Spotlight On…The Year in Books

Our Picks for Best Religion Books of 2005

by Jana Riess, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 11/16/2005

Religion continued to show its muscle as a robust and resilient publishing category—and the Book Industry Study Group predicts sales will increase by an additional 50% over the next five years. Leading the way this year was religion self-help. Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life, a 2002 book from Zondervan, continued to lead, but others also have become staples on the bestseller lists, including TV preacher Joel Osteen’s Your Best Life Now (Warner Faith).

The year brought a flood of pope books: behind-the-scenes looks at the intrigue of papal transition; glowing coffeetable tributes to the late pontiff; and crash-published biographies of the new leader, Benedict XVI. Religion and popular culture continues to be a swelling category, with at least two dozen books on Narnia or C.S. Lewis timed to coincide with the December 9 theatrical release of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

But the best-selling books are not always critical faves. Some on our “best” list—culled from the starred reviews in PW and listed here alphabetically by author—have become bestsellers, like Bruce Feiler’s latest; others flew under the radar.

Timothy Beal. Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith (Beacon).  In this quixotic book, Beal hops into an RV to document odd religious sites throughout the U.S., like the World’s Largest Ten Commandments, the Precious Moments Chapel, and Holy Land USA.
Richard Bushman. Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling: A Cultural Biography of Mormonism’s Founder (Knopf). A mammoth, balanced biography of the controversial founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
David Dark. The Gospel According to America: A Meditation on a God-Blessed, Christ-Haunted Idea (Westminster John Knox). This might be the best book ever in WJKP’s popular Gospel According to… series, which looks at faith and popular culture. It’s both literary and fun. Is there any work of American literature Dark hasn’t read?
Bruce Feiler. Where God Was Born: A Journey By Land to the Roots of Religion (Morrow). Feiler’s quest to understand the places behind biblical stories never gets old, because of his fresh writing. He’s not so much an expert or pundit as a fellow seeker, humbly learning alongside the reader.
Brennan Manning. The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus (Harper San Francisco). Manning argues against the gospel of health and prosperity by saying that real Christians must be fools in the eyes of the success-driven world.
Jaroslav Pelikan. Whose Bible Is It? A History of Scriptures through the Ages (Viking). Yale scholar Pelikan reveals in layperson’s terms how the Bible gradually morphed from the earliest oral traditions into the canon we know today.
Diane Eshin Rizzetto. Waking Up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation with Intelligence and Compassion (Shambhala). A Zen abbess applies Buddhist principles to everyday life in ways that are both pragmatic and compassionate.
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi with Joel Segal. Jewish with Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Practice (Riverhead). Not just your bubbe’s Judaism. Jewish Renewal rabbi Schachter-Shalomi shows readers how to be mindful of tradition while open to the future.
Hella Winston. Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels (Beacon). In prose that reads like a novel, Winston—still a graduate student!—uncovers a fascinating subculture of blog-writing, bar-hopping, TV-watching Hasids.
Vinita Hampton Wright. The Soul Tells a Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in the Writing Life (InterVarsity). Novelist Wright encourages readers to discover creative freedom through spiritual formation.