THE QUESTION

What was your own most formative religious experience, if you had one?
Posted by Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on January 3, 2007 11:00 AM

FROM THE PANEL

"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) . Her works have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Greek, Japanese, and Burmese. Many of Starhawk's political essays were collected into her book Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising . Her newest book is The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature . Starhawk has also recorded several tapes and CDs; most recently Wicca for Beginners (2002), Wiccan Rituals and Blessings (2003), and a four-CD set Earth Magic (2006), all produced by Sounds True. She consulted on and contributed to three films known as the Women's Spirituality series, directed by Donna Read for the National Film Board of Canada: Goddess Remembered, The Burning Times, and Full Circle . Committed to bringing the techniques and creative power of spirituality to political activism, Starhawk travels internationally teaching magic, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism.

Again and again, I experienced that sense of oneness in direct contact with the natural world.

Starhawk, Co-founder, Reclaiming | 12 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2007 at 4:50 PM
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. Niebuhr served as a visiting fellow/scholar in residence at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University from December 2001 to 2003. Supported by a Ford Foundation Grant, he conducted research on religious diversity and interfaith collaboration. Prior to his academic tenure, Niebuhr was a national correspondent for The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, writing feature and analytical articles, and reporting on news about religion. He won several awards, including the 1993 Templeton Religion Writer of the Year Award from the Religion Newswriters Association. His articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, the Carnegie Reporter, the Christian Century, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and Beliefnet.com. An experienced public lecturer,Niebuhr most recently spoke at Auburn Theological Seminary in May 2006 on “Is ‘Tolerance’ a Social Good?” and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 2005, he lectured on “Religion as News.”

A 19th Century Decision Resonates Still

"Formative" experiences--especially those that involve coming to (or abandoning) faith--are not always confined to the person directly involved. They can ripple outward to affect family, friends, strangers--even those yet to be born.

Gustav Niebuhr, Director of the Religion & Society Program, Syracuse University | 12 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2007 at 4:15 PM
“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. She edited Newsweek’s “Spirituality in America” double issue, which looked at the rise of spirituality and why many Americans are choosing to seek spiritual experiences outside traditional religions. She has supervised publication of major cover stories including “Sex, Shame and the Catholic Church,” (March 2002), “The Bible and the Qur’an,” (February 2002), “Fighting Addiction,” (February 2001), and “God and the Brain,” (May 2001). Miller came to Newsweek from the Wall Street Journal, where she was an award-winning senior special writer covering religion for the paper’s front page since 1997. Prior to the Journal, Miller worked at the New Yorker, Self magazine and Harvard Business Review. In 1998, she won a New York Newswomen’s Club award for feature writing. She earned a B.A. in English from Ohio’s Oberlin College. Miller is writing a book about contemporary beliefs and conceptions of heaven.

A Simple Prayer, A Radical Idea

I was not expecting the soul-shaking feeling I had when I heard the words of the Sh'ma--the ancient Jewish prayer asserting monotheism over all other religious choices.

Lisa Miller, Belief Watch | 28 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2007 at 3:13 PM
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. The “On Faith” panelist has authored close to 50 books and countless articles on issues of faith, and has counseled business leaders and heads of state around the world. Since 1999, when Palau began his "Festival evangelism," more than 5.5 Million people worldwide have enjoyed music and family fun while hearing Palau preach the gospel. In 2003, Palau’s team launched PalauFest Productions to create film projects that focus on youth and contemporary culture. Their first project – an action sports DVD called Livin It, directed by Stephen Baldwin - is one of the best- selling extreme sports videos ever produced, and their Emmy-nominated television special – Livin It: Unusual Suspects – has aired on national television.

A Profound Revelation In A Seminary Auditorium

God to Moses: “I don’t need a pretty bush or an educated bush or an eloquent bush. Any old bush will do, as long as I (God) am in the bush.”

