as a new Christian. I just want to salute he...more
One's point of view can differ deeply than others, let alone one's way of life. But reading Winner's book reminds me of my own spiritual life, the feelings and thoughts that I had as a new Christian. I just want to salute he...more
Enjoyed reading this as I do most memoirs. Lauren was raised Jewish, pursued Orthadox Judaism, them converted to Christianity after reading, I kid you not, Jan Karon's "At Home in Mitford." As an intellectual pursuing a PhD in History at some east coast university (Columbia?? can't remember - that's where she did her undergrad), she is somewhat sheepish about this. She doesn't fit my typical Christian box, which is why I enjoyed the book so much - it enlarged my view of who is a Christian and ho...more
On the whole, I think this book's big problem is that it's a memoir about a spiritual journey, which means it has two very different things to talk about, and both of them get short-changed because she's not a good enough writer to pull it off. The anecdotes about her life and the trajectory of her life feel scattered. She doesn't give me great faith that she could even pull off a straight memoir. Additionally, for someone who is so intellectually oriented, her discussions of religion feel very...more
"Girl Meets G-d" is definitely difficult to categorize, and if I made a shelf just for it, would call it "Spiritual Autobiography-Chicklit." I enjoyed every minute of it, even when Winner frustrated me.
Lauren Winner goes back and forth between her life and journey into observant Judaism and then into Christianity. It felt jarring, going from one to the other, but is definitely a process that I can appreciate. She draws you into her struggle, but at times, pushes you away with her narcissism.
I...more
Lauren Winner goes back and forth between her life and journey into observant Judaism and then into Christianity. It felt jarring, going from one to the other, but is definitely a process that I can appreciate. She draws you into her struggle, but at times, pushes you away with her narcissism.
I...more
First and foremost, what an amazing thing that this woman went from being an Orthodox Jew to being a New Testament-believing Christian. And how awesome that she wrote a memoir about it. I love that!
Some of the other things I really liked about the book was that it drove me to use my kindle dictionary over and over. I really felt like I expanded my mind with the vocabulary. She also had some great insights into Christianity because of her link to (and intensive studies of) Judaism.
During parts o...more
Some of the other things I really liked about the book was that it drove me to use my kindle dictionary over and over. I really felt like I expanded my mind with the vocabulary. She also had some great insights into Christianity because of her link to (and intensive studies of) Judaism.
During parts o...more
Favorite quote: "Faith .... is not about propositions, but about commitment. It does not mean that I intellectually subscribe to the following list of statements, but that I give my heart to this reality. Believe, indeed, comes to us from the Old English belove, making clear that this too is meant to be heart language. To say, "I believe in Jesus Christ" is not to subscribe to an uncertain proposition. It is a confession of commitment, of love."
I found Winner a little intimidating at times, I t...more
I found Winner a little intimidating at times, I t...more
As is typical for me, I am a latecomer to this book and this author. The work chronicles the author’s transitions over time from Reformed Judaism, to conversion to Orthodox Judaism, to conversion to Christianity practiced and expressed in the Episcopal tradition.
I find it artfully constructed. Winner employs a hybrid liturgical calendar of her own making to give structure to the book – beginning with Sukkot and ending with Advent.
I judge her to be an advanced-level wordsmith. I think it takes ex...more
I find it artfully constructed. Winner employs a hybrid liturgical calendar of her own making to give structure to the book – beginning with Sukkot and ending with Advent.
I judge her to be an advanced-level wordsmith. I think it takes ex...more
I really liked this book. I love all things ethnic, and especially Jews and the Jewish religion. The parallels between Jewish history, customs, and religious celebrations and Christian ones are so clear when revealed by the Spirit, and give much deeper meaning and understanding to God's plan. Since I had previously studied and been aware of many of Jewish/Christian similarities but never Episcopalian details, I found myself engrossed with many of the author's reportings of those Episcopalian bel...more
I took my time with this one... enjoying the process of soaking it in. This is a book that I'm really glad I bought rather than borrowed. I want to go back and reread parts, to remind myself sometimes of what's important, about the beauty of our Faith...of Jesus' loving pursuit.
