Review: Inspirational book fails to find 'Edge'

"God at the Edge"
By Niles Elliot Goldstein
Harmony/Bell Tower
Religions-Spirituality/Adventure
204 pages

In this story: Vision quests and mystics Lots of action, little thought RELATED SITES

By Joshua Kuritzky
Special to CNN

(CNN) -- With its title and cover image of a dog sled in the middle of a wintry nowhere, "God at the Edge" suggests scenes of back streets, biker gangs, war zones and wastelands. "Searching for the Divine in Uncomfortable and Unexpected Places" reads the subtitle, prompting even more imagined scenes of its author, Rabbi Niles Goldstein, dangling off cliffs, cowering in foxholes and bringing God to the most Godforsaken.

This is a cover we can't help but judge, and one that, consistent with the cliche, we judge incorrectly. This is not an inspirational book of God in strange places and spiritual redemption in the face of who-knows-what. No, this is something else entirely. This is not about Rabbi Goldstein bringing God to the edge, but rather the edge bringing God to the rabbi.

The book begins with Goldstein recounting the night he spent in prison while he was a college student. He was an angry and unpredictable young man, but this experience, after an "incident" at a bar, was the low point necessary to realize that something was wrong, that he needed to change. While incarcerated, he felt a spiritual stirring and soon after began contemplating how he could best serve his community. The spiritual path Goldstein followed from there was unusual and often dangerous.

Following the tale of his prison experience, Goldstein presents a brief historical exploration of imprisonment and the spiritual rebirth it can provoke. The remainder of the book adheres to the same structure -- in each chapter, Goldstein shares one of his adventures at the Edge and then presents historical examples with similar lessons and themes.

Vision quests and mystics

As the book progresses we learn about Goldstein's experiences with vision quests and mystics, dog sledding and what it takes to run an Internet-based ministry. All of these experiences are coupled with their historical counterparts. "God at the Edge" serves as a brief introduction to the history of mystics and asceticism and a number of lesser known Jewish and Christian heroes, all of whom walked an unusual path and often paid a horrible price for it.

Niles Elliot Goldstein

All of this is meant by Goldstein to illustrate that spiritual growth and enlightenment can come from all sorts of things, and that, as he writes, " it is not rational analysis, but spiritual vitality that unlocks the gates of religious insight, that connects human beings to God."

Throughout "God at the Edge," Goldstein attempts to fulfill this statement, describing the growth of his own spiritual vitality while also presenting a rational, but brief, analysis of the history of religious insight.

This form of half confession and half history is not always successful. One is left with a feeling of having read only half of two separate books. Although the historical portions are interesting and well researched, their use as historical precedent for Goldstein's behavior is somewhat worrisome.

Lots of action, little thought

This points to a larger problem in "God at the Edge" -- in order for it to be successful as anything other than a brief history of alternative religious practices, there must be more about Rabbi Goldstein. It is not enough to present tales of dog sledding in Alaska and working for the Drug Enforcement Agency. If "God at the Edge" is to inspire, then Goldstein must further explore his own thoughts and feelings. We see him in action, "searching for the divine," but what does he do and what does he feel when he's sitting at home?

In a number of chapters Goldstein hints at his own boredom with traditional congregations -- the religious community he has found is a "cult of woe," a community "obsessed with its own degeneration." These are disturbing statements and one wishes that Goldstein had written more in defense of them. We know that he is restless with a regular congregation and we know that seeking out the Edge provides him with spiritual fulfillment, but he never asks the necessary questions. What is it about the Edge that provides him with his alternative path to God? And what does it mean for the members of the "cult of woe" that he's left behind? Can the wilds of suburbia, with all the boring tradition they contain, be the real Edge?

"God at the Edge" is far too short to do all that Rabbi Goldstein would like it to do, but in pointing the way to an alternative path, he offers enough to convince even those most bound to tradition that the Edge, however one defines it, can be redemptive and inspirational.

Random House - Bell Tower books

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