Meaning in the Moment

If you are familiar with the work of Dr. Amy F. Davis Abdallah, then you already have a good idea of what to expect from her latest book "Meaning in the Moment: How Rituals Help Us Move Through Joy, Pain, and Everything In Between."

A Professor of Theology and Bible at Nyack College who also teaches worship at Alliance Theological Seminary, Dr. Davis Abdallah has a longtime interest the use of rituals to help survive and even thrive through various seasons of life.

"Meaning in the Moment" is an incredibly well researched yet relatable journey through a part of Christian practice that is often misunderstood even as most who believe experience rituals in a wide variety of ways.

I will admit that one of the reasons I picked up "Meaning in the Moment" was because of my own deep appreciation for rituals and my own being in a transitional life period as I prepare for major surgery that will change my body due to having bladder cancer. I appreciated the ways in which Davis Abdallah draws from not just theology but also her own personal experiences and psychology in creating rituals for herself and others. Indeed, "Meaning in the Moment" isn't simply some intellectual exercise, it's infused with the author's own experiences and her own weaving a tapestry of ritual in her own life.

While "Meaning in the Moment" is well researched in terms of history and theology, Davis Abdallah also infuses much of the book with practical guidance for readers to create our own meaningful rituals with a specific focus on three types requiring varying levels of planning and participation - right now, with friends, and at church.

I appreciated, as well, that Davis Abdallah is, at times, rather uncompromising. For example, she writes of the importance of "performing" rituals well and realizing that when we do rituals doing them poorly reduces the impact of the experience that we and others can have. At first, this felt harsh to me yet as I read on I began to realize that in order for us to experience the transformative power of rituals they need to be thoughtful, researched, intentional, and manifested in meaningful ways. I've both given and received rituals that fell short of the desired impact - so, yeah, I definitely got it by the end of "Meaning in the Moment."

In "Meaning in the Moment," Davis Abdallah brings to life the history of rituals and also gently guides us through how much of our lives are influenced by the presence of rituals that take us through life's big and small moments. By the end of "Meaning in the Moment," I began to realize that I longed for a ritual to honor this next stage of my life as my body changes and I adjust to my new state of physical being.

Transformative, indeed.

"Meaning in the Moment: How Rituals Help Us Move through Joy, Pain, and Everything in Between" caught my attention because of the really intriguing title. The author has adopted this definition of the word ritual, "a specific behavior or activity which gives symbolic expression to certain feelings and thoughts of the actor(s) individually or as a group." However, while I was intrigued by the title, the actual content within the book was different from what I expected. The author lists several types of rituals which can be done in front of a church gathering, instead of rituals that can just be done quietly within yourself at your own home. While there were many mentions of Biblical passages, there were many New Age elements within this book as well. Most chapters ended with a suggested ritual/prayer for the reader.

While I didn't agree with or understand a lot of the book, I can agree that it was well written. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Speaking to why rituals (big and small) matter, Amy F. Davis Abdallah writes at length of her own experience founding a group that focuses on rituals. As a reader, I was more than tired of reading about this group over and over again. It became increasingly repetitive without offering much of anything new in later chapters. The best part of the book would be the suggested practices at the end of each chapter.

Meaning in the Moment: How Rituals Help Us Move through Joy, Pain, and Everything in Between by Amy F. Davis Abdallah is such a phenomenal book. It explains the history of rituals around the world and why they make a difference in life. I love the way this book shows specific examples of how to use rituals in life’s events and challenges. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

In Meaning in the Moment, Amy F. Davis Abdallah employs ritual “to honor life’s ends, middles, and beginnings in ways appropriate to a Christian community’s subculture.” There’s no magic in the words or the forms of a ritual, but attention, preparation, and sometimes repetition allow us as humans to hold a moment up to the light, to mark some event as special or significant.

Divided into three sections, the book answers three questions anyone might bring to the topic of ritual:

Why practice ritual?
How do we ritualize?
What do we ritualize?
I appreciated the author’s focus on celebrating endings as well as beginnings. Rituals both celebrate and grieve and “grieving the loss of the old enables us to celebrate the new” with integrity.

Like the Abdallah family, my kids also looked forward to pizza and movie nights. We also lit Advent candles, visited the same beaches and picnic sites every summer, and hunted for birthday scavenger hunt clues without once using the word ritual, but that’s what we were doing!

As embodied creatures, rituals help us to connect spiritual concepts with our lives here on the ground. Paul instituted one of our best-known commemorations with repeatable words: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death until he comes.” So we take the cup, we chew the bread, and we wait. In hope.

Many thanks to Brazos Press and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.