An Altar in the World is Barbara Brown Taylor's guide to finding the sacred in ordinary life. Drawing on her experience as an Episcopal priest who left parish ministry for a farm and a college classroom, she presents twelve practices — from paying attention and getting lost to carrying water and pronouncing blessings — through which everyday activities become sites of encounter with the divine.
The book makes a single sustained argument: that there is no spiritual life separable from the bodily, physical life we already have. Taylor's approach is grounded in the Christian contemplative tradition but deliberately accessible to readers outside institutional religion. Each chapter names a practice and a corresponding virtue (Vision, Reverence, Incarnation, Groundedness, Wilderness, Community, Vocation, Sabbath, Physical Labor, Breakthrough, Prayer, Benediction), offering a practical theology of ordinary life.
Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.
Chapter 1, "The Practice of Waking Up to God"
First lines
What is saving my life now is the conviction that there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth. My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them. My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul. What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.
Contents
Introduction
The Practice of Waking Up to God (Vision)
The Practice of Paying Attention (Reverence)
The Practice of Wearing Skin (Incarnation)
The Practice of Walking on the Earth (Groundedness)
The Practice of Getting Lost (Wilderness)
The Practice of Encountering Others (Community)
The Practice of Living with Purpose (Vocation)
The Practice of Saying No (Sabbath)
The Practice of Carrying Water (Physical Labor)
The Practice of Feeling Pain (Breakthrough)
The Practice of Being Present to God (Prayer)
The Practice of Pronouncing Blessings (Benediction)
Reception
An Altar in the World became a New York Times bestseller and reached audiences well beyond church circles, including retreat centers, seminary courses, and reading groups with no formal religious affiliation. Publishers Weekly awarded it a starred review; the National Catholic Reporter described it as "the most completely beautiful book in religion that I have read in a very long time." Taylor was named to Time magazine's 2014 Time 100 list of most influential people in the world, a recognition shaped in part by this book and its predecessor Leaving Church. Readers and critics generally found the twelve-practice structure approachable; some theological reviewers noted that Taylor works close to immediate experience and largely sets aside systematic questions, which is consistent with her stated intent. The book has sold particularly well among readers who had distanced themselves from institutional religion and were looking for a less doctrinal approach to spiritual life.
Frequently asked
What is An Altar in the World about?
It is Barbara Brown Taylor's account of finding the sacred in everyday life. She presents twelve practices — from paying attention to getting lost to pronouncing blessings — as ways of encountering the divine outside any church building. Her central claim is that there is no spiritual life separable from the physical life we already have.
Who is this book written for?
Taylor addresses readers who feel that ordinary life and spiritual life have come apart. She writes from her experience as an Episcopal priest who left parish ministry for a farm in northern Georgia, and the book appeals both to practising Christians and to readers with no formal religious affiliation who are looking for a grounded approach to spiritual life.
How does it relate to Taylor's other books?
It is the second book in an informal trilogy following Leaving Church (2006), in which Taylor wrote about leaving full-time parish ministry. An Altar in the World carries the argument forward: if Leaving Church describes departing the institution, An Altar in the World describes what she found outside it. Learning to Walk in the Dark (2014) continues the same thread.