The Soul

2223BOOK REVIEWSpeaking of FaithSteve KlausnerOn April 8, 1966, the cover ofTIME famously posed thisquestion in lurid red type ona black background: “Is God Dead?In the following decades, religionhas become not a lesser, but largerinfluence on daily life. In Speakingof Faith. Why Religion Matters—andHow to Talk About It, Krista Tipettexplores the ways the growingrifts between fundamentalism andsecular humanism, liberalism andorthodoxy, militant Islam and themoderate Judeo-Christian West havereplaced the East-West Cold Warconflicts of the 20th century.Rising above the din, thequiet sensitivity of Krista Tippett,herself an unapologetic believer andthe granddaughter of a SouthernBaptist minister, brings a welcomemeasure of understanding andenlightenment to those who seek toquantify and understand the elusivephenomenon we call faith.Based on her public radioprogram of the same name, Speakingof Faith is a compilation of insightsand ideas gleaned from the author’sfirst-person encounters with suchleading thinkers as Nobel LaureateElie Wiesel, religious historian KarenArmstrong and Buddhist monkThich Nhat Hanh. She recounts theconversations that opened up herimagination, and illustrates ways ofspeaking about faith that “defusethe usual minefields.”A teacher who never resortsto preaching, Tippett manages tocompress a huge and perplexingsubject into 275 refreshing and readablepages. At its heart, her bookattempts to provide some thoughtfulanswers to what the author believesare the key spiritual issues prevalenttoday: When did this internationalconversation aboutreligion begin? Whydoes spiritualitysuddenly seem tobe everywhere?How can faith beboth so fervent andso dangerous?“I’m drawnto the contours anddepths of what I call‘the vast middle’—left, right, andcenter, between thepoles of competingcertainties thathave hijacked ournational discourse,”she writes. “In thevast middle, faithis as much aboutquestions as it isabout answers. It ispossible to be a believerand a listenerat the same time, tobe both fervent andsearching, to honorthe truth of one’s Original 1966 Time magazine coverown convictionsand the mystery of the convictions darkness as well as the light of humanexperience.”of others.”The book, in only sixDrawing on her personalchapters, starts by looking back at experiences, Tippett recalls, “Whenthe Book of Genesis. From a purely I came back to read the biblical textJewish perspective, Chapters 1 and after many years away, I began3, which delve into the life of the to love the Hebrew Bible fiercelypatriarch Jacob, shed a good deal of for the fact that it tells life like itlight on what the writers may have is. It has no fairy-tale heroes, onlyhad in mind.flawed, flamboyant human beingsAs an article of faith, Tippett as prone to confusion as to righteousness.”believes that, “The Bible...is not acatalogue of absolutes, as its championssometimes imply. Nor is it a an exploration of the spiritual heartIn Chapter 4, she turns todocument of fantasy, as its critics and theology of Islam, and grapplescharge. It is an ancient record of an with the question asked more andongoing encounter with God in the more frequently: Wheredo the moderate, non-violent voicesof the faithful fit in? Tippett answersby quoting the Egyptian-Americanscholar Leila Ahmed and her attemptto move beyond the folds ofthe traditional Islamic garments thehijab and the burqa: “When peoplethink about Muslim women, theythink of the image of Saudi Arabiaand Afghanistan. Why is it that90% of the Muslim world does notwear any of this stuff? Why is it thatI have never yet been asked by ajournalist, ‘Why is it that Islam hasproduced seven women prime ministersor heads of state and Europeonly two or three?’”Of all the voices, livingand dead, that spring from thepages, the words of Albert Einsteinimpressed me the most. He oncefamously observed that, “Sciencewithout religion is lame. Religionwithout science is blind.” The manwhose most famous discoveriesdwell on things no human beingcan see provides an interestingcontext for believers and nonbelieversalike. He writes, “It wasthe experience of mystery thatengendered religion. A knowledgeof the existence of something wecannot penetrate, of the manifestationsof the profoundest reason andthe most radiant beauty—it is thisknowledge and this emotion thatconstitute the truly religious attitude.In this sense, and in this alone,I am a deeply religious man.” ■ABOUT THE AUTHORKrista Tippett is a broadcaster,journalist, and author. She is bestknown for creating and hosting thepublic radio program Being (for-merly Speaking of Faith), distributedand produced by American PublicMedia. The program is currentlybroadcast on more than 200 publicradio stations in the United Statesand globally via NPR Worldwide,its website and its podcast.The granddaughter of aSouthern Baptist Minister, Tippettstudied history at Brown University,graduating in 1983. In 1984,she went to then-divided Berlin as astringer for the New York Times, alsoworking as a freelance foreign correspondentfor Newsweek, the BBCand Die Zeit.Tippett received a Master’sof Divinity from Yale in 1994. Whileconducting a global oral-historyproject, she developed the “first person”approach that characterizes herradio program. It became a monthlyseries in 2001 and a weekly nationalprogram in 2003.Her book, Speaking of Faith.Why Religion—Matters and How toTalk about It, was published byViking, 2007.Critical Acclaim forSpeaking of Faith“In a day where religion—or ratherarguments over religion—divideus into ever more entrenched andfrustrated camps, Krista Tippett isexactly the measured, balancedcommentator we need.”-Elizabeth Gilbert, author ofEat, Pray, Love“An authentic and original place inthe great debate of our time.”-Yossi Klein Halevi, author ofAt the Entrance to the Garden of Eden“At a time when professional contrarianslike Sam Harris and ChristopherHitchens take the meaningand mystery out of religion, KristaTippett is a welcome voice ofliterate faith.”-The Dallas Morning News“It’s one thinking person’s opendoor to faith in the 21 st century.”-St. Louis Post Dispatch“As Tippett takes on issues fromthe science-and-religion debates tothe future of progressive Islam, sheshows herself to possess the same‘imaginative intellectual approach’that she admires in some of hersubjects.”-Publishers WeeklySteve Klausner is an advertising copy writer,an award-winning screenwriter and long-timemember of Central Synagogue.