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Rating: 
Summary: Bliss and Religion
Review: >Book Review
>
>Following Our Bliss
>By Don Lattin
>Harper, San Francisco
>276 pages $24.95
>
>The spiritual ideas of the sixties shape our lives today is the theme of Don
>Lattin's new book. He is the religion writer for the San Francisco Chronicle
>who has covered the mainstream and alternative movements and figures in
>America.
>
>Lattin has covered many dozens of church conventions of all denominations,
>interviewed countless Bishops, Presbyters, Rabbis, clergy and lay leaders
>for 25 years. He has attended conferences, groups and gatherings of new age
>believers including Eastern religions, feminist spirituality, Tai Chi, Yoga,
>Moonies, Hare Krishnas, Buddhist punks and many more.
>
>He traces how these movements have entered the main stream of American life
>and how they have affected our contemporary religious scene. Meditation, new
>music, body work, Gestalt therapy, encounter groups, changes in sexual
>behavior, drugs and spirituality are just a few areas that have emerged from
>the sixties and are now part of the way we look at life and religion in the
>21st century.
>
>The book is well researched and documented yet reads easily and with a sense
>of seriousness and a touch of tongue in cheek here and there. The stories of
>what happened in the lives of youngsters growing up in that hot bed of sex,
>drugs and rock and roll spirituality has both harmed and helped them.
>
>The book takes seriously what many people today laugh off as "the sixties."
>Those years profound affect on church and society is described accurately,
>with intelligence and sensitivity. Many who want to understand today's
>religious scene will profit from reading "Following Our Bliss."
>
>Robert Warren Cromey
>is a retired priest of the
>Episcopal Church residing
>in San Francisco, CA
Rating:
Summary: An Insightful Trip into the Spirit of the 60s
Review: I really recommend this book. It's like good tea; after it steeps awhile it permeates your thoughts. I felt transformed into worlds I never entered, and remembered some I touched closely. Some of these worlds are pretty far from the mundane world I live in, and it's exciting to read about the questioning of our common day-to-day realities. It helps that the writer is a reporter, because his writing sizzles. The historical aspect of it, along with some courageous personal reactions, make it read like someone telling a good, funny, and bizarre story. It's hard to believe some of this stuff really happened, but even if I was sometimes horrified and sometimes profoundly moved, it's nice to know that life doesn't always go according to plan. As one example, the Chapter on the Moonies tells a very strange, and in some ways tragic, tale of Reverend Moon and his establishing a base in the U.S. At the same time, the author talks about the middle ground where people as obviously crazy as Moon aren't always quite skewed as it first appears. I didn't finish the book feeling that he's pushed his own value system, but rather that he's given me the background and information I need to really understand those times and their legacy better. On top of that, it's a great read.
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