Nervous Systems: Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics

A more accepting, Jesus-centered Christianity can assuage many of the anxieties dominating modern society, according to this expansive treatise from That’s the Spirit podcaster Billups (Orphaned Believers). Drawing on her own struggles with anxiety, which were supercharged by the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges of caring for her aging parents, she assesses how the emotion shows up in today’s world. She finds signs of anxiety in bodies that are overstimulated by technology; in a church that’s increasingly ill-equipped to meet society’s needs; and in a conservative politics that serves as a refuge from an unstable world, with rising fears about America’s waning Christian identity pushing evangelicals, in particular, “into the arms of Donald Trump” and other politicians promising a return to order. Billups contends that the solution is a more inclusive Christianity that provides comfort without offering false promises and supports a humble and welcoming church community that “pursues an earthly holiness... inspired by the teachings of Jesus,” including by using “words instead of weapons.” While the thesis can sometimes get lost in lengthy meditations on Billups’s own caregiving experiences, the links she draws between individual and systemic stressors are incisive and thought-provoking. This will provide stressed-out Christians with plenty of food for thought. (Nov.)