Going on Faith: Writing As a Spiritual Quest

by William Zinsser (Introduction)

In the new edition of this deeply felt book, nine American writers and thinkers from different points on the religious compass discuss how their work is nourished by spiritual concerns. Diane Ackerman explains why she calls herself a "messenger of wonder" and how, in her own observations of the natural world, "there is a form of beholding that is a kind of prayer." Frederick Buechner makes an intensely personal journey to his roots as a novelist. Allen Ginsberg describes how his poetry is grounded in the Buddhist renunciation of "hand-me-down conceptions" and the meditative practice of "letting go of thoughts." Other contributors include David Bradley, Mary Gordon, Patricia Hampl, Hillel Levine, Hugh Nissenson, and Jaroslav Pelikan.

Genres: Writing, Religion, Essays, Nonfiction, College, Spirituality

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 1999

About the author

William Knowlton Zinsser is an American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher. He began his career as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, where he worked as a feature writer, drama editor, film critic, and editorial writer. He has been a longtime contributor to leading magazines.

Reviews

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I finish all of the readings from this book? No. Do I really care? Also no.

Not that it was a bad book, it was just - well - when you're in your senior year of college and you're in a writing capstone course, you're usually more focused on the writing than on the reading. Perhaps if I had made the choice to read this on my own time I would have liked it more.

[Jessica Scheuermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were only a couple of chapters in this book that were interesting. Buechner's was the only one that really spoke to me. The rest of the book was just so-so.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trust William Zinsser to bring together four novelists (David Bradley, Frederick Buechner, Mary Gordon, and Hugh Nissenson), a poet (Allen Ginsberg), and a religious historian (Jaroslav Pelikan) -- "men and women from various points of God's compass"-- for a lecture series that was originally published in 1988 as Spiritual Quests: The Art and Craft of Religious Writing (now out of print). Ten years later, he broadened the book by adding three more writers to the pool: Diane Ackerman, Patricia Hampl and Hillel Levine. For those who have read Zinsser's books on memoir writing and his wonderful chapter on interviewing in On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, his influence is felt in each of these three essays, without compromising the voice of the author. Zinsser wanted to "preserve the oral integrity of the book as a collection of talks" so he recorded each of the three authors and then "edited the transcript[s] into narrative."

What is striking is how many of the authors are quick to challenge the idea of being "religious writers" or even "spiritual" writers. For some, they set out on a different path altogether, and the process became spirit. My favorite moments included Hillel Levine's description of meeting the history of Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who was responsible for saving thousands of Jewish lives in the summer of 1940. Hillel found that "what was heroic about Sugihara was his ordinariness...the power of his moral leadership was so great that he was able to evoke goodness in other people" (81). Frederick Buechner opens with a story of a strand of blue thread, a tie clip, and the evocation of his own name that soon blossoms into an excellent essay on faith and fiction. He says, "In both faith and fiction the people you meet along the way, the things that happen to happen, the places--the airport bar, the room where you have a last supper with some friend--count for much more than ideas do. Fiction can hold opposites together in a story simultaneously...and so can faith, which by its very nature both sees and does not see" (51).

All of the lecture-essays are excellent, and I do recommend reading all of them in order. Together they form a narrative as a whole, as provide a thoughtful sustenance for those who write and read.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the four Zinsser-curated anthologies arising from lectures given at the New York Public Library. Once again, Zinsser asked his chosen speakers to discuss not so much the "how-to" as the "how I did". The result in this collection was for me a mixed bag. One of my favorite writers, Frederick Buechner, delivered a variation of his recurrent theme, the uniqueness and (as unlikely as it sometimes seems) godliness of each of our lives. Many of the other writers were new to me, I'm eager to read books by two of them, Patrica Hampl and Diane Ackerman. Two of the essays didn't exactly fulfil the assignment. In one case, this resulted in a very interesting look at three classics of spiritual autobiography (Augustine, Boethius, and John Henry Newman) by Jaroslav Pelikan; I felt this was valid, since these three authors are no longer around to speak for themselves. Don't know quite what to make of the other, by Allen Ginsburg. Rather than discuss the spiritual roots of his own work, he gave an erudite lecture on how the Buddhist tradition of mindfulness coincides with attention to the object itself in many streams of twentieth-century poetry. I would have preferred if he had spoken more personally.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose 4 of the essays to read. Patricia Hampl's "Crying Out in Silence" was a little longer than it needed to be, but gave the impetus and strategy for writing her book "Virgin Time", on the difference between pilgrimage and retreat, the expectation and likely outcome of each, and how she devised her book as well as selecting her locations for research around each concept.
I read David Bradley's "Bringing Down the Fire", Jaroslav Pelikan's "Writing as a Means of Grace" as well.

Diane Ackerman in "A Messenger of WOnder" expressed, "It bothers me that modern religion is not very religious." She is struggling with the thought that if there is no prayer in schools (she is against having it because there is the perfect opening for pluralism), then today's children face the possiblility of having no spirituality at all.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Zinsser's other collection better--Inventing the Truth. Although I like to read spiritual memoirs, I found it hard to follow several of these writers--so many words and not focussed enough. Or maybe it is just me! I did write down several suggestions for reading from their bibliographies.

My favorite--In Search of Sugihara by Levine--writing about a Japanese diplomat who signed exit visas for Jewish people and saved them from the Holocaust. Levine found his wife in Australia and interviewed her two weeks before she died--just in time!

[lee lee]

i've only read one essay in this book--the one by patricia hampl called "Crying Out in Silence" but it was really good and one day i will read more. in the meantime, i'll just re-read Hampl's memoir Virgin Time. soooooooo good. soooooooo much better than that other memoir about someone's spiritual quest.

[Mark Lacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. The only one of these essays I really didn't care for was Allan Ginsberg's. It simply made no sense to me. I had no idea what point he was trying to make as he connected all different kinds of things.

[Brian Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a series of essays on the connection between spirituality and writing. While the essays are a bit uneven, there is something of value in all of them. I found Frederick Buechner's essay to be profound and helpful, as was Pelikan's.

[Tamara Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I found several of the contributing authors a bit "mushy" in their written spirituality, overall this was an encouraging book for those of us wishing to write from the perspective of our faith.