Luis Palau, Renowned Christian evangelist and author | 27 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2007 at 11:15 AM
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. She also serves on the University’s Committee on Social Thought. Doniger’s research and teaching center on Hinduism and mythology, with courses in the latter focusing on cross-cultural themes. Her courses in Hinduism cover a broad spectrum, including mythology, literature, law, gender, and ecology. After training as a dancer under George Balanchine and Martha Graham, Doniger earned two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard and Oxford Universities. Before moving to the University of Chicago in 1978, she taught at Harvard, Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and the University of California at Berkeley. She has served as president of the American Academy of Religion and of the Association of Asian Studies. She holds four honorary degrees and serves on the International Editorial Board of the Encyclopedia Britannica and on the board of Daedalus. In 2000, she was recognized by PEN Oakland for excellence in multi-cultural non-fiction for Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India (1998). That same year she received the British Academy’s Rose Mary Crawshay prize for her work on myths about sex: The Bedtrick: Tales of Sex and Masquerade (2000). Doniger has authored more than 20 other books, including translations of Sanskrit texts, among which are The Rig Veda: An Anthology (1981); Laws of Manu(1991) [with Brian K. Smith], and Kamasutra(2002) [with Sudhir Kakar]. She also wrote The Woman Who Pretended To Be Who She Was (2005) and Off with Her Head! The Denial of Women's Identity in Myth, Religion, and Culture [with Howard Eilberg Schwartz].

An Experience of Grace in Nature

On that beach, I experienced some all-encompassing source of love, a power that pervaded the universe with compassion.

Wendy Doniger, Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago’s Divinity School | 7 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2007 at 11:05 AM
"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). Her book Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras (1993) won the Grawemeyer Book Award in Religion. With colleagues in The Pluralism Project , she also studies the changing religious landscape of America and has published A New Religious America : How a 'Christian' Country has become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation (2001).

Morning Watch on the Ganges in Banaras

As dawn was breaking, I experienced that vast "morning watch" observed by thousands of Hindus every day, a combination of morning prayer and religious bathing along the riverfront for miles.

Diana L. Eck, Director, The Pluralism Project | 8 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2007 at 10:15 AM
“On Faith” panelist Janice Willis is a professor of religion at Wesleyan University. One of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, Willis has published numerous essays and articles on Buddhist meditation, hagiography, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race. Her latest book was Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey (2001). Willis also is the author of The Diamond Light: An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation (1972), On Knowing Reality: The Tattvartha Chapter of Asanga's Bodhisattvabhumi (1979), Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition (1995); and the editor of Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet (1989). She has studied with Tibetan Buddhists in India, Nepal, Switzerland and the U.S. for four decades, and has taught courses in Buddhism for 32 years. In December 2000, Time magazine named Willis one of six “spiritual innovators for the new millennium.” In 2003, she was a recipient of Wesleyan University’s Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching, and she was profiled in a 2005 Newsweek article about “Spirituality in America.”

The Holy Opens Its Arms To Me

The water was dark, murky, and cold. The bottom of the tank was gritty. My teeth began to chatter. When the deacons let go of me, I waded over to Reverend Moseley, reaching for his hands. I thought I was going to fall, but just then, he caught me.

Jan Willis, Scholar-practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism | 17 COMMENTS
Jan 9, 2007 at 9:45 AM
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. Mouw, who earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago, has a broad record of publication with 16 books, including Consulting the Faithful, and Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport and his articles have appeared in more than 50 journals and magazines. Currently he serves on the editorial board of Books and Culture as is a regular columnist on “Beliefnet.” Mouw has served on many councils and boards, including the Commission on Accreditation for the Association of Theological Schools (as chair) and the Council on Civil Society. He currently serves on advisory boards for Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, the International Justice Mission, and the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy.

A Moment in Madison Square Garden

Surrounded by thousands of people, I felt that I was alone in the presence of the Eternal

