Rock musician Salman Ahmad founded the popular South Asian band Junoon. The group has sold over 25 million albums and in 2001 became the first rock band invited to perform at the U.N. General Assembly.
Akbar Ahmed holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University. He is a former High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain.
James Anderson is a retired Episcopal priest, an almost full-time volunteer in the community, a part-time farm manager, and independent writer. He's currently writing a book with Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon examining the 40-year history of the effort to fully integrate women into the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church.
Leith Anderson is president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Anderson has been senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn., since 1977.
Karen Armstrong’s books about different religions, including her highly acclaimed “A History of God,” have made her one of the most prominent authors on religious history.
The Rev. Lauren Artress, a canon at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, is president and founder of Veriditas, a non-profit dedicated to introducing people to the healing, meditative powers of the labyrinth -- a 12th century mystical tool symbolic of the Path of Life.
Rabbi Andy Bachman is the spiritual leader at Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn's largest Reform synagogue. He is also the co-founder, along with his wife Rachel Altstein, of Brooklyn Jews, a unique cultural and learning programs for Jews in their 20s and 30s.
Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest, is the Ann Whitney Olin professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University, and a visiting professor at Yale Divinity School. He has written ten books, including Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America and Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America.
Monsignor Thomas G. Bohlin is the U.S. vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei, an international institution of the Catholic Church that helps people come closer to God in their work and daily activities.
Marcus J. Borg holds the Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture in the Philosophy Department at Oregon State University. A fellow of the Jesus Seminar, he has served as national chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature and co-chair of its International New Testament Program Committee, and is past president of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars.
Richard Lyman Bushman is Gouverneur Morris Professor of History Emeritus at Columbia University. Most recently he authored "Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling" (2005). He works in the field of early American social and cultural history. In 1992 he published "The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, and Cities." He and his wife Claudia are lifelong members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Reverend William J. Byron, S.J., a former president of Catholic University, is on leave this year from his position as research professor at the Sellinger School of Business and Management, Loyola College in Maryland to serve as president of St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia.
"On Faith" panelist Kirbyjon Caldwell is senior pastor of the 15,000-member Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Texas. He is the leader of Kingdom Builders and Pointe 2.3.4, a community development project. The "On Faith" panelist lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife and three children.
The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane is the eighth Episcopal Bishop of Washington, a diocese that encompasses 93 congregations and about 45,000 church members in the District of Columbia and Maryland.
"On Faith" panelist Deepak Chopra is the author of more than fifty books translated into over thirty-five languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers in both the fiction and nonfiction categories. His latest is "The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore." Chopra’s Wellness Radio airs weekly on Sirius Satellite Stars, Channel 102, which focuses on the areas of success, love, sexuality and relationships, well-being, and spirituality. He is founder and president of the Alliance for a New Humanity. Time magazine heralds Deepak Chopra as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century and credits him as “the poet-prophet of alternative medicine.
Charles W. "Chuck" Colson is founder of Prison Fellowship, a Christian outreach ministry to the prison population of this country, as well as to ex-prisoners and crime victims.
The Rev. Dr. James Herbert Cooper is the 17th Rector of Trinity Church-St. Paul’s Chapel in the city of New York.
Irish-born John Dominic Crossan is a professor emeritus in the religious studies department at DePaul University in Chicago. Between 1950 and 1969, he was a member of a 13th-century Roman Catholic religious order, the Servites, and remained an ordained priest from 1957 to 1969.
Richard Dawkins has been the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford since 1995. He is the author of many books, including the best-selling "The God Delusion."
Daniel C. Dennett is the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, at Tufts University. His most recent book was Breaking the Spell (2006).
Christopher Dickey is Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek magazine . An award-winning author, the "On Faith" panelist previously was a foreign correspondent in Cairo and Central America for the Washington Post.
The Right Reverend Jane Holmes Dixon served as Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Pro tempore, with ecclesiastical authority for the diocese until she retired in 2002.
Wendy Doniger (O’Flaherty) is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. The “On Faith” panelist also teaches in the University’s Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations.
“On Faith” panelist Lyle Dukes is Senior Pastor and founder of Harvest Life Changers Church in Woodbridge, Virginia. He and his wife, co-pastor Deborah Dukes, have served the church since its inception in 1995.
"On Faith" panelist Diana L. Eck is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University and Director of The Pluralism Project . Her books about India include Banaras, City of Light and Darshan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (1982).
"On Faith" panelist Dr. Bob Edgar is president of Common Cause, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, and a former congressman.
