It’s a weird time right now. We went through an earth-shattering pandemic. Climate change is actively and noticeably affecting the world. Resource extraction is killing us. Grief is everywhere and we do not hold space for dealing with that pain, let alone the global trauma we all went through recently. This is the world we’re in and the world Josiah Neufeld is grappling with in his memoir, The Temple at the End of the Universe. An ex-evangelical Christian, Neufeld is trying to cope with his grief about climate change, his work as an activist, and figure out ways to sort through the lack of meaning in his life as he tackles these issues. This book is his exploration of spirituality, connection with the land, and tying those experiences to greater resilience in activism.
Neufeld’s memoir weaves in and out of his personal journey (his life as the child of missionaries and growing up in Burkina Faso, to slowly leaving his faith behind), his work as a climate activist and supporter, and broader work on providing information about land claims, Indigenous governance, and active land defense by Indigenous activists and allies. This is an interesting story of a man who grew up believing in spreading the word of God to sitting back and focusing on learning from Indigenous land defenders and connecting his challenges with spirituality. I appreciated the meditations on land, concern for appropriating and trying to be respectful, and learning to live with discomfort, as well as re-establishing a connection to the lands we occupy.
“Neufeld lays out his learning and his vulnerability in a way most white people are not willing to do.”
However, there was certainly a lot of meandering in this memoir, and I don’t think it was tied together as well as it could have been. Neufeld opens The Temple at the End of the Universe with a disclaimer that he’s not going to give people answers about their own journeys in spirituality, which is fair. The chapters were well-written and interesting on their own, but as a whole, it was somewhat discordant. Perhaps this is my own lack of religion, and not having a background in that kind of life and faith. Most moving, on the other hand, were Neufeld’s experiences at Coyote Camp, with the Wet’suwet’en land defenders. Working with activists, listening to the lessons of the elders, and providing assistance and support in a tense and destructive skirmish. Neufeld lays out his learning and his vulnerability in a way most white people are not willing to do.
The Temple at the End of the Universe is a thoughtful memoir, searching for greater meaning in a fraught world, and learning to be connected to the land once again. It can be wandering, and a little uneven in terms of how the narrative grows, but it’s an interesting exploration of spirituality, and one perfectly on tone for the current state of our world.
Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.
JOSIAH NEUFELD is an award-winning journalist who grew up as an expatriate in Burkina Faso and returned to Canada as a young adult. His essays, journalism, and short fiction have been published in the Walrus, Hazlitt, the Globe and Mail, Eighteen Bridges, the Ottawa Citizen, the Vancouver Sun, Utne Reader, Prairie Fire, and the New Quarterly. He lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
- Publisher : House of Anansi Press (June 6 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 148701063X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1487010638
