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Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters--And How to Talk about It
An intimate, thought-provoking, and original appraisal of the meaning of religion in our time- from the creator and host of public radio's Speaking of Faith
Krista Tippett, widely becoming known as the Bill Moyers of radio, is one of the country's most intelligent and insightful commentators on religion, ethics, and the human spirit. With this book, she draws on her own life story and her intimate conversations with both ordinary and famous figures, including Elie Wiesel, Karen Armstrong, and Thich Nhat Hanh, to explore complex subjects like science, love, virtue, and violence within the context of spirituality and everyday life. Her way of speaking about the mysteries of life-and of listening with care to those who endeavor to understand those mysteries-is nothing short of revolutionary.
Krista Tippett, widely becoming known as the Bill Moyers of radio, is one of the country's most intelligent and insightful commentators on religion, ethics, and the human spirit. With this book, she draws on her own life story and her intimate conversations with both ordinary and famous figures, including Elie Wiesel, Karen Armstrong, and Thich Nhat Hanh, to explore complex subjects like science, love, virtue, and violence within the context of spirituality and everyday life. Her way of speaking about the mysteries of life-and of listening with care to those who endeavor to understand those mysteries-is nothing short of revolutionary.
240 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
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1470 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 219 reviews
May 5, 2015
I am currently obsessed with listening to Krista Tippett’s On Being podcast, and was thrilled to stumble onto one of her books at the library! I can’t believe I just discovered the podcast/radio show; it is a show with a wide ranging subject matter. It was more faith based in the past, but now the show is comprised of conversations about what it means to be human. I also like to think of it as demonstrating the ways we (humanity) love God (or holiness, or reverence, or whatever you want to call it.) They can be talking about Mozart and it is spiritual to me. Or physics or immunology or folk music. Or all the religions and wisdom traditions. This is my tribe. I love it.
Her book is an interesting mix of conversations she has had that have inspired her as well as part memoir, how she got on this path, a listening path, or a life of conversations as she calls it. Her voice and perspective is so needed and so very beautiful. She was raised in an evangelical family, lost her faith for many years and then lived a non-religious life before finding her way back through divinity school. I read something like this, or something like Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions, and the plurality of it, the reverence for each wisdom tradition makes it impossible to choose one religion: I refuse to. So I believe them all, or respect them all. It amazes me that Tipper can maintain hers; she said being with Thich Knat Hanh was like being in the presence of God. Exactly, I believe God or holiness or divinity can be anywhere and each religion chooses to interpret it differently.
Regardless, beautiful writing and I love that she quoted Annie Dillard near the end: “You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment.” Tippett talks about reclaiming words as I love to do: holiness, reverence, amen, sacred, etc. I love the idea of my life’s astonishments, and the call to share them either with poetry or photography. I didn’t focus on many quotes from the book, it is all wonderful and has a conversational style to it versus a quotable style; I think of future rereadings the quotes might show themselves more clearly.
We can construct factual accounts and systems from DNA, gross national product, legal code- but they don’t begin to tell us how to order our astonishments, what matters in life, what matters in a death, how to love, how we can be of service to one another. These are the kinds of questions religion arose to address, and religious traditions are keepers of conversation across generations about them. I’ve seen a tapestry unfurled, both ancient and in progress like the whole of creation, a bearer of truths that arguments can’t contain. I must tell of these things, and how they meet my own deepest longings for truth, beauty, and hope. Krista Tippet.
God speaks to each of us as he makes us.
Then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
Go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame.
And make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t’ let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Her book is an interesting mix of conversations she has had that have inspired her as well as part memoir, how she got on this path, a listening path, or a life of conversations as she calls it. Her voice and perspective is so needed and so very beautiful. She was raised in an evangelical family, lost her faith for many years and then lived a non-religious life before finding her way back through divinity school. I read something like this, or something like Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions, and the plurality of it, the reverence for each wisdom tradition makes it impossible to choose one religion: I refuse to. So I believe them all, or respect them all. It amazes me that Tipper can maintain hers; she said being with Thich Knat Hanh was like being in the presence of God. Exactly, I believe God or holiness or divinity can be anywhere and each religion chooses to interpret it differently.
Regardless, beautiful writing and I love that she quoted Annie Dillard near the end: “You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment.” Tippett talks about reclaiming words as I love to do: holiness, reverence, amen, sacred, etc. I love the idea of my life’s astonishments, and the call to share them either with poetry or photography. I didn’t focus on many quotes from the book, it is all wonderful and has a conversational style to it versus a quotable style; I think of future rereadings the quotes might show themselves more clearly.