Richard Mouw, President, Fuller Theological Seminary | 27 COMMENTS
Jan 8, 2007 at 5:20 PM
"On Faith" panelist Ram Dass is an internationally recognized scholar of Eastern religions. Formerly known as Richard Alpert, he was a psychology professor at Harvard University in the early '60s when he began exploring with professional colleague Timothy Leary how to expand human consciousness through mind-altering substances. Their research was described in the 1964 book, The Psychedelic Experience. In 1967, Alpert traveled to India , where he met the man who was to become his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately known as Maharajji. He gave Alpert the name Ram Dass, which means "Servant of God." At that point, Ram Dass' intense dharmiclife began, and he became a pivotal influence among Western spiritual seekers, particularly after the publication of his seminal work, the 1971 international best-seller Be Here Now, which explains Eastern philosophy and advocates living joyously in the present. Ram Dass has pursued a panoramic array of ancient spiritual methods and traditions, including bhakti or devotional yoga that is focused on the Hindu deity Hanuman; Buddhist meditation in the Theravadin, Mahayana Tibetan and Zen Buddhist schools, as well as Sufi and Jewish mysticism. Perhaps most significant is his practice of karma yoga or spiritual service. His other books include Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita (2005); How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (1985) and Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying (2001). Upholding the boddhisatva ideal for others through compassionate sharing of true knowledge and vision, Ram Dass is co-founder and advisory board member of the Seva Foundation, an international service organization. Seva, which means "spiritual service" in Sanskrit, supports programs designed to wipe out curable blindness in India and Nepal, restore the agricultural life of impoverished villagers in Guatemala, assist in primary health care for American Indians, and bring attention to the issues of homelessness and environmental degradation in the United States and other nations. Ram Dass also created the Hanuman Foundation, which developed the Prison Ashram Project to help prison inmates grow spiritually during incarceration, and the Dying Project, a spiritual support structure for those facing death. Ram Dass lives on Maui where he continues to teach about the nature of consciousness to a new generation of seekers.

Nothing Complicated

My most formative religious experience is......

Ram Dass, Co-founder, Seva Foundation | 10 COMMENTS
Jan 8, 2007 at 4:19 PM
“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. Harris is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University, has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, and is now completing a doctorate in neuroscience. He makes regular appearances on television and radio to discuss the danger that religion now poses to modern societies. His essays have appeared in Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Times of London and The Boston Globe.

Selfless Consciousness Without Faith

I believe that most people are interested in spiritual life, whether they realize it or not...On the question of how to be most happy, the contemplative life has some important insights to offer.

Sam Harris, Best-selling author of Letter to a Christian Nation | 826 COMMENTS
Jan 8, 2007 at 12:30 PM
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. In 1999, Saperstein was elected first chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom created by Congress. The Religious Action Center advocates for a broad range of social justice issues and provides extensive legislative and program materials for synagogues, federations and Jewish community relations councils nationwide. It also coordinates social action education programs that train nearly 3,000 Jewish adults, youth, rabbinic and lay leaders each year. Also an attorney, Saperstein teaches seminars in First Amendment Church-State Law and in Jewish Law at Georgetown University Law School. He co-authored Jewish Dimensions of Social Justice: Tough Moral Choices of Our Time (1998).

My Father, A Rabbi With His People

Only congregational clergy interact with someone from birth to death, in good times and bad...What a magnificent calling!

David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism | 23 COMMENTS
Jan 8, 2007 at 12:00 PM
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. The “On Faith” panelist also serves as pastor for preaching and worship at Northminster Church in Monroe, La. Gaddy has written more than 20 books, which reflect his interest in the intersection of religion, media and activism as well as his progressive view of the Baptist church, including: I Give You My Word: Sharing the Language of Life ” with Walter Cronkite; Faith and Politics: What's a Christian to Do ?; Adultery and Grace: the Ultimate Scandal ; and A Love Affair With God: Finding Freedom & Intimacy in Prayer . Gaddy also is one of 20 religious members of the Council of 100 leaders, a group created by the World Economic Forum to foster dialogue between Western and Muslim countries. He has served in leadership roles at the national Alliance of Baptists, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Commission of Christian Ethics of the Baptist World Alliance, Board of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Pastoral Leadership Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, and Southern Baptist Convention. The Washington-based Interfaith Alliance was founded in 1994 to promote the positive role of religion in American life, and now has more than 185,000 members drawn from 75 religious traditions or belief systems. It is supported by 47 local activist groups and a cyber-network of 45,000 people. Gaddy earned his undergraduate degree from Union University in Tennessee and his doctoral degree and divinity training from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