"On Faith" panelist Arnold M. Eisen is chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. An expert on American Judaism, Eisen has worked closely for the past twenty years with synagogue and federation leadership around the country to analyze and address the issues of Jewish identity, the revitalization of Jewish tradition, and the redefinition of the American Jewish community. He has been a frequent scholar-in-residence at synagogues across the country. A product of the Conservative movement, he has served on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Program, the Wexner Fellowship, the Nahum Goldman Fellowship of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Tel Aviv University, and Columbia University. Eisen's recent publications include Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America (1997); Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community (1998); and The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America (2000), co-authored with sociologist Steven M. Cohen.
An ordained United Church of Christ and American Baptist minister, "On Faith" panelist Dr. Willis E. Elliott has been a pastor, teacher, lecturer, administrator, consultant (to Newsweek for 38 years), church executive, and the author of six books..
"On Faith" panelist Greg M. Epstein serves as the Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University, and sits on the executive committee of the 38-member interfaith corps of Harvard Chaplains.
John Esposito
|Director, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
"On Faith” panelist John L. Esposito is professor of religion, international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University. He also is founding director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.
"On Faith" panelist Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is Chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, an independent, non-partisan, interfaith project that works with state and non-state actors to improve Muslim-West relations. Author of "What's Right With Islam Is What's Right With America," (HarperCollins, 2005) he is also founder of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and Imam of Masjid al-Farah in New York City.
Kathleen Flake is associate professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University.
The Reverend James Alexander Forbes Jr. has been Senior Minister of The Riverside Church, an interdenominational, interracial, and international congregation in New York, since 1989. The "On Faith" panelist also hosts "The Time Is Now" on Air America Radio.
Paula Fredriksen is the Aurelio Professor of Scripture at Boston University. The "On Faith" panelist previously held teaching positions at the University of Pittsburgh, University of California -- Berkeley, Stanford and Princeton. She has also taught at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University.
Donna Freitas is Assistant Professor of Religion at Boston University. The "On Faith" panelist's literary and academic focus is the struggle of belonging and alienation with regard to faith, particularly among young adults, and especially young women. Freitas asks the 'Big Questions' (Why are we here anyway?) and delights in discovering the many forums in which to dabble with faith, religion, spirituality, and gender.
The Reverend C. Welton Gaddy leads the nonpartisan educational organizations The Interfaith Alliance and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation, and hosts the latter's national weekly radio show, State of Belief.
Arun Gandhi
|Co-founder, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.
Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. He is co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, now at the University of Rochester in New York.
"On Faith" panelist Chester Gillis is the Amaturo Chair of Catholic Studies at Georgetown University where he has served on the faculty since 1988. He was chair of the Department of Theology from 2001 to 2005.
On Faith panelist Mark Hall is a youth pastor at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in Atlanta. He is lead singer and songwriter for Casting Crowns.
Sam Harris
|Best-selling author of Letter to a Christian Nation
“On Faith” panelist Sam Harris is the author of the best-selling books Letter to a Christian Nation (2006) and The End of Faith (2005), which won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction and has been translated into many foreign languages.
"On Faith" panelist Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz is Professor of Social Christian Ethics and Theology at Drew University. The first Latina in the United States to receive a doctorate degree in theology, Isasi-Diaz developed "mujerista" theology, which reflects the perspective of Latinas in the United States, as well as their religious experiences and practices.
Sherman A. Jackson is a professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, a visiting professor of law, and a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor . He has served as Executive Director for the Center of Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) in Cairo , Egypt , is a member of the U.S.-Muslim World Advisory Committee of the U.S. Institute of Peace , and a co-founder of the American Learning Institute for Muslims (ALIM).
Susan Jacoby is the author of "The Age of American Unreason," to be published in February by Pantheon.
Bishop T.D. Jakes is the pastor of The Potter's House, a 30,000 member nondenominational church in Dallas, Texas.
Daisy Khan
|Exec. Dir. of American Society for Muslim Advancement
"On Faith" panelist Daisy Khan is Executive Director of ASMA Society (American Society for Muslim Advancement).
His Excellency Mohammad Khatami served two terms as Iran’s president from 1997 to 2005. He also founded the Tehran-based International Institute for Dialogue among Civilizations and Cultures.
Rabbi Irwin Kula is the President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York. He has served congregations in St. Louis, New York and Jerusalem.
“On Faith” panelist Richard Land has served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission since 1988.
