Barbara   O'Brien

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Barbara O'Brien

Goodreads Author


Born
The United States
Website

Member Since
December 2013


Barbara Hoetsu O'Brien grew up in the Ozark Mountain section of the Bible Belt, also called the Land of Perpetual Holy Spirit Gospel Tabernacle Revivals. Doubts pulled her away from Christianity, however, and after much stumbling around in many traditions she became a formal student of Zen Buddhism in the late 1980s. As a journalist she has written extensively about religion in America and how it impacts politics and culture. From 2008 to 2016 she was the resident expert on Buddhism for About.com, and she blogs about whatever is on her mind at her personal blog, The Mahablog (mahablog.com). ...more

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Barbara O'Brien That depends on what you mean by "revisited." Have I seriously considered going back to Christianity as my spiritual/religious path? No. On the other …moreThat depends on what you mean by "revisited." Have I seriously considered going back to Christianity as my spiritual/religious path? No. On the other hand, I remain interested in Christianity in a more academic sense, trying to understand how it developed as it did and why so much of it today seems to have gone off the rails.

This is something I wrote about at great length in my book, Rethinking Religion. I have a deep respect for Christianity in its more non-literalist, non-fundamentalist forms, and I hope that some of what I wrote might help the tradition disown the right-wing reactionary zealots who appear to dominate it today. (less)
Barbara O'Brien I've always got a list of things I'm working on, so if there's no "flow" with one thing I'll work on something else.…moreI've always got a list of things I'm working on, so if there's no "flow" with one thing I'll work on something else.(less)
Average rating: 4.21 · 120 ratings · 28 reviews · 3 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Circle of the Way: A Co...

4.21 avg rating — 107 ratings3 editions
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Rethinking Religion: Findin...

4.15 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2014 — 3 editions
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Blogging America: Political...

0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions
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Review: The Mormon Delusion, Volume 4

Religion had a wild ride in 19th century America. Transcendentalism was born about 1830 and grew into a major cultural movement that still influences us today. The antebellum period saw prominent Christian denominations split apart over slavery. After the Civil War Americans became fascinated with spiritism and trying to contact the dead through seances. Transcendentalism plus spiritism plus Orien Read more of this blog post »
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Published on July 27, 2014 11:04 Tags: mormonism, religion
The Message
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Who Wrote the Bible?
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Barbara’s Recent Updates

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The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
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The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei by John   Stevens
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Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliott Friedman
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The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein
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White Rural Rage by Tom Schaller
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The Mind of Clover by Robert Aitken
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