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Elizabeth Gilbert—a "Religious Pilgrim" for Our Times

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat claims that if there's a representative "religious pilgrim" for our post-Christian times, it's probably Elizabeth Gilbert. In 2001, at age 32, Gilbert had a rewarding day job as a travel writer, an apartment in Manhattan, a big new house in the Hudson Valley, and a devoted husband with whom she intended to have a child. Just five short years later, her spiritual odyssey began at 3 A.M. with Gilbert locked in the bathroom of her home, weeping over the life she didn't want anymore, and then falling on her knees in prayer.

Culturally, she was some sort of Christian, although she could never swallow the idea that Christ is the only path to God. So that night she addressed the divine as "God" and "He" while she also kept an open mind to Whoever might be listening—"The Universe, the Great Void, the Force, the Supreme Self, The Whole, The Creator, the Light, The Higher Power …." Her prayer was a simple plea: "I don't want to be married anymore. I don't want to be married anymore. I don't want to live in this big house. I don't want to have this baby."

At long last, someone spoke back. Gilbert writes, "It was not an Old Testament Hollywood Charlton Heston voice, nor was it a voice telling me I must build a baseball field in my backyard. It was merely my own voice, speaking from within my own self …. [And yet], this was my voice as I had never heard it before. This was my voice, but perfectly wise, calm and compassionate. This was what my voice would sound like if I'd only ever experienced love and certainty in my life. How can I describe the warmth of affection in that voice, as it gave me the answer that would forever seal my faith in the divine?"

Fortified by this "religious conversation," she left the husband and the house and the plans for having kids behind and set out into the unknown. Then she started her globe-trotting "spiritual quest" that led to the publishing phenomenon known as Eat, Pray, Love—a book that spent an extraordinary 187 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts.

But Gilbert's voice isn't unique. Douthat writes, "The message of [Gilbert's] Eat, Pray, Love is the same gospel preached by a cavalcade of contemporary gurus, teachers, and would-be holy men and women." Douthat calls it the religion of "God Within." And it's best summed up by Gilbert herself when she writes, "God dwells within you as you yourself, exactly the way you are …. Somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace." According to Gilbert, her highest duty is to "honor the divinity that resides within me."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Gilbert's story highlights our need for Scripture, not just feelings and religious impressions that can easily lead us astray. We must not follow feelings and impressions if they disagree with God's revealed truth. All of our thoughts must be tested by Scripture. (2) Gilbert's views express the New Age spirituality of our day, which says that we are all in some sense divine.

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