A Questioning, Critical Perspective Makes Religion More Relevant

Religion is related to reality, and therefore provokes questions

Welton Gaddy, Leader of the Interfaith Alliance | 187 COMMENTS
Jan 8, 2007 at 10:45 AM
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. While researching an article about religion in Washington prior to the 2000 presidential campaign, Quinn noticed that while religion had an enormous influence on worldwide politics, it was a taboo subject in our nation’s capital. Following 9/11, Quinn’s interest in religion grew and her passion to understand it from a personal and political perspective took on new urgency and focus. Over the past decade, Quinn has pursued a religious education with the same drive and rigor she once gave to politics. Leveraging her rolodex from 30 years as a columnist, she sought out spiritual mentorship from religious leaders and scholars such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Jim Anderson, Father Bryan Hehir and John Esposito. To gain emotional and spiritual perspective, she traveled to many of the world’s holy sites in Rome, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Tibet, Delhi, Cairo, Ethiopia and Istanbul, and began attending several religious services and ceremonies a week at churches, temples and mosques. Quinn has written four books: “We’re Going to Make You a Star,” about her short-lived experience as a co-anchor for “CBS Morning News”; “Regrets Only,” her first novel; “Happy Endings,” its sequel, and “The Party,” in which Quinn offers an insider’s look at Washington entertaining and a personal view of the value of friendship. She is currently working on a book about religion in Washington.

A Labyrinth and A Way Out

A labyrinth and meditation offered clarity and renewal in a trying time -- and perhaps something more.

Sally Quinn, Washington Post reporter | 101 COMMENTS
Jan 7, 2007 at 4:32 PM
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. His role as pastor included oversight of the Concord Baptist Church Elementary School, Concord Nursing Home, Concord Clothing exchange, Concord Federal Credit Union, Concord Seniors Residence and Concord Baptist Christfund. Beyond Brooklyn, Taylor has taken the pulpit from London’s Westminster Hall to China to Copenhagen to Zambia. His publications include How Shall They Preach, The Scarlet Thread, Chariots Aflame and Wisdom. Among his awards and honorary degrees are doctorates from Oberlin College, Leland College, Wake Forest University and Howard University; a Star of Africa, conferred by Liberian President William Tubman; and the rank of Knight Commander, Order of African Redemption, conferred by President William Tolbert of Liberia. President Clinton awarded Taylor the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. Born in Baton Rouge, La., he now resides in North Carolina.

A Life Changed By Truth In Louisiana In 1937

Shaken from center to circumference in my whole being, I felt led to become the Lord’s lawyer

Gardner Calvin Taylor, Senior Pastor Emeritus, Concord Baptist Church of Christ | 62 COMMENTS
Jan 5, 2007 at 5:30 PM
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. It was in this position that he became an international voice for the anti-apartheid movement and received the Nobel Prize. In 1995, South African President Nelson Mandela appointed Archbishop Tutu Chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the body set up to investigate human rights violations under that country’s apartheid governments from 1960 to 1994. Tutu retired from in 1996 and was given the honorary title of Archbishop Emeritus. Since then, Archbishop Tutu served as a visiting professor and scholar at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. He has received numerous awards and has authored two books, No Future Without Forgiveness and God has a Dream. Tutu continues to write, lecture, and travel the world as an advocate of human rights and social justice. He is currently involved with a number of non-profit organizations working for peace and equality, meeting the needs of disadvantaged children and fighting HIV/AIDS.

Near Death As A Child, I Learned Trust in God

I can’t explain it adequately but a wonderful calm descended over me.

Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights advocate | 111 COMMENTS
Jan 5, 2007 at 11:00 AM
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. The “On Faith” panelist is the author of 14 books, including Jesus: A New Vision, The God We Never Knew, God at 2000, The Heart of Christianity and the best-selling Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Borg also is a regular columnist for www.beliefnet.com. His work has been translated into nine languages. His latest book, Jesus: The Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary, was published in November, 2006.

Mystical Experiences of God

For a minute or two (and once for the better part of an hour), what I was seeing looked very different–as if there were a radiance shining through everything.

