Henry James is an acquired taste; I don’t think you need to acquire it! 
To me the difference in Christian religions was between Catholic and Protestant. So all the differences WITHIN Protestantism kind of didn’t make sense to me. Now that I’m much more knowledgeable about the subject — they still kind of don’t make sense. But people make meaning of things however satisfies them. Michele (Smallpeace) talks about “a less-structured spiritual quest.” I guess that’s a pretty good descriptor for me too.
The Dalai Lama is definitely on to something — The world could do a lot worse than adapt that as a universal.