The Very Reverend Doctor Samuel T. Lloyd III was installed as ninth dean of Washington National Cathedral in 2005. The "On Faith" panelist previously served as rector of Boston's historic Trinity Church in Copley Square for 12 years, and before that, as chaplain of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
Martin E. Marty is Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he taught religious history, chiefly in the Divinity School, for 35 years, and where the Martin Marty Center has been founded to promote “public religion” endeavors.
Moez Masoud
|Founding Director, Al-Tareeq Al-Sah Institute
Moez Masoud is Founding Director of "Al-Tareeq Al-Sah" Institute in Egypt. His popular show "Al-Tareeq Al-Sah" (The Right Way) is watched by millions of people across the Arab world. Based on an orthodox understanding of Islam, his discourse is mainly aimed at reconciling contemporary life with spirituality. His institute's documentary and musical productions -- which aim to convey this philosophy -- air regularly and top the charts. Masoud was recently named one of the 20 most influential religious figures in Egypt, where he is currently based.
Ingrid Mattson is Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, as well as Director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program, at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut . In 2006, the "On Faith" panelist became the first woman elected President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the largest religious organization for Muslims on the continent.
“On Faith” panelist Brian D. McLaren is a best-selling author, pastor and intellectual leader of “emerging church,” a Christian evangelical movement that seeks new ways to worship and understand the gospel in a postmodern era.
Jon Meacham’s book American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, has become a bestseller since its publication in early 2006. Newsweek’s managing editor since 1998, Meacham was named editor of the weekly newsmagazine in October 2006. In this position, he oversees all day-to-day editorial operations of Newsweek and Newsweek.com.
“On Faith” panelist Lisa Miller is a senior editor at Newsweek. She oversees all of the magazine's religion coverage and writes the regular "Belief Watch column.
R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world. The “On Faith” panelist is a theologian and ordained minister and has served as pastor and staff minister of several Southern Baptist churches.
Richard J. Mouw has served as president of Fuller Theological Seminary since 1993, after four years as provost and senior vice president. A philosopher, scholar, and author, the “On Faith” panelist has been recognized as an important voice among reform-oriented evangelicals.
Hadia Mubarak, an "On Faith" panelist, is a senior researcher at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.
Baroness Julia Neuberger is an ordained rabbi and member of Britian's House of Lords. The "On Faith" panelist also is a trustee of the British Council, Jewish Care, and the Booker Prize Foundation, as well as founding trustee of the Walter and Liesel Schwab Charitable Trust.
Gustav Niebuhr is an associate professor of religion and the media, an interdisciplinary position in the College of Arts & Sciences and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Since June 2004, the “On Faith” panelist has directed the Religion & Society Program, an interdisciplinary undergraduate major.
"On Faith" panelist Sulayman S. Nyang teaches in the Department of African Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. A scholar of African and Muslim affairs, Nyang, who is a native of the Republic of the Gambia, also served as his homeland's deputy ambassador to seven Middle Eastern and North African countries from 1975-78.
On Faith” panelist Michael Otterson has served as director of media relations for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1997. As senior spokesman for the church, Otterson has worked with most major publications, TV and radio networks, and other news media in the United States and overseas on issues ranging from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to the Church’s burgeoning international growth and diversity.
"On Faith" panelist Elaine Pagels is Harrington Spear Paine Foundation Professor of Religion at Princeton University and author of best-selling books about the pluralistic nature of early Christianity. Her book Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas (2003), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, focuses on religious claims to possessing the ultimate truth.
Luis Palau
|Renowned Christian evangelist and author
Christian evangelist and author Luis Palau has reached an estimated 21 million people in 70 nations through his festivals and writings. His radio broadcasts are heard by millions more on over 2100 radio stations in 42 countries.
"On Faith" panelist Stephen Prothero is Chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University and author of numerous books on American religion, most recently Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't (2007).
Eboo Patel is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation. His blog, The Faith Divide, explores what drives faiths apart and what brings them together.
Washington Post journalist, author and Washington DC insider, Sally Quinn founded and co-moderates On Faith, a blog from the Washington Post and Newsweek. Co-moderated by Newsweek editor and bestselling author Jon Meacham and hosted by a panel of renowned religious scholars of all denominations, On Faith is the first worldwide, interactive discussion about religion and its impact on global life.
As editor of the Catholic weekly magazine "America" (americamagazine.org), Rev. Thomas J. Reese promoted discussion on current issues facing the Catholic Church and the world. The "On Faith" panelist is author of Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church. He is frequently quoted as an expert on Catholic issues.
