Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age Hardcover – 22 October 2024

"Living in Wonder" is an essential read for our questioning times. The book speaks directly to those whose logical minds struggle with belief, showing how faith can thrive even amid rational doubt. Dreher, an intelligent and questioning Christian himself, speaks to both those who build their faith on reasoned arguments and those who wrestle with logical uncertainties. He demonstrates how attending to God's presence can lead us beyond rational uncertainties into deeper faith.This understanding opens the door to the remarkable - a world alive with mystery and meaning. Dreher explores supernatural encounters, from angelic visitations to alien phenomena and demonic presence - but not as mere "woo." His fine prose and gift for storytelling shines as he weaves entertaining tales for readers, while never losing sight of deeper meanings. Throughout, Dreher calls readers to a deeper, more demanding faith, one that requires personal sacrifice and dedication, but promises profound rewards for those willing to fully engage.For those wrestling with anxiety, depression, or racing thoughts, Dreher offers practical wisdom. He details an ancient prayer practice, rarely taught in modern churches, that can fundamentally alter how the mind processes unwanted recurring thoughts. I know for a fact this practice works.Once again, Dreher shows his gift for anticipating cultural shifts. In our age of increasing isolation and emptiness, seekers reject new atheism and materialism, the idea of a universe that is merely dead matter. They sense a deeper reality - a world alive with divine presence - but finding only dry intellectualism in many churches, spiritual experiences are often sought outside when they cannot be found inside. Dreher recognizes this hunger and points to the ancient Christian path: a faith not merely intellectually serious, but spiritually alive, where God's presence is immanent through all creation.What makes this work particularly compelling is Dreher's raw honesty about his personal suffering and how he maintains faith and wonder despite his struggles. This isn't mere theory - it's experiential. He guides readers through portals of enchantment via art, music, and story. But how to go deeper into the wonder? Dreher outlines pathways through the beauty of ancient faith traditions that remain accessible today.

"Living in Wonder" di Rod Dreher è un libro davvero affascinante che invita a riscoprire un cristianesimo vivo, capace di aprirsi al soprannaturale e di riscoprire il senso di meraviglia. Criticando l'influsso della riforma protestante e della rivoluzione francese, Dreher ci sprona ad accettare con umiltà i limiti della nostra comprensione razionale per cogliere la grandezza del creato anche oltre la nostra capacità di comprensione. Affronta da un punto di vista cristiano anche temi attuali come gli UFO e l’intelligenza artificiale, facendo emergere una fede profonda, che resta aperta al soprannaturale rimanendo però ancorata alla ragionevolezza.

We all know that culture determines perception. But how far does the determination go? Likely much farther than most of us ever realize.Rod Dreher does a great job in this book laying out the forces that have shaped our perceptions as moderns. And he makes clear why so many of us sense we’ve been led into a straitjacket of sorts. It’s a story both of our amazing technological and economic accomplishments--and the debilitating blindness we suffer in result, almost as a payment.Dreher’s clear about what he believes as an Eastern-Orthodox Christian, but not hectoring. He’s not seeking to convert so much as seeking to force any curious reader to look squarely at the problem. Why is our unprecedented freedom of choice and technical mastery accompanied by … such a deep sense of meaningless?It’s a fast-paced book, full of unsettling anecdotes which readers are free to interpret as they will. Dreher records many from subjects he’s interviewed. The book is also full of sharp summaries of the insights of key recent thinkers, from psychologists to sociologists to political and religious scholars. The book nowhere bogs down in academic jargon.Dreher is recognized among many as a writer with an almost uncanny knack for writing on the issues soon to become central topics of social debate. He’s usually about five years ahead of the pack. Given the rise of AI and the serious weirdness that will hit us in the next few years, he very possibly has done it again with Living in Wonder. We need to first heal ourselves, then deeply ground ourselves in the real if we’re going to withstand the onslaught that’s coming.

I tried hard and long to resist skepticism and finally gave up. I glanced at this book with a mixture of curiosity, hope and perhaps apprehension. I was pretty amazed that someone with Dreher's intellect could believe stories about demons and such. Evidently he does. He relays the stories of supernatural encounters in matter-of-fact ways. But we've heard many other, more convincing versions of these stories before. My thought when I hear new versions is something like, that's very curious; I wonder what really happened? Yes, one possibility is that in some of these cases are explained by supernatural intervention. I can't prove otherwise. I do not regard myself as more rational than Dreher, who accepts some of the stories pretty much at face value. I can't be sure that my incredulity is not rooted in pride or arrogance or modernist bigotry. Maybe one day I'll find myself believing again. Right now, however, I don't believe, and I didn't find anything here to change that. Side note: As a teenager I had "an encounter with a ghost" -- so it seemed to me at the time -- that terrified me. I vividly remember the experience and have told people about it over the years. I assume it involved a nightmare or hallucination. Maybe it was some bastard demon that liked to frighten kids.

From cultural criticism to historical consciousness to neuroscience and finally theology, Rod offers a smart introduction to both disenchantment and reenchantment. If you'd like to know how the conditions of belief came to be what they are, and why they're changing to quickly, this book is essential reading.But of course, Rod's is more than an academic interest - as an Orthodox Christian, Rod wants his readers to recover a rich, experiential faith, and he offers an approachable road map. Given the presence of malignant spirits, aliens, and neuroscientists in the book, you might be surprised by how thoroughly down-to-earth that road map is. Good works. Spiritual discipline. Awe. It is, by all accounts, a thoroughly historical Christian strategy, and it's far from magical.I know that, in many reviews, early readers say that the work deserves to become a classic. But I think this book does. Whatever your faith background, this book will help you navigate (and perhaps even thrive in) a fast-reenchanting world.