March 7, 2007   • BEHIND THE NEWS   • Doubleday Will Publish Rick Warren Bio • AUTHOR PROFILE   • William Willimon: A Writing Life • BOOKS BRIEFLY   • Another Jab at the Traditional God? • RELIGION IN REVIEW   • Four Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on Monday, March 12   • A Starred Coming in PW on Monday, March 12 • BESTSELLERS: Borders Inc. Religion Bestsellers (Week Ending March 3rd) • COMING ATTRACTIONS • HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE BEHIND THE NEWS Doubleday Will Publish Rick Warren Bio by Lynn Garrett Doubleday has just signed a biography of Rick Warren, mega-church pastor and author of mega-selling The Purpose-Driven Life. The book, to be titled Prophet of Purpose: The Rick Warren Story, will be written by Jeff Sheler, former religion editor for U.S. News & World Report and the author of Believers: A Journey into Evangelical America (Viking, 2006) and Is the Bible True? (Harper San Francisco, 1999). A February 2009 release is projected. Acquiring editor Andrew Corbin described the deal as "very nice," meaning the advance is probably in the $50,000-$100,000 range. Sheler's long-time agent, Gail Ross, brokered the deal. Corbin said the project appealed to him because the book won't just be a standard biography, but will place Warren in the larger context of contemporary evangelicalism. "Warren represents a new stream in evangelical Christianity—socially involved, yet not tied to any one party of person politically," said Corbin. "The issues he's involved in, like AIDS in Africa, are hugely important and deserve more attention." Said Sheler, "In the past few years, Warren has emerged as arguably one of the most recognized and admired figures in evangelicalism. His integrity, his civility, the fact that he is not aligned with the old guard of the Religious Right—the media seeks him out as a more moderate and winsome kind of evangelical." Sheler calls this "a pivotal moment for the evangelical movement. The Billy Graham era is closing, and he has been a uniting figure for a fractured and fractious movement. I think Warren has the potential to be that uniting figure for a new generation of evangelicals." Warren has agreed to cooperate, but Sheler stresses, "This will not be an authorized biography. It will show the whole human being, faults and all."   AUTHOR PROFILE William Willimon: A Writing Life by Juli Cragg Hilliard As his Boy Scout troop journeyed to and from the National Jamboree in Colorado Springs, 12-year-old troop scribe Will mailed accounts of their experiences to the council office in his hometown of Greenville, S.C. The trip by bus took a week each way. He wrote about seeing President Eisenhower—and being disappointed that Ike was old and bald. Returning home, Will discovered the council had been giving his reports to the local newspaper, which had been publishing them. "Looking back, there must have been something in me that needed to put myself out in print," William H. Willimon said. He's 60 now, a United Methodist bishop and renowned preacher, theologian and author of about 55 books, including Pastor (2002) and, with Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens (1989), both from Abingdon Press. "I sort of got into a discipline, a routine, of reading and writing. I see my writing as an extension of my preaching." Willimon's newest is United Methodist Beliefs: A Brief Introduction, due in May from Westminster John Knox (reviewed below). Read the full story... BOOKS BRIEFLY Another Jab at the Traditional God? by David Klinghoffer "People who are very, very rigid, they'll just dismiss it. They'll say it's wacko." Jerome M. Segal was musing to RBL about how traditional religious folk may respond to his thesis in Joseph's Bones: Understanding the Struggle Between God and Mankind in the Bible (Riverhead, Mar.). Segal argues that if you read the first six books of the Bible as an "existential novel," without preconceptions, what emerges is a story of a rather tempestuous, even bullying deity being given moral instruction by mortals, notably the biblical characters Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. A senior research scholar at the University of Maryland's Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, Segal is Jewish and even participates in an informal (and very liberal) prayer group in the Washington D.C. suburbs. He agrees that his reading is far from the traditional Jewish understanding of scripture. Read the full story... RELIGION IN REVIEW Four Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on Monday, March 12 God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything Christopher Hitchens. Twelve, $24.