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
Rev. Gabriel Salguero is a pastor and executive member of the Latino Leadership Circle. The "On Faith" panelist received his M.Div. from New Brunswick Theological Seminary and is a Ph.D. candidate in Christian social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He and his wife, Jeanette, co-pastor the multicultural Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene in New York City.
Rabbi David Saperstein is the Washington representative of Judaism's Reform Movement as Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, a position he has held for 30 years. The "On Faith" panelist also co-chairs the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty, and serves on the boards of numerous national organizations including the NAACP and People For the American Way.
"On Faith" panelist Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and Director of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program. Sarna served two terms as chair of Brandeis' Department of Near Eastern & Judaic Studies.
The Right Rev. Mark Sean Sisk has been Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, one of the Episcopal Church’s largest dioceses with over 200 congregations since 2001. Before returning to New York as Bishop Coadjutor in 1998, the "On Faith" panelist served for 14 years as President and Dean of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.
"On Faith" panelist John Shelby Spong served as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2000. His books, seeking to make contemporary theology accessible to lay readers, have sold over a million copies.
"On Faith" panelist Starhawk is a prominent voice in modern Wiccan spirituality and cofounder of Reclaiming (www.reclaiming.org), an activist branch of modern Pagan religion. She is the author or coauthor of ten books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess (1979) --considered an essential text for the Neo-Pagan movement--and the novel The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993) .
Margaret O'Brien Steinfels is founding co-director with her husband Peter Steinfels of Fordham University 's Center on Religion and Culture, which is dedicated to fostering dialogue on challenges posed to contemporary culture by religious faith.
For more than 40 years, “On Faith” panelist Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has devoted himself to the monumental undertaking of translating and reinterpreting the Talmud, the vast collection of rabbinic writings that constitute Jewish civil and religious laws.
"On Faith" panelist Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo is Professor Emeritus of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College and Distinguished Scholar of the City University of New York. He has written more than 40 scholarly articles and authored nine books, including the four-volume PARAL series on religion among Latinos.
Mark Tauber
|Vice President and Deputy Publisher of HarperOne
Mark Tauber is Vice President and Deputy Publisher of HarperOne, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Reverend Gardner Calvin Taylor is senior pastor emeritus of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y. The “On Faith” panelist led the congregation from 1948 to 1990, as church membership grew by 9,000 and through a 1952 fire that necessitated a $1.7 million rebuilding effort.
"On Faith" panelist Pamela K. Taylor is co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values and director of the Islamic Writers Alliance. She is a member of the national board of advisors to the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and served as co-chair of the Progressive Muslim Union for two years. Taylor is a strong supporter of the woman imam movement, which seeks the full participation of Muslim women in every aspect of life, including the pulpit.
The Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, is the 11th President of Chicago Theological Seminary. She has been a Professor of Theology at the seminary for 20 years and director of its graduate degree center for five years. Her area of expertise is contextual theologies of liberation, specializing in issues of violence and violation.
Syndicated political columnist and “On Faith” panelist Cal Thomas has a twice-weekly column that appears in over 500 newspapers around the world. A graduate of American University, Thomas is a veteran of broadcast and print journalism.
The Reverend William McD. Tully has been rector of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City since September 1994. The first professional calling of the “On Faith” panelist was to journalism, and he worked as a copy boy and local reporter at the Los Angeles Times.
Desmond Tutu
|Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights advocate
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the cause of racial justice in South Africa. He served as the first black African archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996. Prior to this role as spiritual leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa, Tutu served as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches from 1978 to 1985.
"On Faith" panelist Miroslav Volf holds the Henry B. Wright Chair of Theology at Yale Divinity School and serves as Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. A native of Croatia, he studied at the Evangelical-Theological Faculty in Osijek, Croatia before earning his Masters degree from Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California.
J. Brent Walker is executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee and both a member of the Supreme Court Bar and an ordained minister.
Jim Wallis is president and executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, progressive Christian movements founded to fight poverty and promote social justice. He also is the author of the best-selling God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (2005).
The Reverend Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life” (2002), founded Saddleback Church in 1980 with one family. Today, the church has 83,000 members, of whom about 23,000 attend weekly services on its 120-acre campus in Lake Forest, Calif.
George Weigel is a Catholic theologian and Senior Fellow of Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington. He is the author or editor of eighteen books, including the New York Times bestseller Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, which has been translated into twelve languages.
