A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor reflects on teaching world religions and bringing students into mosques, synagogues, temples, and other sacred spaces. Through encounters, classroom stories, and memoir, she describes ‘holy envy’: recognizing beauty or wisdom in another tradition without pretending differences disappear or that appreciation makes the other tradition one's own.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
It offers Christian-origin travelers a relational bridge from anxiety about other religions toward attentive encounter. Taylor models curiosity that can deepen humility without requiring instant theological resolution. The book is especially useful where comparative information alone feels bloodless, while the Library's framing guards against making other communities scenery for a Christian teacher's spiritual growth.
Good starting place if…
Christian identity still matters to you and you want a warm, story-shaped introduction to learning from religious neighbors without flattening difference.
Know before you begin…
Taylor remains the narrator and Christian interpreter, and classroom visits cannot represent whole traditions or communities. ‘Holy envy’ can become spiritual consumption if admiration is detached from relationship, history, and accountability. The book is memoir and pedagogy, not a balanced religions textbook, and its encounters should lead toward internally voiced sources rather than replace them.