The Spirituality Gap: Searching for Meaning in a Secular Age

’A beguiling exploration of what contemporary spiritual practices might offer to a world that’s lost its religion’ Dr Sharon Blackie, author of If Women Rose Rooted

Abi Millar is looking for something. She grew up in an evangelical church, but after she lost her faith, she found herself searching for spirituality in other places. Torn between the logical part of her brain and the part that secretly believes in magic, and in the wake of a great loss, she wondered whether her crisis of faith was part of a larger story: at a time when more and more people in the Western world are moving away from organised religion, what does spirituality look like?

The Spirituality Gap follows Abi as she receives a shamanic healing, drinks ayuahuasca, delves into astrology, experiences an awakening in a lake, and attends an atheist church. Written with great warmth, curiosity and humour, it explores our post-religious world from the perspective of someone who is neither a ’spiritual but not religious’ hippie nor an angry atheist. Throughout, she asks: how can we embrace ritual in our own lives even if we are wary of religion?

Abi Millar is a journalist and author living in London. She studied English at Cambridge University and science journalism at City University London, and has written for outlets including Patient, Netdoctor, Elle, Harpers Bazaar, New Statesman and Vice. She is also a yoga teacher who has long been fascinated by the intersection of critical thinking and spirituality. The Spirituality Gap is her first book.