Elie Wiesel
|Nobel Peace Prize winner and author of Night
"On Faith" panelist Elie Wiesel received the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace in recognition of his long-time advocacy for oppressed peoples. Wiesel was deported with his family to Auschwitz from Transylvania at age 15. His mother and younger sister perished there, and Wiesel and his father were moved to Buchenwald, where his father died before the concentration camp was liberated in 1945.
Nicholas Thomas Wright is Anglican Bishop of Durham, England. The "On Faith" panelist taught New Testament studies for 20 years at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities before becoming Dean of Lichfeld in 1994. He was named Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey in 2000, and consecrated bishop in 2003.
Rajan Zed
|Hindu chaplain in Nevada, California
Rajan Zed is a Hindu chaplain in northwestern Nevada and adjoining California.
November 9, 2006
The daughter of a U.S. military officer, Sally Quinn was brought up by a Presbyterian mother and an Episcopalian father in non-denominational military chapels around the world. As an adult, her religious beliefs have evolved. First a Christian, she later became an atheist, and now is someone who is exploring the faith traditions of all cultures. She is currently working on a book about religion in Washington.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, Quinn was a reporter for The Washington Post’s Style section, producing irreverent and often controversial profiles of celebrities and politicians. Before long, she was one of the paper’s most celebrated writers. At age 32, she left The Post to become co-anchor for “CBS Morning News.” It was a frustrating and short-lived experience that she chronicled in her first book, We’re Going to Make You a Star.
Quinn returned to Washington and continues to write for The Post. She also has written three other books: Regrets Only, (1986) her first novel; Happy Endings (1991), its sequel, and The Party, (1997), in which Quinn offers an insider’s look at Washington entertaining and a personal view of the value of friendship.
Quinn is married to Benjamin Bradlee, retired executive editor of The Post who currently is vice-president at-large for the company. They live in Washington with their son, Quinn, who was born with a heart defect, which Quinn says has had a tremendous effect on her life. “It was the most important thing that ever happened to me…In the end maybe it will make me a better writer because I’ve become more empathetic and more sympathetic than I ever was before.”
November 9, 2006
Jon Meacham’s book American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, became a bestseller after its publication in early 2006.
Newsweek’s managing editor since 1998, Meacham was named editor of the weekly newsmagazine in October, 2006. In this position, he oversees all day-to-day editorial operations of Newsweek and Newsweek.com.
Meacham began his journalism career as a reporter with The Chattanooga Times from 1991-1992. He was an editor for two years at The Washington Monthly. After arriving at Newsweek in January, 1995, he became National Affairs editor in June of that year, supervising coverage of politics and breaking news. In 1998, he edited Newsweek’s coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. That coverage was honored with a 1999 National Magazine Award for Reporting.
Meacham also has written cover stories on politics, religion, guns in America, race, and President Ronald Reagan’s death. He played a key role in editing coverage of the September 11, 2001 attacks, for which Newsweek received a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. The magazine won the same award again in 2003 for coverage of President Bush and the war in Iraq.
His books also include Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship (2003), a chronicle of the wartime relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill. In 2001, he edited Voices in Our Blood: America’s Best on the Civil Rights Movement, a literary anthology of the most important non-fiction accounts of the 20th century battle against Jim Crow. He is working on a biography of Andrew Jackson and his White House circle.
Born in Chattanooga in 1969, Meacham is a graduate of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. He is a communicant of St. Thomas Episcopal Church Fifth Avenue and serves on the Vestry of the 180-year-old parish. He also is a member of the Vestry of Trinity Church Wall Street and, in 2005, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Yale University’s Berkeley Divinity School. Meacham lives in New York City with his wife, Keith, director of development at Harlem Day Charter School, and their two children.
November 10, 2006
If some religious people believe they have a monopoly on truth, then are conversation and common ground possible? If so, what would be the difficulties and benefits of such a conversation?
November 22, 2006
Is Thanksgiving a religious holiday? If so, who does one thank and for what? Should non-believers celebrate Thanksgiving?
November 27, 2006
Pope Benedict XVI is in Turkey this week. What did you think of his remarks about Islam at Regensburg, and do you think he, and the Christian church in general, can help Muslims take on their more violent and extreme elements?