We can construct factual accounts and systems from DNA, gross national product, legal code- but they don’t begin to tell us how to order our astonishments, what matters in life, what matters in a death, how to love, how we can be of service to one another. These are the kinds of questions religion arose to address, and religious traditions are keepers of conversation across generations about them. I’ve seen a tapestry unfurled, both ancient and in progress like the whole of creation, a bearer of truths that arguments can’t contain. I must tell of these things, and how they meet my own deepest longings for truth, beauty, and hope. Krista Tippet.
God speaks to each of us as he makes us.
Then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
Go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame.
And make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t’ let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
Rainer Maria Rilke
June 14, 2009
To read this book is like being given permission to exhale, to let go of the various furies that religious extremism can engender in us, and look instead at the vast middle ground in which faith is discussed, wrestled with, and applied among the majority of the world's peoples.
Krisat Tippett is the anchor of NPR's Speaking of Faith, a show she proposed to Minnesota Public Radio in an attempt to model conversation about religion - actual conversation, with a lot of listening involved, in partnership with individuals practicing every faith imaginable. This book is a reflection of that - a distilling down of Tippet's impulse to create such a show, her goals in sustaining it, and the ways that conversation about ethics, spirituality, and religion has created change in her life.
There's a great deal of wisdom in this book - common, everyday wisdom from people doing common, everyday things - and equally, a wholesale rejection of anyone or any practice that would suggest religious practice or spiritual belief can be reduced to dogma, to simplistic rules. Instead, Tippett suggests (with quotes from many people she's interviewed) religion is about doubt, about wrestling with texts, about understanding the breadth of expression people give to their impulse to have faith, about seeing commonality and treasuring difference.
This is a swift read that offers a peaceful, compassionate, eloquent defense of faith in all its forms. A perfect Sunday experience for me.
Krisat Tippett is the anchor of NPR's Speaking of Faith, a show she proposed to Minnesota Public Radio in an attempt to model conversation about religion - actual conversation, with a lot of listening involved, in partnership with individuals practicing every faith imaginable. This book is a reflection of that - a distilling down of Tippet's impulse to create such a show, her goals in sustaining it, and the ways that conversation about ethics, spirituality, and religion has created change in her life.
There's a great deal of wisdom in this book - common, everyday wisdom from people doing common, everyday things - and equally, a wholesale rejection of anyone or any practice that would suggest religious practice or spiritual belief can be reduced to dogma, to simplistic rules. Instead, Tippett suggests (with quotes from many people she's interviewed) religion is about doubt, about wrestling with texts, about understanding the breadth of expression people give to their impulse to have faith, about seeing commonality and treasuring difference.
This is a swift read that offers a peaceful, compassionate, eloquent defense of faith in all its forms. A perfect Sunday experience for me.
September 24, 2009
Krista Tippett's NPR program by the same name is a forum for theologians, politicians, writers, and others to discuss the animating faith in their lives and the ways it plays out in public life. As I read their words and hers, I marked a few favorite passages with post-its, then subdivided those post-its into halves, fourths, and eighths. Here are a few examples:
On South African truth and reconciliation: “Truth can be told in an instant, forgiveness can be offered spontaneously, but reconciliation is the work of lifetimes and generations.”
On divorce: “God would not require me to live permanently with disrepair at the center of my life.”
On scientific inquiry: “The geneticist Lyndon Eaves tells me that the spirituality of the scientist is akin to that of a mystic: it’s a constant endeavor to discern truth while staying open to everything you do not yet, cannot yet, know. It is to live boldly and assertively with the discoveries you have made, all the while anticipating better discoveries to come. It is a life, in that sense, marked by an enlivening, creative humility.”
On spiritual inquiry: "I have given myself over to questions--large, hard, loving, full-blooded questions. I have become a crusader against insufficient questions and answers that stand in, prematurely and destructively, for both justice and mystery."
On South African truth and reconciliation: “Truth can be told in an instant, forgiveness can be offered spontaneously, but reconciliation is the work of lifetimes and generations.”
On divorce: “God would not require me to live permanently with disrepair at the center of my life.”
On scientific inquiry: “The geneticist Lyndon Eaves tells me that the spirituality of the scientist is akin to that of a mystic: it’s a constant endeavor to discern truth while staying open to everything you do not yet, cannot yet, know. It is to live boldly and assertively with the discoveries you have made, all the while anticipating better discoveries to come. It is a life, in that sense, marked by an enlivening, creative humility.”
