“Speaking of Faith,” by Krista Tippett. Viking/Penguin (New York, 2007). 238 pp., $23.95.

"The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt and Repairing the World,” by Bob Abernethy and William Bole. Seven Stories Press (New York, 2007). 448 pp., $29.95.

“Speaking of Faith,” by Krista Tippett, is a chronicle of ideas presented on her weekly public radio program. It is also a memoir with a narrative thread that makes this book as compelling as any novel.

In her book, as on the radio, Tippett is an intelligent observer, sophisticated and compassionate. Reading Tippett is like attending a dinner party with some of the most interesting minds in America and standing at the elbow of the hostess as she introduces each friend.

“In my radio program I bring one voice at a time onto the air,” writes Tippett. “Everyone speaks out of his or her own life, knowledge and truth – never for all Christians, Muslims or Buddhists or for God, the Quran or the Bible.”

Tippett calls her approach “narrative theology.” She uses her own narrative to illustrate chapter themes of doubt, fear, courage and compassion. The settings may be exotic, but her phases of spiritual development will be familiar to readers.
Tippett was born in 1960 in Oklahoma, the granddaughter of a Southern Baptist preacher but daughter of adamantly nonreligious parents. When she was a young adult, religion was not part of her life. After an Ivy League education, she lived in East Germany, an aggressively atheist culture, where she worked in the diplomatic corps, highly aware of the threat of nuclear weapons.

After that Cold War phase, she opened up to religion and turned away from public life. She moved to the Mediterranean island of Majorca, got married and lived in a small English village, had children and attended Yale Divinity School. She writes that she “emerged from divinity school with a sense of the vastness and relevance of the theological enterprise. ... But I could not find these aspects of religion visible in public life.”

In 1995 she attended the Benedictine-run Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at St. John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn. She found the Benedictines were “after my heart, contemplative and industrious at once.”

Hired to conduct an oral history of the institute, she interviewed dozens of people including Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan, liberation theologian Robert McAfee Brown, Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, Paulist Father Tom Sransky of the Tantur Institute near Jerusalem, and Quaker educator Parker Palmer.

Tippett says she was surprised by “how listenable these conversations were, in dramatic contrast to the strident religious language of our public life.” This project was the inspiration for her program on Minnesota Public Radio.

By the late 1990s “Speaking of Faith” was on the air. After 2001, her belief that religion was relevant to public life was no longer a dubious proposition.

Tippett believes that hearing others express their deeply held beliefs helps listeners be more open, compassionate and comprehending. She writes, “There is a profound difference between hearing someone say this is the truth and hearing someone say this is my truth. You can disagree with another person’s opinions; you can disagree with his doctrines; you can’t disagree with his experience.”

Unlike Tippett’s book, which is to be read straight through, “The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt and Repairing the World” is to be read like poetry or short stories.

Bob Abernethy, host of the public television program “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly” and a member of a United Church of Christ congregation in Washington, worked with Catholic editor William Bole of Andover, Mass., to select from the transcripts of interviews for the program, produced by Thirteen/WNET and aired on PBS stations since 1997.

Short, Distinctive Voices

Each short selection is the distinctive voice of an individual. The speakers include the Rev. Martin Marty, a historian, poet Thomas Lynch, the Dalai Lama, novelist Marilynne Robinson, physicist and Anglican priest the Rev. John Polkinghorne, sociologist Father Andrew Greeley, columnist George Weigel, humorist Anne Lamott, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rabbi Harold Kushner.

There is diversity and humor here as well as wisdom. Each selection has lines worth quoting. And because they are taken from transcripts, complex ideas are presented in an accessible, conversational style.

Daly is a former book review editor for Catholic News Service.

Catholic Best Sellers List

Here is the Catholic Best-Sellers List for May 2007, according to the Catholic Book Publishers Association.

Hardcover

1. “Religious Literacy.” Stephen Prothero (HarperSanFrancisco)
2. “Amazing Grace.” Eric Metaxas (HarperSanFrancisco)
3. “A Book of Hours.” Merton & Deignan (Ave Maria Press)
4. “Celebration of Discipline” 25th anniversary edition. Richard Foster (HarperSanFrancisco)
5. Catechism of the Catholic Church. (Doubleday, Our Sunday Visitor and USCCB)
6. “My Life With the Saints.” James Martin (Loyola)
7. “With Jesus Every Day.” Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn (Crossroad)
8. “The Catholic Priesthood and Women.” Sara Butler (Liturgy Training Publications)
9. “Crossing the Desert.” Robert J. Wicks (Ave Maria Press)
10. “Perfectly Yourself.” Matthew Kelly (Beacon/Ballantine)

Paperback

1. “Mere Christianity.” C.S. Lewis (HarperSanFrancisco)
2. “The Screwtape Letters.” C.S. Lewis (HarperSanFrancisco)
3. Catechism of the Catholic Church. (Doubleday, Our Sunday Visitor and USCCB)
4. U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults. (USCCB)
5. “Handbook for Today’s Catholic.” A Redemptorist Pastoral Publication (Liguori)
6. “The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics.” C.S. Lewis (HarperSanFrancisco)
7. “Return of the Prodigal Son.” Henri J.M. Nouwen (Doubleday)
8. “Good News About Sex & Marriage.” Christopher West (Servant Books)
9. “Life of the Beloved.” Henri J.M. Nouwen (Crossroad)