The Secret Despair of the Secular Left: Our Fraying Connections with Our Communities, Our Bodies, and the Earth

A compelling and timely exploration of the spiritual void in modernity, and an invitation to reclaim a more connected and spiritually fulfilling way of life.

What is lost when we lose our religion? Our traditions? Connection and community? In The Secret Despair of the Secular Left, Ana Levy-Lyons seeks to find out. Levy-Lyons, a rabbinical student with a previous 18-year career as a Unitarian Universalist minister, shares insights into what goes missing when we lose our religious underpinnings and deeply held beliefs and practices. Drawing from a wide range of perspectives, including Jewish, Christian, and eastern religious traditions, Indigenous societies, and countercultural communities, Levy-Lyons aims to understand the sources of our modern despair and help readers find pathways of healing and reconnection.

Levy-Lyons investigates three primary losses in today's world: disconnection, dislocation, and disembodiment. Disconnection refers to the loss of ties to community and each other in a world dominated by virtual interactions and polarizing social media. Dislocation is our separation from the earth and our intrinsic relationship with the land and our roots. Finally, disembodiment finds us alienated from our physical selves and our spiritual essence. In a society increasingly detached from our essential nature, we have forgotten the profound knowledge and wisdom that our bodies hold.

When we realize what we've lost, we experience deep grief. But in exploring and understanding these losses, we are also self-empowered to reclaim pathways to more connected, grounded, and spirit-filled lives.

Ana Levy-Lyons, a public theologian and former Unitarian Universalist minister, is a rabbinical student at the Aleph Ordination Program. She is the author of No Other Gods: The Politics of the Ten Commandments. She was a contributing editor at Tikkun magazine, and her work has appeared in Quest, UU World, Criterion, and The Guardian. Her sermons have won numerous awards including the Borden, Davidoff, and the Dana Greeley awards. Ana lives in Manhattan with her husband Jeff and teen-age twins Miriam and Micah.