Marcus Borg, Former president, Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars | 41 COMMENTS
Jan 5, 2007 at 10:48 AM
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, better known as "Reb Zalman," is a foremost authority on Hasidism and Jewish mysticism. Born in Poland and raised in Vienna, the “On Faith” panelist fled Nazi oppression and arrived in the United States in 1941. He enrolled in the Lubavitcher Hasidim yeshiva and was ordained by Lubavitch in 1947. After serving as a congregational rabbi in Massachusetts, and earning a master’s degree in pastoral counseling at Boston University, Schachter-Shalomi taught at the University of Manitoba, Canada (1956-1975). In 1968, he earned his Doctor of Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College. He also was "divorced" from the Lubavitcher Hasidim because of his controversial engagements with modern culture and other religions. Continuing as an "independent" hasid, Schachter-Shalomi taught the experiential dimensions of Hasidism as one of the world's great spiritual traditions. In 1969, he founded ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal with a small circle of students. In 1975, he moved to Temple University where he was professor of Jewish Mysticism and Psychology of Religion until 1987. Schachter-Shalomi has participated in interfaith discussions throughout the world, including the widely influential dialogue with the Dalai Lama, documented in the book, The Jew in the Lotus. In another interfaith endeavor, Schachter-Shalomi studied Sufism in California, which led to his initiation as a sheikh in the Sufi Order of Hazrat Inayat Khan in 1975. Ten years later, Schachter-Shalomi made a 40-day retreat at New Mexico’s Lama Foundation and emerged with a new teaching that became the foundation of his book, From Age-ing to Sage-ing, and the catalyst for the Spiritual Eldering movement. He also is the author of Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Hasidic Masters. His latest book is Jewish with Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice, written with Joel Segel. In 1995 he accepted the World Wisdom Chair at the Naropa Institute (now Naropa University) in Boulder, Colorado, where he taught contemplative Judaism and ecumenical spirituality. Retiring from Naropa in 2004, Schachter-Shalomi co-founded The Desert Fellowship of the Sufi-Hasidic Maimuni al-Badieh Order with Netanel Miles-Yepez, combining Jewish Hasidic tradition with Islamic Sufi tradition. He lives in Boulder.

A Teacher's Kindness Strengthened My Faith

He asked me, ”Don’t you trust the Ruach Ha Kodesh (the Holy Spirit)?"

Zalman Schachter Shalomi, Co-founder, The Desert Fellowship of the Sufi-Hasidic Maimuni al-Badieh Order | 39 COMMENTS
Jan 5, 2007 at 10:45 AM
"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 . He also holds two doctoral degrees from the University of Tubingen, Germany. While teaching at Fuller, theologian Volf wrote Exclusion and Embrace , A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, an exploration of how it is possible to forgive and love our enemies. The book was widely acclaimed as a readable, challenging, and relevant work on the reconciling message of Jesus in a world torn by violence and hatred. It received the 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Religion. Another of Volf's books, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace was published as the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lenten study book for 2006. It explores how we give and forgive in light of God's generosity and Christ's sacrifice for us. Volf's most recent book is The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World (2006).

A Saintly Deed by Parents Affects Me A Half Century Later

Encounters with the saintly lives of others have most deeply impressed me

Miroslav Volf, Director, Yale Center for Faith and Culture | 108 COMMENTS
Jan 5, 2007 at 10:15 AM
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. He has delivered lectures to secular and lay audiences from Scandinavia to Australia to Japan to South Africa. The On Faith panelist has authored 23 books and his writings have been translated into 11 languages. His work focuses on the historical Jesus, earliest Christianity and the historical Paul. Core titles include “The Historical Jesus,” “The Birth of Christianity” and “In Search of Paul,” co-written with archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed. Dr. Crossan’s next book, “God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome Then and Now,” is scheduled for publication in February. The professor earned a doctor of divinity degree at St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland and a humanities doctorate at Stetson University in Florida. The American Academy of Religion and DePaul and Stetson universities have recognized him with awards for scholarly excellence. His Web site is www.johndominiccrossan.com.

The Best Game in Town

At the age of 15 God seemed to me to have the most exciting game in town.

John Dominic Crossan, Lecturer and professor emeritus, DePaul University | 53 COMMENTS
Jan 5, 2007 at 9:30 AM
Susan Jacoby is the author of "The Age of American Unreason," to be published in February by Pantheon. She began her writing career as a reporter for The Washington Post, and has been a contributor to a wide range of periodicals and newspapers for more than 25 years on topics including law, religion, medicine, aging, women's rights, political dissent in the Soviet Union and Russian literature. Jacoby has been the recipient of grants from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2001-2002, she was named a fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Jacoby’s other books include Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism (2004); Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge, a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1984, and Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past. She is working on a book about the relationship between American anti-intellectualism and political polarization, to be published by Pantheon in 2008. Her photo is by Chris Ramir.

Memories of a Skeptical Girlhood

My first serious memories about religion date from the period when I, already a religious skeptic, began reading the Bible.