On spiritual inquiry: "I have given myself over to questions--large, hard, loving, full-blooded questions. I have become a crusader against insufficient questions and answers that stand in, prematurely and destructively, for both justice and mystery."
August 20, 2007
I think this book would be more enjoyable for someone who listens to Tippett's radio show and wants to learn more about who she is and what her background of ideas is. I have never heard the show, and though it was interesting to see how she arrived at her career, it meandered a bit. I thought the most powerful and interesting pieces were her quotations from her reading and interviews. Her personal takes on issues seem to be either fairly obvious (not all Muslims like to kill people) or not very well thought out (maybe if we promote religious democracies instead of secular ones in the Middle East, they will actually work, since Western democracy came about with religion, not apart from it, which is at best a half truth). Ultimately, it seems that Tippett is better at asking other people questions.
January 14, 2012
One of the beautiful things about Krista Tippett’s radio program—-now called On Being—-is how she encourages her guests’ wisdom to shine. Whether the topic is ostensibly religious or if it bears in other ways on “how to order our astonishments” (9) about the deeper questions of life, she genuinely celebrates interesting people, rarely inserting her own views beyond what it takes to tease out something from the interview. So, it is worth some note that Speaking of Faith allows more room for Tippett’s own opinions, shaped nicely around some of the real highlight memories of her work with such brilliant thinkers. Her own diverse background—-from a rural fundamentalist grandfather, through a cosmopolitan career in foreign affairs, to this role as a careful theological analyst—-grants a board perspective on religion personally, systematically and academically. And the depth of her ideas can be, if not original, powerful and insightful.
Consider, for instance, how she addresses both sides of the book’s subtitle: “Why Religion Matters-—and How to Talk About It”. Religion matters personally, Tippett claims, because, “Spiritual questions don’t go away, nor does a sense of wonder and mystery, in the absence of a belief in God.” (10) It also matters publically, because in our time we are more aware than ever of how the spiritual answers are misused for very non-spiritual reasons. Accordingly (this being perhaps her main gift to society), she urges us all, from New Atheist to angry fundamentalist, to talk about religion better: “What most of us surely want, whether we are religious or not, is for the religious voice in our public life to be more constructive—to reflect the capacity religion has to nourish lives and communities.” (2)
When she tries to offer a nourishing image of faith, Tippett seems almost pastoral. Messages that could seem ‘preachy’ elsewhere, are carefully inoffensive, leaving even the religiously suspect that extra moment to consider their how they might be true. For instance, she might express her guidance through questions (“What would it mean to participate in what is truly important, and to ignore what is truly distraction?” (171)), or soft non-declaratives (“I sense that seeing the world the way God sees the world means, in part, grieving in places the world does not forgive, and rejoicing in places the world does not notice. It would mean, therefore, to live with a patience that culture cannot sustain, and with a hope the world cannot imagine.” (171)) Or, when she offers hope, she appeals to authority (“The spiritual geniuses of the ages and of the everyday don’t let despair have the last word.” (179)) or stays clear of absolutes (“sometimes in this world the best you can do is plant the seed, attend patiently and reverently to a reality you cannot change quickly or even in your lifetime, be present to suffering you cannot banish.” (59)) To be clear, Tippett is not afraid of controversy, insofar as one of her favorite topics, and one of the most important for our time, is religious conflict, especially in Palestine and the Muslim world. Thus, she comes out strongly with the unfortunate spiritual truth, which so many people anxiously deny each day: “Truth can be told in an instant, forgiveness can be offered spontaneously, but reconciliation is the work of lifetimes and generations.” (181) Or, almost in the coded political language that begs debate in so many contexts, she claims that “Justice makes charity less necessary.” (194) All public figures could hope to be so respectful, with such clarity of allegiance.
Or, take her view on Scripture, as a sacred and pragmatic guide. On one hand, Tippett values the Bible not as “a catalogue of absolutes, as its champions sometimes imply. Nor is it a document of fantasy, as its critics charge. It is an ancient record of an ongoing encounter with God in the darkness as well as the light of human experience.” (50) On the other hand, the Bible is so important to her, that it is too serious to read literally. We are not the first people in history to realize its contradictions; but “The canonical texts… were chosen over others after nearly four centuries of being passed around in early Christian communities because they stood the test of time and communal practice.” (59) For some, this is overly academic. And the radio program can ring a bit esoteric, discussing faith either too technically or too spiritually. One might also complain that her take on the history of religion can reach, or at least stands rather undefended; and some of her personal stories tend to dampen the narrative flow. But this is a distinctly fun, enlightening book, worthwhile for anyone who has a cultured interest in searching for meaning.
