Pluralism in Eat Pray Love

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This brilliant narrative has the ability to woo you into its philosophies of pleasure, prayer, and balance. Be careful. If you do not already have strong convictions, Liz Gilbert will cause you to question your faith by introducing and then coercing you to embrace pluralism and a moral-free spiritualism. Her journey (emotional, spiritual, and physical) is extraordinary, yet it is similar enough to all our struggles that we can read her memoirs and still have lightbulbs blink in our heads: "Me too! Me too!" Then comes the danger of adopting her solutions along with her problems.

As a Christian, I found her book entertaining and insightful. I wanted to read it, knowing already that its views would be contrary to my own. So of course, this created bias. Still, in taking it in, I was struck with sadness over these incorrect points:
1. She is convinced that her marriage cannot be saved even though there is no abuse or adultery involved.
2. She sees no harm in leaping into another relationship as soon as she left her husband's bed...and before her divorce is near to being finalized.
3. Her spirituality does not require moral restrictions. This allows her to feel mystical and peaceful without pursuing holiness.
4. All her spiritual mentors encourage pluralism: "All religions are the same."

Eat Pray Love is another good example of how literary finesse can disguise a dangerous dogma. The concluding theme of her journey is to do what makes you most happy, pray to have inner peace, and find strength within yourself to overcome difficulty. The Bible, however, argues that we should obey God and keep His commandments, pray and study to know God more intimately, and lean on Him for strength, guidance, and wisdom. Opposites--therefore, Christianity will not fit into her pluralistic mindset.

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