Speaking of Faith by Krista Tippett

From the Publisher

The host of public radio's Speaking of Faith explores the role of faith in the world and in human life today

Krista Tippett is the creator and host of public radio's phenomenally popular program Speaking of Faith, a weekly conversation about religion, meaning, ethics, and ideas. As a journalist and then as a diplomat in Berlin, Tippett was enthralled by the promise of political solutions to divisive issues. When politics did not provide worthy answers, Tippett attended Yale Divinity School to pursue larger questions about what makes a meaningful life. In her quest for faith's illumination of life's complexities, passions, and frailties, she developed a compelling style of discourse—a "life of conversation"—that she now shares with millions of people every week. Tippett's unique, in-depth conversations with theologians, scientists, ethicists, and seekers who share their experiences, combined with her engaging style, are revolutionizing the way many think and speak of faith in their families and communities and in the larger world.

Speaking of Faith is the story of this conversational journey and what it yields. Tippett draws on her life experiences and her studies, as well as on conversations with Elie Wiesel, Karen Armstrong, Thich Nhat Hanh, and other renowned figures, to explore such complex subjects as justice, science, fundamentalism, evil, love, and mystery, all within the context of spirituality. In the tradition of Kathleen Norris and Anne Lamott, Krista Tippett here shares a life of conversation that anyone, secular or religious, will find thought provoking about what faith does— and can—mean to us today. BACKCOVER:Praise for Krista Tippett and her public radio program Speaking of Faith:
"The brilliance of Krista Tippett's idea is to trust people to use the first person singular, to commit themselves with passion and clarity as they enlarge our urgent national conversation."
—Martin Marty, Emeritus Professor of American Religious History, University of Chicago

"Speaking of Faith isn't just a good idea and a welcome concept for a muchneeded forum on religion, belief and spirituality in contemporary life—it already is that forum."
—Patricia Hampl, Poet, memoirist, and MacArthur "Genius" Grant recipient

Publishers Weekly

Tippett, creator and host of Public Radio's Speaking of Faith, offers a challenging book that is part intellectual autobiography, part rumination on the issues of the day. It begins with a fairly detailed discussion of the death of "secularization theory" as outlined by Harvey Cox and others—not a typical opening salvo for a spiritual memoir—and then reveals Tippett's own intellectual and spiritual formation. She discusses at length how her views were shaped not only by her Southern Baptist grandfather in Oklahoma, or by her adolescent rejection of his rigidity, but by the time she spent in East and West Germany in her 20s, first as a journalist and then as a diplomat. She followed this period with marriage and a stint in England before taking the plunge and enrolling in divinity school in the early 1990s. More than a personal chronicle, however, this is a rigorously brainy piece of work, as informed by the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, Charles Darwin and Annie Dillard as it is by Tippett's fascinating interviews with figures like Elie Wiesel and Karen Armstrong. As Tippett takes on issues from the science-and-religion debates to the future of progressive Islam, she shows herself to possess the same "imaginative intellectual approach" that she admires in some of her interview subjects. (Mar.)

Library Journal

Faith had answers for Tippett that politics did not, explains the host of public radio's Speaking of Faith program-who once served as a diplomat in Berlin. With an eight-city tour. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Andrew Solomon
Krista Tippett is a master of nuance for whom the great questions of belief transcend the simple answers that modern religion too often supplies. This is a vision of faith as a grand and unifying struggle with the very nature of being, and it is both deeply thought and deeply felt. It is a reminder, in a time when too much that is evil happens in the name of creed, that the search for God can be transcendent and exquisite. Tippett's prose is lyrical and elegant, and her formulations are wise and profound; her arguments should move the secularist and the dogmatist alike to a new vision of peace. (Andrew Solomon, journalist and National Book Award winning author, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression )

Patrick Henry
This book is a marvel. Krista Tippett is in the front rank of fluent writers of English. Her love of the language suffuses every page. I suspect that Speaking of Faith will soon join the constellation of Dakota and Traveling Mercies as a provoker and reassurer. Krista Tippett's contribution to the understanding of Islam can be of unique importance. But it's not just head-understanding that she makes possible. It's ubuntu - a concept she describes from her interviews with Africans, a sense of our common and interdependent humanity. (Patrick Henry, former Executive Director, the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research; author of The Ironic Christian's Companion; Editor, Benedict's Dharma: Buddhists Reflect on the Rule of St. Benedict )

Elizabeth Gilbert
In a day where religion -- or, rather arguments over religion -- divide us into ever more entrenched and frustrated camps, Krista Tippett is exactly the measured, balanced commentator we need. Her intelligence is like a salve for all thinking people who have felt wounded or marginalized by The God Wars. This is a book not only about the universal need for prayer, but also about the ever-more-rare human virtue of thought. (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love)

Yossi Klein Halevi
There is no more trustworthy guide to the challenges of faith in a dangerous world than Krista Tippett. Her wonderful new book, Speaking of Faith, confronts the most crucial issue facing humanity today: the role of religion in creating conflict and in healing conflict. Like the radio program of the same name that she hosts, this book challenges the reader with unconventional wisdom and inspires with unsentimental hope. Speaking of Faith proves it possible to be passionate about one's own faith commitment while attentive to the passionate commitments of others. Krista Tippett has created an original and authentic place in the great debate of our time. (Yossi Klein Halevi, journalist and author, At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land)

Rachel Naomi Remen
I inhaled (this book) in one great life-affirming breath. (Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessings)

Khaled Abou El Fadl
Speaking of Faith is of monumental importance and a source of light in a day and age when the darkness of intolerance, ignorance and hate blinds humanity from itself. (Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, professor of law, UCLA; author, The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists)

Diane Raabe
As creator and host of public radio's Speaking of Faith program, Krista Tippett has spent countless hours doing just that. Her conversations with religious authorities, scholars and others are borne of a treasure trove of intellect and interest, including her own. Overflowing with gems of wisdom, Speaking of Faith, the book, offers thoughts on matters related to faith, religion and spirituality worth not just reading but pondering as deeply as one's imagination allows. (Diane Raabe, Gather.com)

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