Consider, for instance, how she addresses both sides of the book’s subtitle: “Why Religion Matters-—and How to Talk About It”. Religion matters personally, Tippett claims, because, “Spiritual questions don’t go away, nor does a sense of wonder and mystery, in the absence of a belief in God.” (10) It also matters publically, because in our time we are more aware than ever of how the spiritual answers are misused for very non-spiritual reasons. Accordingly (this being perhaps her main gift to society), she urges us all, from New Atheist to angry fundamentalist, to talk about religion better: “What most of us surely want, whether we are religious or not, is for the religious voice in our public life to be more constructive—to reflect the capacity religion has to nourish lives and communities.” (2)
When she tries to offer a nourishing image of faith, Tippett seems almost pastoral. Messages that could seem ‘preachy’ elsewhere, are carefully inoffensive, leaving even the religiously suspect that extra moment to consider their how they might be true. For instance, she might express her guidance through questions (“What would it mean to participate in what is truly important, and to ignore what is truly distraction?” (171)), or soft non-declaratives (“I sense that seeing the world the way God sees the world means, in part, grieving in places the world does not forgive, and rejoicing in places the world does not notice. It would mean, therefore, to live with a patience that culture cannot sustain, and with a hope the world cannot imagine.” (171)) Or, when she offers hope, she appeals to authority (“The spiritual geniuses of the ages and of the everyday don’t let despair have the last word.” (179)) or stays clear of absolutes (“sometimes in this world the best you can do is plant the seed, attend patiently and reverently to a reality you cannot change quickly or even in your lifetime, be present to suffering you cannot banish.” (59)) To be clear, Tippett is not afraid of controversy, insofar as one of her favorite topics, and one of the most important for our time, is religious conflict, especially in Palestine and the Muslim world. Thus, she comes out strongly with the unfortunate spiritual truth, which so many people anxiously deny each day: “Truth can be told in an instant, forgiveness can be offered spontaneously, but reconciliation is the work of lifetimes and generations.” (181) Or, almost in the coded political language that begs debate in so many contexts, she claims that “Justice makes charity less necessary.” (194) All public figures could hope to be so respectful, with such clarity of allegiance.
Or, take her view on Scripture, as a sacred and pragmatic guide. On one hand, Tippett values the Bible not as “a catalogue of absolutes, as its champions sometimes imply. Nor is it a document of fantasy, as its critics charge. It is an ancient record of an ongoing encounter with God in the darkness as well as the light of human experience.” (50) On the other hand, the Bible is so important to her, that it is too serious to read literally. We are not the first people in history to realize its contradictions; but “The canonical texts… were chosen over others after nearly four centuries of being passed around in early Christian communities because they stood the test of time and communal practice.” (59) For some, this is overly academic. And the radio program can ring a bit esoteric, discussing faith either too technically or too spiritually. One might also complain that her take on the history of religion can reach, or at least stands rather undefended; and some of her personal stories tend to dampen the narrative flow. But this is a distinctly fun, enlightening book, worthwhile for anyone who has a cultured interest in searching for meaning.
April 13, 2012
I picked up Speaking of Faith to get an alternative perspective after reading The God Delusion. It did provide a different perspective, but it was not quite as satisfying or enlightening as I was hoping for.
Two aspects of the books were quite different from my expectations. For one thing, it was much more the personal story of the author than I thought it would be - I was expecting more of the content from the radio program of the same name. And secondly, it had much more of a focus on the three monotheistic religions than I expected - in fact, Tippett explicitly says in the first chapter that that is her focus and that she will not especially be looking at where atheism, for example, fits in. These two aspects of the books disappointed me and made it harder for me to relate to the book. I was really hoping for an intelligent discussion of religion and faith that bridges the gap between those who believe in a deity and those who do not. This book was certainly an intelligent discussion of religion and faith, but it did not bridge that gap for me.
I also found the book a bit difficult to follow and get into. To me the content of the chapters was a bit random and the flow of thought not that logical. To use the terms from my university, it felt a bit "fuzzy" which was a challenge for my logical and "techy"-oriented brain.
