Religion Update
-- 5/29/00
Each fall and spring, as we analyze publishers' religion lists, the majority of titles fall into several heavily published categories. The top three of these 800-lb. gorillas of religion are spirituality, prayer and devotionals. In this issue of Update, we examine the mega-categories: tracing trends; looking at publishing strategies, new lines and imprints; and highlighting recent and forthcoming titles. The continuing strength of these primary topics in religion offers challenges to authors and publishers, who must devise fresh approaches to timeless subjects, and to booksellers and librarians, who must find a way to sort through the myriad choices and discover what works for their customers and patrons. We hope this overview provides some helpful insights.
--Lynn Garrett
Heaven and Hearth
Applying spiritual wisdom to the everyday is once and again in vogue, as another bumper crop of spring books attests.
Devoted to Devotionals
There is no denying it--religion-book consumers are devoted to devotionals, launching some onto bestseller lists and keeping the category one of the top three.
Traveling the Earthly Kingdom
Spiritual travel books and guides are being developed and published for those seeking to explore religious tradition and rediscover religious roots while they journey.
In Profile:PW interviews religious leaders from various traditions. Click on their images below.
 | | Tulku Thondup |
 | | Garry Wills |
 | | Samuel Freedman |
 | | Ian Barbour |
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TeachMe to Pray
Today's spiritual seekers have many choices when looking to books for assistance with their prayer lives.
Tracking the Mega-Categories
Publishers are branching off in apparently divergent directions, offering on the one hand the ancient, formal daily prayers and on the other, contemporary and highly specific devotional literature target groups.
All Faiths Calendar
Selected observances for June and July
Shavuot
Hebrew Calendar: Sivan 6-7
Shavuot is the Jewish Festival that celebrates the giving of the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, on Mount Sinai. Tradition dictates that King David was born and died on this holiday. The Book of Ruth, which relates the conversion of a Moabite woman who is David's ancestress, is chanted aloud on Shavuot. In America today, Shavuot is a quiet festival; many synagogues hold confirmation ceremonies for the youth, celebrating their commitment to studying and living the ways of the Torah. |
Recommended Reading
In February, Jason Aronson released The Jewish Holidays: A Journey Through History by Larry Domnitch, which offers fascinating discussions of the observance of various Jewish holidays in different historical periods around the world. On the ritual side, Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin offers a beautiful, heartfelt call to observance in The Tapestry of Jewish Time: A Spiritual Guide to Holidays and Life-Cycle Events (Behrman House, Apr.). |
Mawlid al-Nabi
Mawlid al-Nabi is a pan-Islamic holiday that celebrates the birth of the prophet Muhammad (ca. 570-632). Muslims have observed the holiday in various forms since the 13th century, although some conservative groups have challenged this tradition, claiming there is no evidence for the holiday in the Qur'an or the sunna. Today the holiday is marked by special sermons, litanies, gift-giving and feasting. |
Recommended Reading:
Two spring biographies: Ibn Warraq's The Quest for the Historical Muhammad is a skeptical anthology of essays on the prophet's life and times (Prometheus, Mar.); and a more balanced perspective can be found in another collection of essays, Harald Motzki's The Biography of Muhammed: The Issue of the Sources (Brill Academic, Apr.). |
Bon Festival
Bon, also known as Obon, is a three-day Japanese folk festival to welcome home the spirits of deceased ancestors. Individuals place lighted lanterns in their thresholds, so the ancestors can find their way home; they also leave special foods and flowers at family altars for the ancestral visitors. At the end of the three days, lighted candles are floated down rivers toward the sea, guiding the ancestors back toward the spirit world. |
Recommended Reading:
One of PW's Best Religion Books of 1999 was Religions of Japan in Practice, edited by George J. Tanabe Jr., part of Princeton University Press's ongoing series on religion in practice. Because the Bon Festival is observed in both Shinto and Buddhist traditions, an excellent interfaith resource is the Sourcebook for the World's Religions: An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality, edited by J l Beversluis, due in an expanded third edition (New World Library, July). |
Pioneer Day
On July 24, 1847, the first hardy Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley, ending a grueling westward trek in which dozens had died and beginning a new era of prosperous Mormon settlement in the West. Today Latter-day Saints all over the world celebrate Pioneer Day (although only in Utah is it a state holiday), remembering the sacrifices of the pioneers with parades, picnics, reenactments and historical hymns such as "Come, Come Ye Saints." |
Recommended Reading:
In 1999, Richard N. and Joan K. Ostling wrote an accessible, journalistic treatment of the contemporary Latter-day Saint experience, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise (Harper San Francisco). |
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