F. Forrester Church, senior minister of All Soul's Church in New York City, acknowledges that the frame of this devotional work comes from a model developed by Oxford philosopher Bernard Williams, who categorized the difficult dimensions of human identity in terms of projects — the child project, the parent project, the love project, the vocation project, the justice project, and the God project. The author wants us to think of "lifecraft" as the art of discerning value in our lives. He notes "meaning is not absolute; no suit fits all."
Church ponders the meaning of life and death while traveling in Egypt, Australia, and Switzerland. He also wants us to ponder the death of Princess Diana. At first, he refused to watch the television coverage of her funeral. But seeing how his wife and so many others were moved by the event, he tried to reflect on the "meanings Diana might have discovered and created in her life." He concludes that this international celebrity showed us how to rise above feelings of unworthiness by giving love to others and building their self-esteem. Of all the attention to Diana's tragic death, Church writes: "Anything that brings us together — inspiring us to open our hearts, hands, or minds, to forget our differences for a moment and remember we are one — is a sacrament."
Church certainly is well-read. There are references to Shakespeare, Thornton Wilder, Hermann Hesse, and Modest Mussorgsky. But in comparison to the depth of some of his other works, this one comes across as a friendly pastor's notes from his daybook.