THE WAY OF GRATITUDE

A leading Unitarian minister offers an inspiring guide to living a meaningful life by embracing the power of gratitude.

As a pastor of a large and active congregation on the Upper East Side of New York City, Galen Guengerich realized that the people who filled the sanctuary on Sunday mornings were looking for a way of living that would bring them satisfaction and joy. They no longer based their lives on the dictates of established religious doctrine, but they also found contemporary culture, which is largely based on consumerism, individualism, and various forms of competition, spiritually unsatisfying.

People are looking for a way to think about and live their lives, that brings together all of its various dimensions - physical, emotional, relational, professional, economic, political, etc - into one cohesive and satisfying place. In this sense, Guengerich believes spirituality isn't one dimension of life that we set alongside all the other dimensions of life; rather, it's the process of finding how everything in our lives fits together and relates to everything else.

This book will help establish a deeply spiritual approach to living - indeed, a way of life - for people who want to be spiritually enlightened and spiritually fulfilled, either outside the bounds of organized religion or even within. As Guengerich describes, far more is at stake in establishing gratitude as a way of life than individual spiritual satisfaction. Our nation's early commitment to keep the institutions of church and state separate included one key assumption: virtually everyone in society was part of a religious community. This participation provided everyone with a source of moral capital - spiritual formation (as a child), an ethical framework for deciding right and wrong, and a larger purpose to use as a moral compass in life. As fewer and fewer people spend time in religious communities, most of which are in decline, the question of where people will get their spiritual, ethical, and moral guidance becomes increasingly acute. Of course, media and the marketplace are eagerly filling this vacuum by championing the values of individualism and consumerism. But in order for us to thrive, we each need to develop a way of life that takes seriously our relationship to the people and world around us - and our responsibility for them.

THE WAY OF GRATITUDE responds to this crisis of meaning by offering an inspiring source of hope through an expansive approach to spirituality. Over the past few decades, our lives have become increasingly dominated by people who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. Nearly one-third of all Americans now describe themselves in this way, a proportion that tops 40% among the millennial generation. One poll found that 72%(!) of millennials describe themselves as "more spiritual than religious". In a provocative new book, one of our nation's leading guides at the intersection of spirituality and popular culture asks what it would mean for people who describe themselves in this way to take themselves seriously as spiritual beings.

Rev. Galen Guengerich, the charismatic, brilliant leader of one of the nation's most prominent Unitarian congregations, All Souls Church, shares with readers his wisdom on how to lead a spiritual life through the practice of gratitude. When Guengerich was in his mid-twenties, he left the Conservative Mennonite Church, the faith of his upbringing, seeking the way of life that was right for him. For Guengerich, transcendence is not limited to an experience of God but can be reached through gratitude's ability to take us beyond ourselves and create connection to others and the universe. Through his personal story, poems that resonate with his spiritual message, and guided spiritual practices, including "gratitude goals," this book helps readers discover how the way of gratitude can make them happier and healthier, and provide a new sense of belonging not only to the universe as a whole but also to themselves.