In this memoir, Lauren Winner shares a year of her journey as a converted Jew-turned Christian. Her perspective is so different from my own, having lived by choice as a devout Orthedox Jew, following ancient Judaic tradit...more
In this memoir, Lauren Winner shares a year of her journey as a converted Jew-turned Christian. Her perspective is so different from my own, having lived by choice as a devout Orthedox Jew, following ancient Judaic tradit...more
This is an enjoyable memoir about the author's journey back and forth between Judaism and Christianity. As someone who eventually became a professor at a divinity school, she raises many classic theological questions such as the mystery of Christ's Incarnation. She also illustrates through her stories how religious conversion involves not just abstract questions of theology, but whole communities of people who can be affected by one's personal religious decisions.
The first 200 pages were very en...more
The first 200 pages were very en...more
For a few years now, I have been interested in Jewish/Christian conversations about faith, and I was hopeful that this memoir from a Jewish convert to Christianity would delve deeply into some of the issues of each faith, but I found myself disappointed.
This memoir was very easy to read and cleverly organized by the church liturgical calendar. While Lauren Winner did discuss and explain some of the Jewish customs (for her Christian readers) and some of the Christian customs (for her Jewish read...more
This memoir was very easy to read and cleverly organized by the church liturgical calendar. While Lauren Winner did discuss and explain some of the Jewish customs (for her Christian readers) and some of the Christian customs (for her Jewish read...more
Jan 23, 2012
Leah
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
spirituality
This is a memoir of one woman's conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity. The book was totally not what I was expecting and I loved it. I recently read a book by a Women of Faith speaker, and this was just so much more meaty, more meaningful, and more impactful to me. Lauren Winner is an intellectual, a woman who has not just professed her faith, but one who has struggled over it, studied it in depth, and tenaciously hung on. I can't help but admire her, leaving one faith for another in...more
I was expecting more from this memoir. Lauren Winner, daughter of a lapsed Baptist mother but raised as a Reform Jew in accordance with her Jewish father's wishes, found herself increasingly drawn to Orthodox Judaism as an adolescent. After undergoing an Orthodox Jewish conversion in college, Lauren gradually drifted from Orthodoxy into Christianity, converting to Episcopalianism. I found Lauren's trajectory intriguing and appreciated her writing voice but didn't particularly enjoy her memoir, w...more
I like books that make me think, and GIRL MEETS GOD is certainly a book that makes you think. The back cover of the book states "The child of a Jewish Father and a lapsed southern baptist mother, Lauren F. Winner chose to become an orthodox Jew." However, that is not the end of Lauren's spiritual journey as she is "increasingly drawn to Christianity."
The author, Lauren Winner, is an intellectual and studies and reads almost continuously. She is honest with her readers as she tells both her good...more
The author, Lauren Winner, is an intellectual and studies and reads almost continuously. She is honest with her readers as she tells both her good...more
Pissed me off royally. Couldn't wait to read her other stuff. I don't blame anyone for becoming Christian; I blame Winner for her misguided reasons in leaving Judaism. Really, I blame her childhood rabbi in Charlotte, NC.
Winner is the daughter of a Baptist mother and a Jewish father who divorced when she was very young. Though her mother continued to support her Jewish education and participation at a Reform temple and in Hebrew school, her rabbi advised her that she would never be accepted as a...more
Winner is the daughter of a Baptist mother and a Jewish father who divorced when she was very young. Though her mother continued to support her Jewish education and participation at a Reform temple and in Hebrew school, her rabbi advised her that she would never be accepted as a...more
My second reading of this book was so radically different than the first, that I'm embarrassed that I had originally recommended it so enthusiastically.
This time around, what jumped out at me was the author's narcissism (how many times can Columbia, Ivy League and intellectual be worked into the same page, if not the same sentence?) and her near pathological quest of reading and belonging. It never sounded like she had a real life, aside from the much fretted over "last paragraph on the bottom...more
This time around, what jumped out at me was the author's narcissism (how many times can Columbia, Ivy League and intellectual be worked into the same page, if not the same sentence?) and her near pathological quest of reading and belonging. It never sounded like she had a real life, aside from the much fretted over "last paragraph on the bottom...more
This memoir is provocative, endearing, brilliant, and wonderful. Please don't judge the book by its lacy-shoe-light-blue/purple-design cover (I admit, I was embarrassed to read it in public, but it was so good that I'd sneak it into restaurants with the front cover hidden firmly against my side or arm).
The book allows Dr. Winner to give reflections on roughly one year of her life, according to sections labeled with various sections of the Christian liturgical calendar, but within that year are e...more
The book allows Dr. Winner to give reflections on roughly one year of her life, according to sections labeled with various sections of the Christian liturgical calendar, but within that year are e...more
If I could give this 4 and a half stars, I would. It didn't move me the way some of my 5-star books did, but it is a special story. Lauren Winner was raised Jewish, mainly by her Baptist mother after LW's parents divorced. She was truly a student of Judaism and converted to Orthodox Judaism while in high school (or was it early college?). Then later in college, she felt a series of calls and converted to Christianity.
She made me glad not to have faced the choices she did; many people who love h...more
She made me glad not to have faced the choices she did; many people who love h...more
I wanted to love this book. I really did. Winner is an engaging writer and she is very well-educated and very well-read, but it just felt...trite. I came away from it with no understanding as to why she converted to Orthodox Judaism (beyond that she liked the studying and the reading?), or why she made the leap to evangelical Episcopalianism (how do you go from being Jewish to accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior), or why she thinks that praising God is the most important and worthwhile thing...more
I take back the comment about "book I can relate to" I am giving this book two stars because some of it is interesting but it is also just really lacking. So here is a woman who goes from Orthodox Judaism to Anglicanism and the Episcopal church. Imagine my shock! A book by someone who became Episcopalian, not left! It reads more like overzealous evangelical preaching and less a biography or even really why she became an Episcopalian. Of all Christianities! There is some life autobiography but mo...more
Jan 05, 2012
Pamela Galloway
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2012,
historical-or-based-on-truth
Initially, I picked up this book because a student had donated it to the classroom library. The title and back seemed intriguing. And though I enjoyed her voice and her intellectual approach, I will say that I was confused when the plot left a straight through and started jumping around in different years.
Yes, there were moments when I was challenged in my own faith, but this book also left a lot of questions. There's a lack of reflection on the writer's own part in resolving her own questions...more
Yes, there were moments when I was challenged in my own faith, but this book also left a lot of questions. There's a lack of reflection on the writer's own part in resolving her own questions...more
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Lauren F. Winner is the author of numerous books, including Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath. Her study A Cheerful & Comfortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households of Eighteenth-Century Virginia was published in the fall of 2010 by Yale University Press. She has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The...more
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“There are a few people out there with whom you fit just so, and, amazingly, you keep fitting just so even after you have growth spurts or lose weight or stop wearing high heels. You keep fitting after you have children or change religions or stop dyeing your hair or quit your job at Goldman Sachs and take up farming. Somehow, God is gracious enough to give us a few of those people, people you can stretch into, people who don't go away, and whom you wouldn't want to go away, even if they offered.”
—
51 people liked it
“...but that is how the clues God leaves sometimes work. Sometimes nothing comes of them. Sometimes, as in a great novel, you cannot see until you get to the end that God was leaving clues for you all along. Sometimes you wonder, how did I miss it? Surely any idiot should have been able to see from the second chapter that it was Miss Scarlet in the conservatory with the rope.”
—
9 people liked it
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