All of those criticisms aside, I do think Krista Tippett makes some important points, such as that religion is something that we live, that faith can be about questioning, that fundamentalist religion can actually be considered superficial, and that religion and faith address questions of meaning in our lives, which is not necessarily at all in conflict with science. Overall, reading this book reinforced my thought that, contrary to what Richard Dawkins suggests, religion can and does have a positive and important place in many people's lives. Reading both this book and Dawkin's brought to mind one of my favorite quotes about religion, by F. Forrester Church: "Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die."
Two aspects of the books were quite different from my expectations. For one thing, it was much more the personal story of the author than I thought it would be - I was expecting more of the content from the radio program of the same name. And secondly, it had much more of a focus on the three monotheistic religions than I expected - in fact, Tippett explicitly says in the first chapter that that is her focus and that she will not especially be looking at where atheism, for example, fits in. These two aspects of the books disappointed me and made it harder for me to relate to the book. I was really hoping for an intelligent discussion of religion and faith that bridges the gap between those who believe in a deity and those who do not. This book was certainly an intelligent discussion of religion and faith, but it did not bridge that gap for me.
I also found the book a bit difficult to follow and get into. To me the content of the chapters was a bit random and the flow of thought not that logical. To use the terms from my university, it felt a bit "fuzzy" which was a challenge for my logical and "techy"-oriented brain.
All of those criticisms aside, I do think Krista Tippett makes some important points, such as that religion is something that we live, that faith can be about questioning, that fundamentalist religion can actually be considered superficial, and that religion and faith address questions of meaning in our lives, which is not necessarily at all in conflict with science. Overall, reading this book reinforced my thought that, contrary to what Richard Dawkins suggests, religion can and does have a positive and important place in many people's lives. Reading both this book and Dawkin's brought to mind one of my favorite quotes about religion, by F. Forrester Church: "Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die."
August 12, 2016
Tippett's writing style is a little less clear than her speaking style, but once I slowed myself down and imagined her reading this aloud, I found I could engage with the book much better. That said, this was an important book for me. Tippett comes from a fundamentalist christian background and has found her way into a broader, kinder, more honest faith. This book traces that path, but it also lays out a new path. One that makes a welcome space for religion - our own and others - and values how faith animates and illuminates the most important questions of our time.
I especially appreciated her thoughts on how to receive another person's truth: "The first person approach to religious speech is essentially about humanizing doctrine. It disallows abstractions about God, even as it takes account of the fact that it is hard, and so intimate to speak about this aspect of life directly...I did not invite people of faith to pronounce. I asked them to trace the intersection of religious ideas with time and space and the color and complexity of real lives - not just the trajectory of their lives, but what they know of the world, the work they did, who and what they loved. This both grounded and exalted what they had to say, and it let me in...There is a profound difference between hearing someone say this is *the* truth, and hearing someone say this is *my* truth....What I heard invariably shed some light on an experience of mine, or lit up some corner of another faith that had been closed to me, mysterious and even forbidding. I could never again dismiss one of those traditions of my conversation partners wholesale, because now it carried the integrity of a particular life, a particular voice."
A helpful, gentle book that I find so refreshing right now.
I especially appreciated her thoughts on how to receive another person's truth: "The first person approach to religious speech is essentially about humanizing doctrine. It disallows abstractions about God, even as it takes account of the fact that it is hard, and so intimate to speak about this aspect of life directly...I did not invite people of faith to pronounce. I asked them to trace the intersection of religious ideas with time and space and the color and complexity of real lives - not just the trajectory of their lives, but what they know of the world, the work they did, who and what they loved. This both grounded and exalted what they had to say, and it let me in...There is a profound difference between hearing someone say this is *the* truth, and hearing someone say this is *my* truth....What I heard invariably shed some light on an experience of mine, or lit up some corner of another faith that had been closed to me, mysterious and even forbidding. I could never again dismiss one of those traditions of my conversation partners wholesale, because now it carried the integrity of a particular life, a particular voice."
A helpful, gentle book that I find so refreshing right now.
June 21, 2009
What an incredibly open (to conversation, to points of view, to truly understanding other people's experiences) person Krista Tippett reveals herself to be in this book (and in her radio show). I love the emphasis she places on edifying, on being edified—the idea that we can learn not only for the sake of knowledge, but that by the act of learning, and listening, we can be improved, morally or spiritually or intellectually. And I love the idea of searching out redemptive stories, large and small, across experiences and cultures and spiritual traditions.
