For too long, says Elizabeth Dreyer, the kind of spirituality taught to Christian lay people has been clerical and monastic. It has not been grounded in the ways of living actually experienced by lay people-incorporating sexuality, childraising, work, the marketplace and the earth. A major effort is being made in our day to reformulate spirituality in a way that makes sense to ordi-nary Christians. More than anything else, this new attitude pro-claims that God is best discovered not in the withdrawal from everyday life but in the act of living it.

Earth Crammed with Heaven is a pioneering attempt to artic-ulate the paradigm shift in attitudes toward lay spirituality. It is written for persons who are on an intentional spiritual journey that has everyday existence and the entire world as its focal points. It maintains that baptized Christians do not have to change their daily activities in order to become saints. The potential for sainthood is located in the depth and intentionality of ordinary living.

Elizabeth A. Dreyer is an associate professor in the Depart-ment of Ecclesiastical History at the Washington Theological Union, Silver Spring, Maryland. She earned a Ph.D. in historical theology at Marquette University and is the author of two books. Manifestations of Grace (Liturgical Press) and Passionate Women: Two Medieval Mystics (Paulist Press)