"Personal testimonies" are as evangelical as apple pies are American. But each one, when told well, is refreshing in its uniqueness and acts as a vivid reminder that God tailors his work to the person. The Spirit cannot be reduced to a formula.

In the April 26, 1999, issue of CT, we brought you Glenn Tinder's story of hearing God on a battleship in World War II. In this narrative, Alice Evans leads us up a winding philosophical road that ultimately reconnects her with the body of Christ. Expect more such accounts under the heading of Testimony in future issues.

The woman was shouting. I imagined she was shouting about abortion. And yet I didn't know for sure that she was even shouting. She might have been singing. But seeing her face triggered my long-held prejudices toward "religious" people.

The face appeared in an ad for Linda Kintz's visit to a nearby bookstore in my hometown of Eugene, Oregon, to talk about her book Between Jesus and the Market: The Emotions That Matter in Right-Wing America. In the ad Kintz, an English professor at the University of Oregon, asks, "Why are so many women involved in what others consider an anti-woman force?"

It was August 1997, and I saw Kintz as an ally and wanted to agree with her. A long-time feminist, I was a political and social liberal. During nearly three decades as an eclectic spiritual seeker, I had rarely touched ground in a Sunday-morning Christian service. My journey had led me down the brilliant path of modern psychology, through the mind-bending experiences of hallucinogens, and into the written work of Western masters of altered perception: Aldous Huxley, Ram Dass, John Lilly, Carlos Castaneda. I had studied in depth the works of C. J. Jung; learned from Tibetan Buddhists, ...