Two quotes of hers that I dog-eared to come back to later, because I thought they were so lovely, and so full of meaning:
and
As someone who has, throughout my adult life, rejected any kind of formalized religion as "not for me," and who is now much more open to exploring a personal spirituality (and, as Tippett might point out, exploring mystery—finding ways to order my astonishments), I found Speaking of Faith to be kind and enlightening encouragement.
Two quotes of hers that I dog-eared to come back to later, because I thought they were so lovely, and so full of meaning:
We can construct factual accounts and systems from DNA, gross national product, legal code, but they don't begin to tell us how to order our astonishments, what matters in a life, what matters in a death, how to love, how we can be of service to each other. (pages 8-9)
and
We make the discovery that when we are honest and vivid and particular in describing what is most personal and important in life, we can summon universal and redemptive places at the very edge of words. (page 119)
As someone who has, throughout my adult life, rejected any kind of formalized religion as "not for me," and who is now much more open to exploring a personal spirituality (and, as Tippett might point out, exploring mystery—finding ways to order my astonishments), I found Speaking of Faith to be kind and enlightening encouragement.
August 22, 2023
If you've followed her career as a podcaster or radio host, then you'll find the prose is very familiar. Tippett has a strong sense of her own voice, be it written or spoken. A light but warm read.
Admittedly, I'm a huge fan of Tippett's work, and deeply appreciate her magnanimous, diplomatic, genteel, and intimate approach as a host and interviewer. She's spoken with some of the most influential thinkers, writers, and public figures of the past 30 years.
She is, of all things, a devotee of nuance (arguably her favorite virtue to invoke).
The part I found most compelling or substantial was her final chapter, "Confessing Mystery." While the majority of the book features her dancing around subjects (albeit with grace) without drawing many clear-cut lines in the ideological or doctrinal sand, the close of the book is when we get a chance to read where Tippett stands regarding religious beliefs and practices in her own life.
All in the context of her own struggles with diagnosed depression and divorce.
It was the most resonant chapter for me, although I found plenty of kinship with some of the figures she highlights in the book: Karen Armstrong, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Buber, Soren Kierkegaard, MLK, Nietzsche, and Elie Wiesel.
My primary criticism is her failure to offer many full-throated critiques or corrections against the bitter fruits religion often produces. Sure, she challenges fundamentalism and tendencies toward the literal (which I appreciate), but I would have valued something a bit more opinionated, at times.
Nonetheless, I recommend Krista Tippett's work to anyone within my social circles who is interested in "questions of the heart," as she frequently calls them. She embodies so much that is good in the world when it comes to exploring ideas with intellectual humility and compassion.
Admittedly, I'm a huge fan of Tippett's work, and deeply appreciate her magnanimous, diplomatic, genteel, and intimate approach as a host and interviewer. She's spoken with some of the most influential thinkers, writers, and public figures of the past 30 years.
She is, of all things, a devotee of nuance (arguably her favorite virtue to invoke).
The part I found most compelling or substantial was her final chapter, "Confessing Mystery." While the majority of the book features her dancing around subjects (albeit with grace) without drawing many clear-cut lines in the ideological or doctrinal sand, the close of the book is when we get a chance to read where Tippett stands regarding religious beliefs and practices in her own life.
All in the context of her own struggles with diagnosed depression and divorce.
It was the most resonant chapter for me, although I found plenty of kinship with some of the figures she highlights in the book: Karen Armstrong, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Buber, Soren Kierkegaard, MLK, Nietzsche, and Elie Wiesel.
My primary criticism is her failure to offer many full-throated critiques or corrections against the bitter fruits religion often produces. Sure, she challenges fundamentalism and tendencies toward the literal (which I appreciate), but I would have valued something a bit more opinionated, at times.
Nonetheless, I recommend Krista Tippett's work to anyone within my social circles who is interested in "questions of the heart," as she frequently calls them. She embodies so much that is good in the world when it comes to exploring ideas with intellectual humility and compassion.
January 11, 2021
4.5 stars. On Being is my favourite podcast so I was delighted to listen to this book narrated by Krista Tippett, especially at such a trying time in the world. Her thoughtful words and voice and wisdom are a balm for the soul. I so appreciated hearing her story of faith and how she has come to understand and know spirituality through religion. In particular I Ioved her reflections on faith, mystery and love and agreed with her thoughts on fundamentalism. I love too that she says, when speaking with Thich Nhat Hanh “who is not a theist” that “this may be the closest I will come to sitting in the presence of God.” From my readings of his teachings that seems true and perfectly underscores the thesis of her book.
