Liz Bucar is a religious ethicist who teaches at Northeastern University, directs the Sacred Writes program, and writes the Religion, Reimagined Substack. Her 2022 book Stealing My Religion examines the ethical complexities around people adopting religious practices from faith traditions they don’t belong to. In her new book, Beyond Wellness, Bucar approaches the same questions with a constructive aim, delving deeply into seven popular wellness practices to show how understanding their religious roots can help the nonreligious people who practice them do so more honestly, more communally, and more ethically.
I’m excited about Beyond Wellness, which is your first book written for a popular audience. Tell us about the book’s main argument and what you’re trying to accomplish with it.
In part, this book comes out of my frustration with the idea that you can be spiritual but not religious. I just think that’s false. It’s like you’re dabbling in religion without being respectful of the communities, the traditions, the texts, the obligations, the discipline, the devotion. All of those things are important.
