A None's Story: Searching for Meaning Inside Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam

This was a book I found it hard to put down. I was drawn by the quality of the writing and the spirit of the writer. Motivated by personal traumas, the last of which was 9/11 when she was working near the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Nicolaou decided to explore what religious traditions might offer. It turned into a four-year project. A second generation “None” - meaning that when filling out a form asking for religious identity she and her parents would check the None box - the author brought a fresh approach to her search. Not only was I impressed by her openness to receive whatever gifts any tradition offered, I found her amazingly courageous in her willingness to visit gatherings of all stripes of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists as a stranger and to throw herself into whatever practices each asked of its members. (She even did the Ramadan fast.) Her summations of the essence of each tradition are excellent, coming from her insightful capacity to notice and to trust her experience. I heartily agreed with her in being turned off mostly by those who imagine they have the absolute answers, and mostly attracted to those who are welcoming and kind and admit to their vulnerability.

This is a wonderful story that would be a great text for a class on Comparative Religions. The writer was raised without a religious background and begins to wonder if she missed anything by not having spiritual guidance. She sets out on a journey of visiting many Christian religions as well as Buddhist, Moslem and Jewish religious/spiritual sites and writes about her personal experiences with each one. Her writing style is easy to follow and delightfully expressive. If you have a religious or spiritual bent but not interested in conversion you will enjoy this book.

Best decision my Professor could have made, having my class read this book. Living in today's society, I think that we should read this book more than ever. This book opens up your eyes to other thoughts, experiences, traditions. You feel as if you are taking the journey through Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam with Corinna. You are able to relate to Corinna more than you might think. You are probably feeling and questioning the same things about religion and life, as her; I know I was. We want to be aware of each religion and their traditions, we don't necessarily have to be experts about each one; this book gives you that insight. It teaches you to be considerate of not only other religions, but other cultures, and people of different races, genders, etc. I feel as though, if you were to read this book, you have to be somewhat optimistic already. I hope she publishes another book, because I will definitely buy and read it. On a side note, she is a really nice individual, my class spoke to her and she is awesome :) .

This book is a moving and sincere look at faith as practiced by many denominations and religions, especially as practiced in the U.S. The writer like so many people today was raised w/out a religious upbringing. To understand why religion matters to so many, she decides to educate herself by opening her heart to understand what each worshiper is seeking in the congregations and temples and mosques she visits. She allows us to join in this search, her awkward and funny moments as well as the truly transcendent moments of love that she shares with people of all faiths. I cannot imagine a better companion in examining the nature of faith.

So far, I'm LOVING this book. Just got past the Christians and am headed into Judaism. If she does as good a job on the rest of the religions as she did on Christianity, then this is EXACTLY what I've been looking for. Very readable.

I thought it was an excellent topic and was written in an interesting and very readable way. By being a personal journey, rather than just informative, the book's content was easier to internalize and much more enjoyable! I learned things, laughed, and found myself wholeheartedly wishing more people had the interest, curiosity, and willingness to explore and be open to possibility...

This is a refreshing, if somewhat uneven account of one woman's search for spirituality, filled with brilliant insights but also some tedious and superficial observations. Nicolaou has made an excellent choice of "religions" (if it is even possible to define this term anymore) since each dates from roughly the same stage of mankind's spiritual development. The only error she might have made is to try and treat Buddhism as a stand-alone body of religious belief when, in fact, it shares common wellsprings with both Confucianism and Taoism. I believe her treatment of Buddhism might have been enhanced if she had had the chance to visit one of those "fusion" temples where all three of these traditions are represented together.But this is a relatively minor issue. More than anyone with the possible exception of Alan Watts, Nicolaou has done an excellent job of zeroing in on the great contradiction underlying most religious bodies in that, on the one hand, they advocate for world peace and harmony among men and women while, at the same time, draw a definite line of demarcation between themselves and other beliefs. Perhaps she is right to suggest that we need to move on toward a post-religion age of spirituality or, at the very least, consider the possibility that an overreliance on religious texts that are thousands of years old may actually be stunting our spiritual growth. We need only to consider places like the Longquan Buddhist Monastery on the outskirts of Beijing (where Buddhism has gone very high-tech!) to see what kind of possible alternatives there might be.This is a book well worth reading if only for the human face it puts on religious belief; the close relationship between the Nicolaou and Khadija provides a special insight into one way human relationships can sometimes transcend religious differences. I have an idea that I will be reading this book again and again in the months and years ahead.