c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is author of “Turn Toward the Wind” and publisher of Religion News Service. She is the mother of two boys.)

UNDATED _ There are those who find God in a dramatic, Damascus Road conversion. In a defining moment they turn from their past and set off on a new course, changed in belief and behavior.

But most of us come to God in a more mundane way, meandering through everyday life and turning toward the sacred in fits and starts.

If we are fortunate, our faith becomes defined enough to allow us to look back on the road that brought us to our current rest stop. From this vantage point we can see that what looked like dead ends were really new avenues. We are able to redefine human losses as spiritual gains. And we are even able to see the divine thread that was woven through seemingly random events.

Some religions strive to define the process, using such terms as”seeker,””believer”and even”backslider”to pinpoint a person on the spiritual road map. Other religions are less inclined to definition, preferring to let the individual define his or her own movement toward God.

This may be acceptable in other cultures, but Americans are rarely comfortable with ambiguity. We like definitions and labels, even for intangible processes. That was what made Gail Sheehy’s”Passages of Life”such a hit in the 70s.

The 90’s incarnation of that book is less absorbed with the psychological than the spiritual. In”The Five Stages of the Soul”(Anchor), Harry Moody takes a look at how individuals move from the secular to the sacred, staying away from the labels used by traditional religion, and instead, offering a rare and remarkable glimpse at the workings of the human heart.

Moody manages to offer a bird’s eye view of a journey that leads some to Buddhism and others to faith in Christ. Yet his ecumenism never short changes the authenticity of even traditional believers. He allows each person to”testify”to his or her experience in their own terms.

Even more helpful is the regular comparisons made among religions and sacred texts. For example, in a section on breakthroughs, the author relates the story of a woman who began to see that her attention to her dying mother was not totally unselfish. As she begins to sort through her motives, Moody offers explanations from the teachings of Jesus on self-righteousness and then quotes a Buddhist saying. He treats each with respect, and shows the similar strains that run through the different religions.

Divided into five sections, the book offers personal experiences, examples from literature and references to sacred texts and sayings to define each spiritual passage.

Starting with”The Call,”Moody explains what happens when we begin to wonder if there is something more to life than our job, family and material wealth. He defines this as an inner pressure to explore the deeper parts of our lives.

Next comes”The Search”, when we begin to read, listen and explore the teachings of others who have made a spiritual journey. The third stage is”The Struggle,”a time when some give up and others persevere. In this section Moody takes on some of the hardest questions we ask: How do we deal with the death of our dreams? What is the place of service? Can doubt coexist with faith?

After the darkest times of struggle often comes”The Breakthrough,”says Moody. For those who have stayed on the journey, there comes a pay off, a dawning, even a spiritual rebirth.

And finally comes”The Return,”when we bring our new found understanding back to the rest of our life and share it with others.

For anyone who has wondered about the spiritual dimension of life or has embraced it, this book provides a gentle road map to the process. Traditionalists will find it respectful and open-minded, even as it includes more nontraditional and Eastern religious thought.

Perhaps the greatest benefit comes in helping those who are in the early stages of a spiritual journey. It shows what happens when flirtation with God moves to infatuation and then mature love.”The Five Stages of the Soul”offers encouragement and vision for the ultimate romance: when man looks at the One who has loved him all along and was just waiting for him to notice.

END BOURKE