The Christian use of religion as a personal love affair both shocked me, and attracted me.

Blue contrasts a characteristically Jewish emphasis on communal practice, law, and inherited identity with a strand of Christian spirituality that frames faith as an intimate, emotionally charged relationship with God—“a personal love affair.” His reaction is double-edged: it “shocked” him because it can seem overly private, romanticized, or individualistic compared with a more corporate religious life; yet it “attracted” him because it promises immediacy, warmth, and personal transformation. The line captures Blue’s frequent interest in interfaith encounter: the capacity to be unsettled by another tradition’s idiom while also recognizing in it a genuine spiritual appeal.