…e reading copy, but three. A sign from the universe? I decided to read the book to find out. Or rather, to experience the book. Because that’s the one word that is associated with the work of Rob Bell, a “contemporary Christian” thinker who is at once renegade and establishment. Whether lectures or workshops or books, it’s all part of the Rob Bell Experience. So when I learned that Bell would be stopping in nearby Durham, North Carolina, for an al…
…es. It used the power of storytelling and personal narrative to expose systemic and cultural problems. Po Bronson wrote What Should I Do With My Life? in 2002. That book also taught me the power of personal stories to inspire and illuminate. What’s your next book? My next book will be about my maternal and paternal grandparents, and their respective experiences as Italian immigrants. The families of my mother and father contain enough drama to sus…
…ch about things like the cover, but I know that when I’m walking through a bookstore, my reaction to a book’s cover has a lot to do with whether I decide to pick up an unfamiliar book or not. I’m very happy with how the cover turned out. Also, I’d like to share a quick anecdote about the photo used on the cover. I was doing a photo shoot for the cover and the majority of the pictures were of me looking quite serious. The one we ended up selecting…
…ughter Bella was hospitalized.) Organizers said they had distributed 1,800 tickets, and the pews in the church were nearly full, with several hundred, if not nearly a thousand people in attendance. Gingrich was the only candidate to appear; Staver, the “forum’s” moderator took pains to point out that they had invited the other candidates. Santorum and Ron Paul had commitments outside of Florida. Mitt Romney, the candidate Staver and other leaders…
…ayed ignorance of the contents of the Qur’an (an all-too-frequent trait of book burners), he intuitively knew that book burning could involve all three aspects of this complex symbol. It could be a politically purifying act on the part of the dominant institution, a way of clarifying religious canon, as well as an act of protest on the part of a religious minority. And in his rhetoric, Jones used all three stances involving the symbolism of the bo…
…to atheism than its more dismissive predecessors. RD spoke with Maguire by phone about his latest book and the future of belief. What was the impetus for undertaking this after a long career as a priest and theologian who was once a believer? I started out as the absolute true believer. I believed everything the Vatican taught. One of the things that helped me was working in a parish. I started to meet real people and to discover that some of the…
…ook but I was surprised at the extent and variety of contexts in which the book appeared. I expected the book might be read in history, religious studies, women’s studies, and sexuality studies courses. I did not expect that the book would have a wide readership outside of academic circles, so when it did, it was really gratifying. Among the most moving experiences I’ve had is meeting women in non-academic settings who mention the book and tell m…
By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston
…uals, for instance, is not abortion, it’s male authority—a broader agenda. Bestselling books such as Wild at Heart and Every Man’s Battle go far beyond opposition to queer rights; rather, they’re assertions of a purified straight identity, a manhood purged of anything feminine. Consider the young purity crusaders I write about in chapter 13, “The Romance of American Fundamentalism.” They’re smart, hip, engaging kids; they scoff at the old Christia…
…nd that it would turn people off. Though I’m Catholic, it’s not a Catholic book in the way a book on prayer might be. I wanted people from all walks of life and all faiths to read it. In the end though, it was pretty much the perfect title for the book. I am a not so good Catholic boy, I now believe in the things that go bump in the night, and maybe the things we are scared of have a holiness which we might not fully understand but which in the en…
…g at a time when the church built more temples than ever before. Under the direction of Gordon B. Hinkley, who authorized a smaller, less expensive temple design, Sorenson oversaw the dedication of 71 temples between 1998 and 2005. These included three at historic sites: the Palmyra New York Temple, the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple, and the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, whose re-construction Sorenson called “one of the great spiritual experiences of…