Susan Jacoby, Author and reporter | 272 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2007 at 5:13 PM
“On Faith” panelist Richard Land has served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission since 1988. During his tenure as a spokesperson for the largest Protestant denomination in the country, Dr. Land has represented Southern Baptist and other evangelicals’ concerns inside the halls of Congress, before U.S. presidents, and as a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. In 2005, Land was named one of “The Twenty-five Most Influential Evangelicals in America” by Time magazine. Educated at Princeton and Oxford, Land has worked as a pastor, theologian, and public policy maker addressing social and cultural issues. A pro-family advocate, he is a regular columnist for the Internet spiritual website Beliefnet, As host of the radio program, For Faith & Family, Land is heard by more than 1.5 million listeners each week.

Conversion on Palm Sunday, 1953

My life changed at that moment, and I have had a personal relationship with Jesus from that day forward.

Richard Land, President, Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission | 44 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2007 at 2:21 PM
“On Faith” panelist Zaid Shakir is a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, Calif. A graduate of Syria's prestigious Abu Noor University, Shakir is a co-founder of Masjid al-Islam, the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative, and the Connecticut Muslim Coordinating Committee. California-born Shakir accepted Islam in 1977 while serving in the U.S. Air Force. He is a graduate of American University in Washington and earned his master’s degree in political science at Rutgers University, where he led a successful campaign for disinvestment from South Africa and co-founded a local Islamic center, Masjid al-Huda. As an American Muslim who came of age during the civil rights struggles, he has brought sensitivity about race and poverty, as well as scholarly discipline to his faith-based work. While Imam of Masjid al-Islam (1988-1994) he spearheaded a community renewal and grassroots anti-drug effort and taught political science and Arabic at Southern Connecticut State University. For the next seven years he studied Arabic, Islamic law, Quranic studies, and Islamic spirituality in Syria, and briefly in Morocco, with top Muslim scholars. In 2001, Shakir’s translation from Arabic into English of The Heirs of the Prophet was published. In 2003, he joined Zaytuna Institute where he teaches Arabic, Islamic law, history and Islamic spirituality. In 2005, Zaytuna published “Scattered Pictures,” an anthology of Shakir’s essays.

Conversion To Islam Was Most Important Religious Experience

Finding Islam helped me overcome the baggage that comes with growing up as a racial minority in the American underclass.

Zaid Shakir, Co-founder, Masjid al-Islam, the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative | 150 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2007 at 11:30 AM
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. For a decade prior to entering academia, the “On Faith” panelist served parishes in the west and northwest suburbs of Chicago as an ordained Lutheran pastor. Marty is the author of more than 50 books including Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America (1970), for which he won the National Book Award. His additional honors include the National Humanities Medal, the Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the University of Chicago Alumni Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal of the Association of Theological Schools, and the Order of Lincoln Medallion (Illinois’ top honor). Marty has served as president of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History, and the American Catholic Historical Association. He also has served on two U.S. Presidential Commissions and was director of the Fundamentalism Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Public Religion Project at the University of Chicago. He is Senior Regent of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.

Dying Strangers Lifted Me Up

Instead of dread, we found hope

Martin Marty, Award-winning author and professor emeritus, University of Chicago | 12 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2007 at 11:00 AM
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. The “On Faith” panelist served as interim president of Loyola University , New Orleans in 2003-04 and for three years prior to that, was pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington , D.C. From 1992 to 2000, he taught "Social Responsibilities of Business" at Georgetown University , where he was Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Ethics and served as rector of the Georgetown Jesuit Community. He was president of Catholic University for a decade (1982-92). Byron writes a syndicated bi-weekly column, Looking Around , for Catholic News Service, and is the author of a dozen books, including A Book of Quiet Prayer (2006); The Power of Principles: Ethics in the New Corporate Culture (2006) and Answers from Within: Spiritual Guidelines for Managing Setbacks in Work and Life (1998) . A founding director and past chairman of Bread for the World , Byron was also named the 1999 recipient of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities' Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for his contributions to the advancement of Catholic higher education. In that same year, he received the Council of Independent Colleges' Academic Leadership Award. Byron, who holds a doctorate in economics as well as theology degrees, served in the U.S. Army's 508 th Parachute Infantry Regiment before entering the Jesuit order in 1950. He was ordained a priest in 1961.

Inspiration Found In Guided Retreat of Jesuits' Founder

I came to a better knowledge of myself and came to accept myself as a loved sinner.

