The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University
When Brown University student Kevin Rouse applied to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, he wasn’t just a liberal Ivy Leaguer slumming in a fundamentalist “Bible boot camp.” As The Unlikely Disciple demonstrates, he was making an honest leap across a giant gaping cultural and religious chasm. What he learned in his “sinner’s semester” at this stern Christian institution (no sex, no kisses, no protracted hugs) should convince would-be warriors on both sides of the great divide that they can learn something from other viewpoints; but even if you read this book as just a brave anthropological experiment, it’s worth your time and its price.
Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the War Between Faith and Reason
On a frigid February day in 1650, René Descartes was buried in the frozen ground of Stockholm, far from his French homeland. Sixteen years later, a French government official surreptitiously unearthed the philosopher’s remains and returned them to the country of his birth. That, however, was only the beginning of the posthumous journeys of “the Father of Philosophy. In this refreshingly heterodox history, Russell Shorto follows Descarte’s bones over three centuries and six countries, showing how the battle over his body and most especially his skull exemplifies a far more significant war between faith and reason. Descartes’ Bones deserves to be read by anyone who ever puzzled over mind/body problems.
One of my top 10% favorites
Every now and then, I hit on one of those books that I can't put down. I know I've found one of those books when I'm neglecting all the other forms of entertainment in my life--TV, Xbox, the Internet--just to read. This was the case with "The Unlikely Disciple."
I started reading this book with high expectations, and they were delivered on. Roose's style of writing is both accessible and entertaining at the same time. His depictions of his semester at Liberty University are vivid and will make you angry and make you laugh in the same paragraph. In case you're wondering, he treats Liberty very fairly--if you're expecting a brutal smackdown, you won't find it here. Most of the time he just lets Liberty speak for itself, the good and the bad, and I think in the end that might be what I like so much about this book.
Of all the books I've read in my 7 years at Barnes & Noble, this is definitely in my top 10%, and I will be recommending it to customers for a long time to come.
Great for: non-fiction readers, expose enthusiasts, and people with an open mind about religion.
Rag and Bone: A Journey Among the World’s Holy Relics
I was first drawn to this book because of two previous works by Peter Manseau, its author: his novel Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter and Vows, his extremely moving memoir about growing up as the son of a Catholic “married priest” and former nun. Rag and Bone reads like a novel, but it conveys the unvarnished intimacy of a very personal travel essay. Basically, this reverent skeptic journeyed around the world, seeking out sites where holy relics of different faiths are kept and cherished. To a non-believer, these vestiges might sound strange, even bizarre: They include chipped skull fragments, blackened mummified fingers, upright-sitting skeletons, and even toes, shinbones, and whiskers. Manseau approaches all these oddities with curiosity, but not blanket disdain, making Rag and Bone a diverting, enlightening pilgrimage.
An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
For many people, authentic spiritual experience and practice doesn’t begin or end inside the walls of a church, synagogue, or mosque. Barbara Brown Taylor’s Altar in the World serves as a beacon and counsel for those “unchurched” faithful who see themselves not as religious, but as spiritual. In this evocative, wise book, the author of Leaving Church describes how she learned to encounter the God who does not live in the church. An exploration that is both memoir and spiritual guide.
The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution
Internationally famous in his own time, British polymath Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) is best remembered today, if at all, as the discoverer of oxygen, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and other “different kinds of airs.” Few of us know that this eminent scientist was also a prominent participant in the early shaping of our republic. Steven Johnson’s riveting The Invention of Air renders that story with all its implicit drama, tracking this protean thinker through an active life punctuated by controversy. In England, Priestley’s radical religious views and support of the French Revolution made him the target of violent riots; when he and his family emigrated to the United States in 1794, his ideas and writings became political lightning rods, influencing many thinkers, most significantly Thomas Jefferson. This carefully researched narrative by the author of The Ghost Map provides a revealing view of a history we thought we knew.
