An ordained Unitarian Universalist cleric, a longtime chaplain at Tufts University, then dean of religious life at Stanford University and minister of its Memorial Church, Scotty McLennan has “nurtured a passionate commitment to both religious liberalism and social justice for 40 years,” Daniel Clenenin affirms in his weekly webzine, Journey With Jesus. What else he is, is the inspiration for the Rev. Scott Sloan’s character in Garry Trudeau’s comic strip “Doonesbury”.
From 1999, this book, which Publishers Weekly calls “entertaining, gentle, and affirming,” shows up a “solid and substantive defence of interfaith understanding,” Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat write in Spirituality & Practice. In it, McLennan “reassures anyone at a spiritual crossroads,” Stanford University observes, “that finding a relevant and fulfilling spirituality is a process of understanding one’s place in any of six universal stages of faith: magic, reality, dependence, independence, interdependence, and unity. He offers signposts and checklists for determining where readers are on their own spiritual journey, and for helping them grow and develop.”
(Mind you, a Kirkus Reviews opinion writer grouses: So, “picking a religion is not so different from picking a new car.”)
Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up With has Lost its Meaning, by Scotty McLennan
HarperOne, 1999