August 2, 2022
You might recognize the name from the podcast OnBeing, I love Tippets thoughts and engagement with religious spirituality and mystery. I appreciated her narrative of how she went about asking big questions and what not. At times it got relatively deep and out of my interest. If you like her podcast definitely give this a go.
March 16, 2019
4.5
Oh how I love Krista Tippett.
Oh how I love Krista Tippett.
May 28, 2022
It's a story about how to learn, acknowledge, and realizing the importance of religion in life. Both public and private. Suits both believers and nonbelievers as well.
June 17, 2011
Speaking of Faith is one radio show / podcast I never tire of hearing. I may not always agree with the opinions of the individual interviewed, but that is good. It is by hearing the stories of the guests that I come to remember that Truth is larger than my truth. Speaking of Faith is a show that explands my mind as it breaches walls that attempt to narrow and contain my spirit.
Krista Tippett is one of the better interviewers to whom I have listened. Her weekly interview series, Speaking of Faith, produced by American Public Media, ( http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org ) always fascinates me and causes me to think and marvel at the ways of God and of humanity's attempt to know the Divine.
Tippett is an award winning journalist who has written for the New York Times, the BBC, Time Magaizine and others. Tippett also served as the Chief Aide to the US Ambassador to West Germany. She graduated from Brown University and went on to earn her Masters of Divinty from Yale.
Tippett describes her approach to understanding and exploring faith as "tracing the intersection between great religious ideas and human experience, between theology and real life."
Of Tippett, the author, Elizabeth Gilbert wrote, "Her intelligence is like a salve for all who have been wounded or marginalized by the God Wars."
I cannot recommend her podcast, web site, interview radio show or book too highly
Krista Tippett is one of the better interviewers to whom I have listened. Her weekly interview series, Speaking of Faith, produced by American Public Media, ( http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org ) always fascinates me and causes me to think and marvel at the ways of God and of humanity's attempt to know the Divine.
Tippett is an award winning journalist who has written for the New York Times, the BBC, Time Magaizine and others. Tippett also served as the Chief Aide to the US Ambassador to West Germany. She graduated from Brown University and went on to earn her Masters of Divinty from Yale.
Tippett describes her approach to understanding and exploring faith as "tracing the intersection between great religious ideas and human experience, between theology and real life."
Of Tippett, the author, Elizabeth Gilbert wrote, "Her intelligence is like a salve for all who have been wounded or marginalized by the God Wars."
I cannot recommend her podcast, web site, interview radio show or book too highly
January 21, 2019
"I have given myself over to questions: large, hard, loving, full-blooded questions."
"And paradox always gives me hope. It means there are tensions that long for resolution, gaps that might be pried open by human understanding and connection."
"This angle of approach to the broken world resists choosing sides and accepts antithesis and contradiction as given realities much of the time. I find that I grieve as bitterly for the broken humanity of the perpetrators of crimes as for their victims. . . . I find it harder and harder to label and dismiss them, render them abstract. I am constrained to be mindful of both the fragility and resilience of the human spirit. I sense that seeing the world the way God sees the world means, in part, grieving in places the world does not forgive and rejoicing in places the world does not notice. It would mean, therefore, to live with a patience that culture cannot sustain and with a hope the world cannot imagine."
Krista Tippett's approach to theology and faith is wise, hopeful, and generous. Among other things, a powerful defense of inter-faith dialogue.
"And paradox always gives me hope. It means there are tensions that long for resolution, gaps that might be pried open by human understanding and connection."
"This angle of approach to the broken world resists choosing sides and accepts antithesis and contradiction as given realities much of the time. I find that I grieve as bitterly for the broken humanity of the perpetrators of crimes as for their victims. . . . I find it harder and harder to label and dismiss them, render them abstract. I am constrained to be mindful of both the fragility and resilience of the human spirit. I sense that seeing the world the way God sees the world means, in part, grieving in places the world does not forgive and rejoicing in places the world does not notice. It would mean, therefore, to live with a patience that culture cannot sustain and with a hope the world cannot imagine."
Krista Tippett's approach to theology and faith is wise, hopeful, and generous. Among other things, a powerful defense of inter-faith dialogue.