Salman Ahmad | Founder, Junoon
Akbar Ahmed | Professor at American University
James Anderson | Co-founder, Alban Institute
Leith Anderson | President, National Association of Evangelicals
Karen Armstrong | Religion Scholar
Lauren Artress
| Episcopal Priest, Founder Veriditas
Andy Bachman
| Reform Rabbi, Brooklyn
Randall Balmer | Episcopal Priest, Professor at Barnard College
Thomas G. Bohlin | U.S. vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei
Marcus Borg | Jesus Seminar Scholar
Richard Bushman | Professor at Columbia University
William J. Byron
| Catholic Priest, ex-President of Catholic University
Kirbyjon Caldwell
|Pastor, Windsor Village United Methdodist
John Bryson Chane
| Episcopal Bishop of Washington
Deepak Chopra
|Founder, Alliance for a New Humanity
Charles W. "Chuck" Colson
|Founder, Prison Fellowship ministry
Jim Cooper
| Rector, Trinity Church Wall Street
John Dominic Crossan
| Professor Emeritus, DePaul University
Richard Dawkins
|British Evolutionary Biologist
Daniel C. Dennett
|Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University
Christopher Dickey
|Journalist, Newsweek magazine
Jane Holmes Dixon
|Former Episcopal Bishop of Washington
Wendy Doniger
|Religion Professor, University of Chicago
Lyle Dukes
|Founder, Harvest Life Changers Church
Diana L. Eck
|Director, The Pluralism Project 
Bob Edgar
|President of Common Cause.
Arnold M. Eisen
|Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary
Willis E. Elliott
|Minister, teacher, author
Greg M. Epstein
|Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University
Feisal Abdul Rauf
|Imam; Chairman, Cordoba Institute
Kathleen Flake
|Associate Professor, Religious History
James A. Forbes Jr.
|Senior Minister, The Riverside Church 
Paula Fredriksen
| Professor of Scripture, Boston University 
Donna Freitas
|Asst. Prof. of Religion, Boston University
C. Welton Gaddy
|Leader of the Interfaith Alliance 
Chester L. Gillis
|Chair of Catholic Studies at Georgetown University.
Mark Hall
|Youth Pastor, Singer-Songwriter
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz
|Professor, Ethics, Theology, Drew University 
Sherman Jackson
| American Learning Institute for Muslims 
Susan Jacoby
|Author and reporter
T.D. Jakes
|Bishop and Pastor, The Potter's House 
Mohammad Khatami
|Former Iranian president 
Irwin Kula
|Rabbi, author, commentator
Richard Land
| Southern Baptist Convention Leader 
Samuel T. Lloyd
|Dean, Washington National Cathedral 
Martin E. Marty
| Professor emeritus, University of Chicago 
Ingrid Mattson
|President, Islamic Society of North America 
Brian D. McLaren
|Best-selling author 
Jon Meacham
|Managing editor, Newsweek 
Lisa Miller
|Belief Watch
R. Albert Mohler Jr.
|President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 
Richard Mouw
|President, Fuller Theological Seminary 
Hadia Mubarak
|Researcher, Student
Julia Neuberger
| Rabbi, Member of Britain's House of Lords 
R. Gustav Niebuhr
|Director, Religion & Society, Syracuse University 
Sulayman S. Nyang
| Scholar, African and Muslim affairs 
Michael Otterson |Media director, LDS Church 
Elaine Pagels
|Best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize nominee 
Stephen Prothero
|Chair, Department of Religion, Boston University 
Eboo Patel
|The Faith Divide
Sally Quinn
|Washington Post reporter 
Thomas J. Reese
|Senior fellow Woodstock Theological Center
Samuel Rodriguez
|Pres., National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
Gabriel Salguero
| Pastor, Executive Member, Latino Leadership Circle
David Saperstein
|Dir., Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism 
Jonathan D. Sarna
|Prof. American Jewish History, Brandeis University 
Mark S. Sisk
|Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of New York
John Shelby Spong
|Former Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Newark 
Starhawk
|Co-founder, Reclaiming 
Margaret O'Brien Steinfels
|Co-Dir., Fordham U's Center on Religion and Culture.
Adin Steinsaltz
|Founder, Israel Institute for Talmudic Publications 
Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo
|Director, Research Center for Religion 
Gardner Calvin Taylor
|Pastor, Concord Baptist Church of Christ
Pamela K. Taylor
|Co-founder, Muslims for Progressive Values
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
|President, Theological Seminary 
Cal Thomas
|Syndicated political columnist 
William McD. Tully"
|Rector of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church
Miroslav Volf
|Director, Yale Center for Faith and Culture 
J. Brent Walker
|Executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee
Jim Wallis
|President, Sojourners/Call to Renewal
Rick Warren
|Founder, Saddleback Church 
George Weigel
|Catholic theologian and best-selling author 
Nicholas T. Wright
|Anglican Bishop of Durham, England 
Guest Contributors to On Faith
