The Secret Despair of the Secular Left - by Ana Levy-Lyons (Hardcover)

About the Book

What is lost when tradition and religion are discarded--community, connection to Earth, and sense of our physical/animal nature. This results in a surprising, often secret grief as we mourn what we felt proud to not want or need. Contrasted with traditional spiritual offerings, this book reclaims connection and inner joy.

Book Synopsis

A compelling and timely exploration of the spiritual void in modernity, and an invitation to reclaim a more connected and spiritually fulfilling way of life.

What is lost when we lose our religion? Our traditions? Connection and community? In The Secret Despair of the Secular Left, Ana Levy-Lyons seeks to find out. Levy-Lyons, a rabbinical student with a previous 18-year career as a Unitarian Universalist minister, shares insights into what goes missing when we lose our religious underpinnings and deeply held beliefs and practices. Drawing from a wide range of perspectives, including Jewish, Christian, and eastern religious traditions, Indigenous societies, and countercultural communities, Levy-Lyons aims to understand the sources of our modern despair and help readers find pathways of healing and reconnection.

Levy-Lyons investigates three primary losses in today's world: disconnection, dislocation, and disembodiment. Disconnection refers to the loss of ties to community and each other in a world dominated by virtual interactions and polarizing social media. Dislocation is our separation from the earth and our intrinsic relationship with the land and our roots. Finally, disembodiment finds us alienated from our physical selves and our spiritual essence. In a society increasingly detached from our essential nature, we have forgotten the profound knowledge and wisdom that our bodies hold.

When we realize what we've lost, we experience deep grief. But in exploring and understanding these losses, we are also self-empowered to reclaim pathways to more connected, grounded, and spirit-filled lives.

Review Quotes

"A probing critique." --Publishers Weekly

"The Secret Despair of the Secular Left is a powerful and intimate journey into the heart of our disenchanted world. It will be an eye-opening read for anyone with a nagging sense that something is wrong in our post-religious, tech-happy era, but can't quite put a finger on it. Levy-Lyons lifts up the stories of ordinary people and interprets them as if they were dreams, allowing us to climb inside them, look around, and understand our lives at a deeper level. She gently invites us to see the layers of grief and loss just below the surface. In naming the hidden losses of our modern era, this book gives voice to our deepest yearnings for real connection. It can empower us and inspire us to move toward change." --Rabbi David A. Ingber, founding rabbi of Romemu, and Senior Director for Jewish Life and the Bronfman Center at 92NY

"Ana Levy-Lyons gives voice to grief, grief that realizes we've been duped. It's not fame and followers we need or want. It's not the perfect pair of jeans on the perfectly sculpted backside. What we are hungry for is authentic community, grounded in cultural traditions, connected to our precious bodies, living on this sacred and generous planet. We want to be part of something greater than ourselves. Levy-Lyons helps show us the way back." -- Rev. Adriene Thorne, senior minister, The Riverside Church in the City of New York

"The Secret Despair of the Secular Left is an insightful, moving, and wise meditation on our contemporary condition. But this is no abstract analysis! With honesty, grace, and soulfulness, Ana Levy-Lyons shares her own psycho-spiritual journey and remarkable stories she has gathered along the way to help us understand the sources of the diseases of despair and loneliness afflicting our society: disconnection from each other, dislocation from our earth, and disembodiment from our selves. Read this book and you will not only find illumination and inspiration but an authentic path for human flourishing." --Irwin Kula, president emeritus of Clal: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

"The Secret Despair of the Secular Left is a cri de coeur that makes us sit up in our chairs and reconsider our lives. In this engaging, not easily pigeonholed book, Levy-Lyons details how secular liberal values have resulted in devastating disconnection from our deepest selves, our communities and our planet. Drawing from Judaism and other religious traditions, philosophers and social justice thinkers, as well as her own experience as a spiritual leader, she challenges us to recommit to responsibility, embodied connection and awe." -- Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, teacher, spiritual director, and former leader of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality