SPIRITUALITY 101: The Indispensable Guide to Keeping—or Finding—Your Spiritual Life on Campus

"This book," Schwartz tells her undergraduate readers, "is about helping you frame and explore the questions that you face as you explore your spirituality"—whatever religious tradition that spirituality may involve. Individual chapters focus on these questions, which typically involve the intersection of one's personal faith with issues common to a university setting, such as exploring drinking, dating and sex; joining campus religious organizations; sharing one's faith; encountering ignorance or intolerance; and navigating crises. Schwartz, Assistant Director of the Career Center at Carnegie Mellon University, provides an introduction to each section, but the bulk of each chapter is given over to brief essays compiled from students and educators at some 30 college campuses across the U.S.These contributions—representing such diverse faith traditions as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduismand "Unitarian Universalist Pagan"—vary in quality, ranging from the entertaining and insightful(Joshua Gruenspecht's "Praying for an Extension") to the merely adequate,but all offer a personal perspective on meeting the challenges of being a person of faith on campus. Most are refreshingly non-didactic, focusing instead on the contributor's own experience with the topic at hand. Some, however, are intentionally pragmatic, offering step-by-step suggestions for handling practical concerns: What if finals fall on a holy day? How can I start my own religious organization on campus? While conservative readers may balk at the book's relentlessly ecumenical tone, those open to exploring their spirituality in college will find this book a helpful guide. (June)