Christianity

Religion professor Philip Jenkins talks about his latest book, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. The book is a follow-up to his 2002 title, The Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity, which was named on of the top religion books of that year by USA Today.

Writer Reynolds Price has penned a total of 37 volumes of fiction, poetry, plays, essays and translations. His new book is Letter to a Godchild (Concerning Faith). Price has taught at Duke University since 1958, and has won numerous awards and honors for his work.

Michael Farris is the co-founder of Home School Legal Defense Association and the president of Patrick Henry College, the first university in America for Christian home-schooled children. The school, located in Purcellville, Va., grooms its students for leadership.

Journalist Michelle Goldberg, a senior writer for the online magazine Salon, and covers the Christian Right. In her new book, Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, she writes that Christian nationalists believe the Bible is literally true — and they want to see the nation governed by that truth.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, And the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham. His previous book, Franklin and Winston, was about the friendship between FDR and Churchill.

Blurring the line between church and state threatens civil liberties and privacy, says former president Jimmy Carter. That's the case he makes in his new book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis.

Editor and writer Walter Kirn's latest novel, Mission to America, is about a fictional quasi-religious group, the Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles, seeking new converts to help them survive. The topic is one Kirn has experience with: When he was 12, Kirn's family became Mormons.

Rev. Jim Wallis is the founder of the organization Sojourners, a Christian group advocating a style of peace and justice. Wallis is editor in chief of Sojourners magazine. His new book is God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.

Balsiger's film George W. Bush: Faith in the White House has been released as an "alternative" to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911. Interviewees share their experiences on how President Bush demonstrates his faith. Introduced at the Republican National Convention, the film is now on DVD.

Producer Raney Aronson is the producer, writer and director of the new PBS Frontline documentary, The Jesus Factor (April 29, at 9 p.m. on many stations). It examines President Bush's evangelical Christian faith, how he became a born-again Christian and the impact it has on his politics. Also, Wayne Slater, Austin bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News. He's followed Bush's political career, and appears in the documentary. He is also the author of the book, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush President.

Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He and President Bush share the same evangelical faith.

When Armstrong decided to leave the Roman Catholic convent where she was a nun in 1969, she entered a world vastly different than the one she had been isolated from for seven years. She had no idea what was going on in Vietnam and had little idea what was happening in popular culture. She's written a new memoir, The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness, about her life in the convent and the spiritual quest that followed. Her other books include The Battle for God and A History of God.

Marty is one of the foremost authorities on religion and society. He is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he taught for over 35 years. His new book is a biography of Martin Luther, one of the leading figures of the Protestant Reformation. The book is Martin Luther. Marty is also the author of a five-volume work on religion in the 20th century.

Along with her ex-husband, Jim Bakker, she built the Praise the Lord televangelist network. She gained a reputation for crying often on television and smearing her abundant mascara. Their empire crumbled when Jim Bakker was convicted of bilking followers out of millions of dollars. She survived the scandal, the divorce, as well as cancer and drug addiction and wrote about it in her memoir I Will Survive: And You Will, Too! She is also starring in the new reality show on the WB network, Surreal Life 2.

Novelist Tim LaHaye is the co-author of the popular Left Behind series. The books are apocalyptic Christian thrillers. The tenth and latest book is The Remnant, which debuted at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. LaHaye is also the former co-chairman of Jack Kemp's presidential campaign, was on the original board of directors of the Moral Majority and was an organizer of the Council for National Policy which has been called "the most powerful conservative organization in America you've never heard of."

Since leaving the White House, Carter has become one of America's leading elder statesmen. He has led numerous peace delegations to many war stricken countries through the Carter Center which he founded in 1982. Carter has written eleven books, including the national bestseller, "Always a Reckoning." In his most recent book, "Living Faith," he shares personal experiences about how his religious faith has helped him through the most challenging times of his life. He demonstrates how people of all faiths can find common ground in serving God and one another.

Religion historian Martin E. Marty teaches at the University of Chicago and is one of the foremost authorities on religion and society. His new book is the third in a four volume set: "Modern American Religion, Volume 3: Under God, Indivisible, 1941-1960."

Writer William J. Murray. He was raised in the home of atheist and Marxist leader Madalyn Murray O' Hair. In 1963, at age 14, he became the focus of media attention when his mother took her anti-prayer campaign to the U.S. Supreme Court where they later banned school prayer. In 1980, Murray turned away from atheism and became a Christian. His new book Let Us Pray: A Plea for Prayer in Our Schools (Morrow) looks into his past and present religious beliefs. Murray has written other books including, My Life Without God, and The Church is Not for Perfect People.

We speak with two guests about the practice of religion vis-a-vis the Constitution: Keith Fournier, Head of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). The ACLJ helped draft the Christian Coalition's Contract with the American Family, which calls on Congress to allow prayer in public places, curb pornography, and restrict abortion. On the other side of the debate, activist and preacher Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, has started a new coalition called "Cry for Renewal." It's his alternative to the conservative agenda of the Christian Coalition.

Poet, writer, and teacher Nancy Mairs. She's a Catholic feminist, who started out Protestant, and who late in life became a feminist. She calls herself, "the connoisseur of catastrophe." She's known for writing honestly about her struggles with multiple sclerosis, depression, and the life-threatening illness of her husband, also about being a woman, a mother, and a wife. Her newest book of personal essays is "Ordinary Time," (Beacon). One reviewer calls it "a small miracle of honesty mediated by dignity and humor."