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-446-57980- Hitchens, one of our great political pugilists, delivers the best of the recent rash of atheist manifestos. READ FULL REVIEW Every Day Deserves a Chance: Wake Up to the Gift of 24 Little Hours Max Lucado. Thomas Nelson, $19.99 (176p) ISBN 978-0-8499-1959-6 Beloved Christian author Lucado (Traveling Light), whose books have sold over 55 million copies, follows the psalmist by encouraging readers to “rejoice and be glad” every day. Lucado does mean every day—even the day you get fired, or the day you learn your husband is having an affair. READ FULL REVIEW The Essence of Shinto: Japan’s Spiritual Heart Motohisa Yamakage. Kodansha International [dist. Oxford Univ. Press], $22 (288p) ISBN 978-4-7700-3044-3 Western visitors to Japan sometimes come away with the idea that Shinto, Japan’s indigenous religion, is a “dead” tradition, with shrines preserved as mere historic sites or tourist traps. READ FULL REVIEW Islam: Past, Present & Future Hans Küng. Oneworld, $39.95 (1024p) ISBN 978-1-85168-377-2 Prominent Christian theologian Küng completes his trilogy on the world’s three monotheistic faiths with this lengthy analysis of Islam’s 1,400-year history. READ FULL REVIEW A Starred Coming in PW on Monday, March 12 United Methodist Beliefs: A Brief Introduction William H. Willimon. Westminster John Knox, $12.95 paper (96p) ISBN 978-0-664-23040-1 Methodist bishop and noted preacher Willimon (Pastor, and, with Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens), opens his lucid and thought-provoking overview of Methodist beliefs with the counterintuitive claim that Jesus actually wasn’t principally concerned about beliefs. He wanted people to follow him, not necessarily assent to a set of “cool intellectual propositions” about him. Still, Methodists do have doctrines, which Willimon feels are worthy, God-given guideposts to following Jesus. Willimon first tackles the Trinity, underscoring that “a decisive change in the human heart can and does occur under the prompting of grace and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.” He then moves on to Methodist beliefs about Jesus, salvation, grace and good works. Especially important is his chapter on the church, where, reprising themes that pervade his earlier writing, Willimon argues that although Americans desire to go the spiritual life alone, Methodism teaches that people become most fully conformed to Christ when they are part of the larger ecclesial body. Methodist church life, says Willimon, is a tad schizophrenic, appreciating order while also seeking “radical renewal.” Written with Willimon’s characteristic dry wit, this highly readable book brings to life doctrines that in other hands would seem dry and dusty. Willimon has produced the most insightful introduction to Methodism available today. (May) BESTSELLERS: Borders Inc. Religion Bestsellers (Week Ending March 3rd) Hardcover Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Free Press The Jesus Family Tomb Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino. Harper San Francisco The God Delusion. Richard Dawkins. Houghton Mifflin Letter to a Christian Nation Sam Harris. Knopf Your Best Life Now Joel Osteen. FaithWords Jesus for the Non-Religious John Shelby Spong. Harper San Francisco The Purpose-Driven Life Rick Warren. Zondervan Get Out of that Pit Beth Moore. Thomas Nelson Sex God Rob Bell. Zondervan Love & Respect Emerson Eggerichs. Thomas Nelson Paperback The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren. Zondervan The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason Sam Harris. Norton Forever Karen Kingsbury. Tyndale 90 Minutes in Heaven Don Piper with Cecil Murphey. Revell The Five Love Languages Gary Chapman. Moody/Northfield The Universe in a Single Atom Dalai Lama. Morgan Road Books Misquoting Jesus Bart D. Ehrman. Harper San Francisco Awakening the Buddha Within Lama Surya Das. Broadway When the Heart Waits Sue Monk Kidd. Harper San Francisco The Spiral Staircase Karen Armstrong. Anchor     COMING ATTRACTIONS Next week in RBL, we’ll talk to Christy Award-winning novelist Sharon Foster Ewell, a descendent of slaves owned by Cherokees, who have just been excluded from the Cherokee Nation. Correction: In last week's issue of RBL, on the Christian Marketplace Bestsellers List the publisher of Ever After by Karen Kingsbury was incorrect. The correct publisher is Zondervan.   PW Religion BookLine from Publishers Weekly Editors: Lynn Garrett (lgarrett@reedbusiness.com); Daisy Maryles (dmaryles@reedbusiness.com) Contributing Editor: Jana Riess © 2007 Reed Business Information. Published weekly. If your links aren't working, you can view this newsletter by copy and pasting the following URL into your browser: publishersweekly.com/eNewsletter/CA6422448/2287.html To read past issues, click here. 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