The Connected Life: The Art and Science of Relational Spirituality

This perceptive treatise from Hall (Relational Spirituality), a psychology professor at Biola University, tackles modern alienation from a Christian perspective. “Our sense of meaning comes from loving connections with God and others,” Hall suggests, drawing on psychological attachment theory to explain how readers can overcome obstacles that keep Christians isolated. Rising rates of divorce and depression and the decline of civic and community organizations point toward growing social disconnection, Hall contends. He argues this disconnect extends to spirituality, and summarizes his research findings that people who are insecurely attached to their childhood caregivers sometimes replicate these dynamics with God, with some young people reporting that they guard “against vulnerability with God” because they fear feelings of shame and guilt. To build meaningful connections, Hall recommends opening oneself to God’s love and spreading it to others, as well as building relationships grounded in a shared identity as God’s “chosen people.” Hall’s diagnosis of the “connection crisis” is overly reliant on dubious nostalgia (people “have become more individualistic and materialistic... and consume more electronic entertainment in a more mindless way,” he claims), but his penetrating analysis of his interviews with young Christians provides a robust psychological perspective on contemporary attitudes toward God. This is an uncommonly cogent marriage of science and Christianity. (June)