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
Read Krista Tippett's posts on the Penguin Blog.
Praise for Krista Tippett's Speaking of Faith:
"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
"I inhaled (this book) in one great life-affirming breath."
—Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessings
"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
"Tippett offers a challenging book that is part intellectual autobiography, part rumination on the issues of the day...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."
—Publishers Weekly
"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
"This a wonderful book. I deeply appreciate Krista Tippett's refusal to stigmatize - whether Islam or Christian evangelicals. She has created an original and authentic place in the great debate of our time."
—Yossi Klein Halevi, author of At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land.
