A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
By Mirabai Starr
Monkfish Book Publishing Company
Mirabai Starr has always been drawn to the heart of love that resides at the center of all religions. Of the three Abrahamic faiths―Judaism, Christianity, and Islam―she says, “In a world fractured by an ever-renewed demonization of the other . . . there is a renewed urgency to not only tolerate the other, but to actively engage the love that transmutes the lead of ignorance into the gold of authentic connection.”
Starr, who was raised by secular Jewish parents, went to live at the Lama Foundation as a teen. In that intentional spiritual community she reveled in the opportunity to learn the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Native American, and Sufi traditions. Now an adjunct professor of philosophy and world religions at the University of New Mexico–Taos, Starr has gone beyond “interfaith” attempts at cooperation between religions to become a leading figure in the “interspiritual” movement, which taps into the common roots of all faiths.
Starr uses her gifts as a storyteller to illustrate how the One shows up in human life, no matter which of the “thousand names” are used to describe the Nameless. This One, she says, even “makes an appearance in the heart of the self-described atheist, who gasps in wonder at the beauty of an unexpected snow that fell during the night, carpeting the garden with jewels of frozen light.”