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After having seen Jody Picoult's "Plain Truth," which is on the paperback best-seller list from "New York Times Book Review," and an ad for a novel called "A Version of the Truth," in this article the author talks about truth and how it is being told by some writers from a different point of view. It seems that truth is everywhere, and also nowhere. Look at the oxymorons of today: virtual reality, true lies, docudrama, infomercials, situational ethics. Then there is that old saw, truth is stranger than fiction, or its mirror image, fiction must be more real than life in order to be believable. Many are sold semi-autobiographical novels, memoirs of dubious provenance, historical fiction, and creative nonfiction. Writers invent the truth every time they pull words from their minds and set them to paper. Hence, some writers tell their own version of the truth, which is to say, they tell lies. As an historical novelist, particularly one that writes for young people who must never be lied to, the author grapples with the question, is history "true"? But do all writers tell lies, those who write novels that deal with social and political and religious ideas? Since she may never resolve this issue, the author stands beside Anne Lamott when she advises, "Tell the truth as you understand it. If you're a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act--truth is always subversive."

This paper describes some of the strengths and contributions to the field of religious studies of Kelley Bulkeley's book Big Dreams. It concludes by raising some issues that could be further elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides an overview of the book "The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750-2000," edited by Hugh McLeod and Werner Ustorf.

The religious studies librarians at Brigham Young University (BYU) began a book display research project to examine the circulation rates of religious studies titles placed on display and to specifically evaluate the impact of religious fiction on that display in an academic library. Student employees were tasked with curating the displays over several years and maintaining a spreadsheet with the titles displayed and resulting checkout rates. Religious fiction (from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint tradition) circulated over 80% the first three years, higher than the religious nonfiction on display and the same genre in the stacks. In the final year of study when almost no fiction was displayed and a higher quantity of items were placed on the shelves, the display circulation rates fell sharply. All books on the display circulated better when there was a portion of both nonfiction and fiction and when the shelves held fewer items. The data clearly showed that religious fiction is an important genre to display in an academic library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Onesimus Our Brother: Reading Religion, Race, and Culture in Philemon" edited by Matthew V. Johnson, James A. Noel and Demetrius Williams.

This essay discusses three recent books which each offer an integrative account of religious ethics and the environment. Religious environmental ethics is an area of inquiry within the larger field of religion and ecology. After a narrative that contextualizes the development of religious environmental ethics in relation to the environmental social movement, I describe the formation of the field including its focus on worldview, the 'cosmological turn,' and its engagement with science, the 'cosmic turn.' Elizabeth Johnson exemplifies the cosmic turn by developing a Christian theology of life in nature which explicitly accepts Darwin's theory of evolution. Willis Jenkins advocates a prophetic pragmatism and critiques a focus on worldview that is abstracted from practice and defers moral responsibility. Larry Rasmussen joins analysis of worldview with reflection on cross-cultural resources for 'anticipatory communities' of moral formation to catalyze change. I argue with Rasmussen that religious environmental ethics needs multiple approaches and should allow room for methodological pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to understand a puzzling aspect of Georg Simmel’s The Philosophy of Money, namely, the many religious analogies Simmel uses to characterize money. We argue that with these analogies Simmel indicates how what he would later term ‘the transcendent character of life’ permeates mundane monetary interactions. Specifically, we articulate how key religious forms of experience – faith, unity, and individuality – exist in monetary exchange and point toward a distinctively Simmelian way to understand the interplay between religion and economics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT This article reviews Hans Kelsen's mysterious and recently published last book, contextualizing it with reference to the little known dialogue between Kelsen and Eric Voegelin. The confrontation between Kelsen and Voegelin, two of the most illustrious émigré scholars who found a new home in America, is important to revisit because it touches upon several axes of debate of crucial importance to postwar intellectual history: the religion-secularity debate, the positivist-antipositivist debates, and the controversy that also led to the famous Voegelin-Arendt debate: how to read the horrors of totalitarianism into a historical trajectory of modernity. Although the Kelsen-Voegelin exchange ended in failure and bitterness, its substance goes to the heart of modern intellectual history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "On Teaching Religion: Essays by Jonathan Z. Smith" by Jonathan Z. Smith.

The article reviews the book "Religion and Hip Hop" by Monica R. Miller.

The article reviews the book "The Religion of Falung Gong," by Benjamin Penny.

The article reviews the book "Japanese Religions on the Internet: Innovation, Representation, and Authority," edited by Erica Baffelli, Ian Reader, and Brigit Staemmler.

The article reviews the book "Moses and Multiculturalism" by Barbara Johnson.

The article reviews the book "Honor Among Christians: The Cultural Key to the Messianic Secret" by David F. Watson.

Provides an overview of the book "L'Affaire Jovinien. D'une crise de la société romaine à une crise de la pensée chrétienne à la fin du IVe et au début du Ve siècle," by Yves-Marie Duval.

Presents several books regarding religion and theology. "Be Not Afraid: Overcoming the Fear of Death," by Johann Christoph Arnold; "Introducing Spiritual Direction," by Peter Ball; "What's Good About this News? Preaching from the Gospels and Galatians," by David Bartlett; "Preaching Mark in Two Voices," by Brian K. Blount and Gary W. Charles.