The Humanist's Devotional: 366 Daily Meditations from Some of the World’s Greatest Thinkers

by Jessica Hagy

The Humanist’s Devotional connects quotations and aphorisms to build a conversation between voices from ancient to modern times, a conversation that asserts a humanism that’s bravely authentic, with a message that our world is absolutely and wonderfully fascinating. The result is a book of daily devotionals, or meditations, that are not centered on a god or religion, but on a mindset: humanism as a function of learned history and a coping mechanism for a hectic and unnerving world.

372 pages, Paperback

Published January 7, 2020

About the author

Jessica Hagy is best known for her Webby Award–winning blog Indexed. Her cartoons regularly appear in the New York Times, and she writes an online column for Forbes. Ms. Hagy lives with her family in Seattle.

Reviews

[Kem White · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a collection of deepisms. Each day's "devotion" consists of a terse thought, some a little thought provoking, many banal; a couple of quotes from a variety of people, some wise and intellectual, some less so; and a suggested action, again some a little thought provoking, many banal. Each page is decorated with a couple of squiggles from a Sharpee. That's your devotion for each day. Meh.

I'm a humanist so I enjoyed the lack of religion and the supernatural on the pages that other devotionals would have. But I don't do devotionals well, this book is lightweight, and I got bored with it. I read it in bunches, got through most of it, but ended up skimming portions. Not recommended.

[M.M.J. Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Indexed and this was such a wonderful dive into all the ideas discussed there. The juxtaposition of the quotes and the author's connecting notes was brilliant. My copy had several typos, which was unfortunate.

[Jen Vetterli · Rating 3 out of 5]

(rating = 2.5 stars)

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I understand what the author was trying to do, and there were a lot of good quotes throughout the book. But somehow the whole concept just didn't quite gel...