cover image In the Middle of This Road We Call Our Life: The Courage to Search for Something More

In the Middle of This Road We Call Our Life: The Courage to Search for Something More

James W. Jones. HarperOne, $20 (213pp) ISBN 978-0-06-250960-4

The search for the intimacy that gives life meaning is a process involving both spiritual and psychological dimensions. Psychologist James Jones, professor of Religion at Rutgers University, explores the nexus of these two processes in the lives of ordinary men and women who want ``something more'' out of life. He challenges established orthodoxies within both fields, collapsing dichotomies that typically separate them and showing instead their interrelatedness in the search for meaning. This is a personalized exploration of how men and women are able to transcend the discontent of their lives, the ``malaise of modernity,'' as Jones calls it, through psychological and spiritual transformation. Jones's conservative and commonsensical treatment of the topic is both a strength and a drawback. The book is readable, the ideas accessible and easily palatable, but, especially as one nears the end, they come dangerously near to blandness. (Jan.)