William J. Byron, Columnist and former president, Catholic University | 3 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2007 at 10:30 AM
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. He has worked for NBC, CNBC, PBS television, and the Fox News Channel where he currently appears on the weekly media critique show, “Fox News Watch.” Thomas has authored ten books, including Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America?, A Freedom Dream, Public Persons and Private Lives, Book Burning, Liberals for Lunch, Occupied Territory, The Death of Ethics in America, Uncommon Sense and Things That Matter Most. His latest was The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas. In 1995, Thomas was honored with a Cable Ace Award nomination for Best Interview Program. Other awards include a George Foster Peabody team reporting award, and awards from both the Associated Press and United Press International. Common Ground, which Thomas writes for USA Today, offers insightful discussion of contentious social issues with his friend and political counterpart, Bob Beckel. The two are working together on a book to be published in 2007.

Career Setback Led to Spiritual Growth

Experiencing God's love and grace in a way impossible with material things

Cal Thomas, Syndicated political columnist | 16 COMMENTS
Jan 4, 2007 at 10:00 AM
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. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, the “On Faith” panelist is the author or editor of thirteen books and has been a translator for two translations of the Bible. Her works include Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States (1996) and The New Testament and Psalms: An Inclusive Translation (1995). Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Thistlethwaite has been working diligently to promote peace, including a presentation at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which appears in one of their special reports. Most recently she edited and contributed to Adam, Eve and the Genome: Theology in Dialogue with the Human Genome Project (2003).

The Long, Dark Night of the Soul

It seemed dishonest to go forward with ordination when my prayer life was in shambles.

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, President, Chicago Theological Seminary | 124 COMMENTS
Jan 3, 2007 at 12:50 PM
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. She has served as Chairman of Camden & Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust and Chief Executive of the King's Fund—a major independent health charity. Currently she chairs the Commission on the Future of Volunteering in England . In the House of Lords, she is a Liberal Democrat member and in early 2006 she was Bloomberg Professor at Harvard University Divinity School . Neuberger writes, speaks, makes trouble, and has published several books, of which the latest is The Moral State We're In (2006). She is working on a book about old age, and thinking about a new book on death and dying, as well as one as a counterblast to Richard Dawkins on why religion is so important in the rather godless United Kingdom.

A Grandmother's Last Lesson

She was very clear that she was going to meet her maker, and that she felt calm and resolute.

Julia Neuberger, Chair, Commission on the Future of Volunteering in England | 14 COMMENTS
Jan 3, 2007 at 12:30 PM
"“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. His latest book, The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Discover the God of Love (2005), examines the holy book of the Judeo-Christian tradition. A committed Christian who has spent a lifetime studying the Bible and whose life has been deeply shaped by it, Spong has been a visiting lecturer at universities, Including Harvard, and churches worldwide, delivering more than 200 public lectures each year to standing-room only crowds. His best-selling books include Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, A New Christianity for a New World, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, and Here I Stand.

Most Important Religious Experience Is Life-Long

My formative religious experience was confronting each of these prejudices and overcoming them.

John Shelby Spong, Former Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Newark | 46 COMMENTS
Jan 3, 2007 at 12:00 PM
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. The "On Faith" panelist, who seeks to reintroduce the labyrinth as a walking meditation into contemporary Christian spirituality, is the author of Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice, The Sand Labyrinth Kit and The Sacred Path Companion . In 1987, Artress created Quest: Grace Cathedral Center for Spiritual Wholeness , which offered large group events such as the Women's Dream Quest and Singing for Your Life (later called Symphony of Souls) in order to nurture the connection between the human and divine. Through this work, she discovered the labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral. She travels worldwide offering workshops and lectures on the labyrinth and Hildegard of Bingen. An Episcopal priest, Artress also is a spiritual director and licensed marriage and family therapist. She sits on the editorial board of Presence Magazine, published by Spiritual Directors International.

Dance Of The Fishes

"Dance of the fishes" was my first encounter with sacred patterns

Lauren Artress, Founder, Veriditas | 57 COMMENTS
Jan 3, 2007 at 11:34 AM

READER RESPONSE

» EMM | From early childhood, through my teenage years and into adulthood, I have experienced, like many people I know, transformative moments of spiritual aw...
» Dinah | Robin, Some experiences are entirely personal. Only you can experience the love for your Mother you describe; and the same with feelings of pain, sa...
» david grant | getting sober i asked God for help and haven't had a drink or drug since....i believe i a conscious contact with God....i don't have to go into a tra...
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