"Running to the Mountain," by Jon Katz. Villard. 224 pages. $20.

Jon Katz is a former newspaperman and television executive who was looking for a change.

A few years ago, he went through a major transition, becoming a free-lance writer and a stay-at-home father who was dubbed the Prince of Rides for his carpool prowess.

But now, approaching his 50th birthday and dealing with the trauma of his daughter's spinal surgery, he feels compelled to withdraw from his family and their northern New Jersey home to the solitude of a run-down cabin on a mountain in upstate New York.

"Running to the Mountain" is Katz's account of his adventure of buying and fixing up his retreat, and the spiritual struggle he engages in within its walls. His only companions are his two yellow Labradors and the works of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who introduced the notions of solitude and contemplation to a generation of spiritual seekers.

As a memoir of that adventure -- chronicling the seeming foolhardiness of a man already in debt and with a tenuous income stream who would buy a second home, and the cast of characters he encounters in his new life on the mountain -- the book is delightful.

There is Lenny, the truck driver who built the cabin with his father and filled it with tacky knick knacks; Doc, Katz's next door neighbor who calls during thunderstorms to make sure Katz isn't standing outside to watch them and get struck by lightning; and Clarence, the clairvoyant dowser who always finds water for the mountain's wells.

But the subtitle is "A journey of faith and change," and as a spiritual autobiography, the book ultimately fails.

The problem lies with Katz's definition of faith. Although he considers himself to be a spiritual person, he does not approach faith from within any religious tradition and he says he is not a religious man. He rejected the Judaism of his parents and attended Quaker meetings for a while, but the world of dogma and doctrine hold no appeal for him.

Katz says that in his spiritual quest he wants to avoid the pitfalls of narcissism, but that is where finally he ends up. Although most religious traditions encourage adherents to look inward, the object of faith is not within oneself, but in what Alcoholics Anonymous calls "a higher power" beyond oneself.

But when Katz talks about the faith that he finds at the end of his summer on the mountain, he speaks of becoming the architect of his own life, having faith in his work and in his dreams for himself and his family. He finally finds something to believe in -- himself.

Katz has a point when he says that many contemplatives, Merton included, treat the spiritual quest as such a lofty enterprise that it seems inaccessible to those of us who have to deal with the everyday hassles of work and family. In spending time in his mountain retreat, he says he hoped to find that change, spirituality and idealism were not just something from "Up There, but also Down Here, in the details of life -- family, work, friends, dogs, dreams."

I think Katz is on the right track in seeking his spirituality in his everyday life. But let's hope the end product is not quite so mundane.

John Rivera has been the religion reporter for The Sun since April 1997. He covered Pope John Paul II during his visit to Baltimore in October 1995 and on his historic trip to Cuba in January. Rivera studied theology at the Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C., where he completed a master's degree.

Pub Date: 03/21/99