March 12, 2009
Public radio's Krista Tippett articulates perfectly what I've always believed can come from a societal esteem & respect of diverse religious perspectives. She makes the case that the varied voices of religion & faith need not (indeed, should not) be contentious but ought to capitalize on collaborative dialogue, joyful interaction, and the shared strengths of all on the religion & faith continuum. Tippett's radio program and subsequent writing demonstrate how sharing conversation about complex issues within a spiritual framework can bring depth & dimension to the "what to do" about said issues. Tippett brings her own life narrative into the mix as she describes her spiritual awakening and the expansion of ideas that came to her as she grew into her roles as a being, a professional in diplomatic circles, a mother, and a public radio host. Speaking of Faith spoke to me in a profound way - deepening my desire to respectfully engage in the shared conversations that lead to the best in all of us.
March 28, 2015
Why is that in our culture conversations about the life of faith tend to be either saccharine or cynical? Krista Tippet believes there are other ways to talk about God, religion, and the vitality of the spiritual life. This book - part memoir, part reflection on language and its power to shape our world, part erudite conversation drawn from Tippet's radio show - seems to me not simply a reflection, but an offering to a world of shallow theology. Tippet not only encourages, but models, a humble way of interacting with people who believe differently, who live faith in unfamiliar ways, but who share the same desire to live a life characterized by the richness of love.
For dogmatic believers of any religion, Tippets ways of speaking about faith may be uncomfortable - she herself acknowledges this. But her own story and the stories she recounts provides a sane, heartening, and gentle clarion call to speak of faith with a humility and honesty born of the search for beauty.
For dogmatic believers of any religion, Tippets ways of speaking about faith may be uncomfortable - she herself acknowledges this. But her own story and the stories she recounts provides a sane, heartening, and gentle clarion call to speak of faith with a humility and honesty born of the search for beauty.
August 22, 2012
Three quarters of the way through and still in awe of the author's gentle, self confident intelligence that we hear on the radio every week and which this book goes some way to explaining... stimulating massage for brain.
Looking back, Krista Tippet has given us quite a revealing autobiography which, in part, explains the sophisticated gentleness that comes across in her radio program, "On Being". A hopeful and thought provoking read.
Looking back, Krista Tippet has given us quite a revealing autobiography which, in part, explains the sophisticated gentleness that comes across in her radio program, "On Being". A hopeful and thought provoking read.
January 20, 2008
Will likely change my approach to/understanding of religious dialogue. Recommend the audio version since it includes clips of interviews and I liked being able to hear people's voices.
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August 27, 2024Krista is undoubtedly one of my heroes and one of the great spiritual voices of our time. I could say a thousand words of praise and share even more quotes, but I feel that this excerpt from the beginning of the text captures it all perfectly,
"The spiritual energy of our time, as I've come to understand it, is not a rejection of the rational disciplines by which we've ordered our everyday life for many decades—law, politics, economics, science. It is a realization that these disciplines have a limited scope. They can't ask ultimate questions of morality and meaning. We can construct factual accounts and systems from DNA, gross national product, and legal code, but they don't begin to tell us how to order our astonishments, what matters in life, what matters in a death, how to love, how we can be of service to each other. These are the questions religion arose to address, and religious traditions are keepers of conversation across generations about them."
And Krista so graciously and generously guides us through these questions, the biggest and most important and pressing ones, without gesturing toward answers, but instead leading us into deeper understanding of ourselves and exploration of each other and the world, and ultimately into more uniquely compassionate and inquisitive versions of ourselves.
"The spiritual energy of our time, as I've come to understand it, is not a rejection of the rational disciplines by which we've ordered our everyday life for many decades—law, politics, economics, science. It is a realization that these disciplines have a limited scope. They can't ask ultimate questions of morality and meaning. We can construct factual accounts and systems from DNA, gross national product, and legal code, but they don't begin to tell us how to order our astonishments, what matters in life, what matters in a death, how to love, how we can be of service to each other. These are the questions religion arose to address, and religious traditions are keepers of conversation across generations about them."
And Krista so graciously and generously guides us through these questions, the biggest and most important and pressing ones, without gesturing toward answers, but instead leading us into deeper understanding of ourselves and exploration of each other and the world, and ultimately into more uniquely compassionate and inquisitive versions of ourselves.
December 7, 2017
My interest in and love for Krista Tippett’s conversational approach to god, life and meaning was rekindled when re-listening to her interview with John O’Donohue for her On Being podcast. The beautiful and rich conversations she produces have deepened my life countless times now, and I checked out this book with a desire to learn more about Krista’s personal story behind her pursuits. The book fully delivers. It was very interesting to learn more about her previous career as a war journalist, and how that experience kept her close to big questions about the source behind our conflicts, motivations and beliefs. I actually listened to this book on audio, which felt entirely appropriate! When she weaves in the thoughts of others who she’d interviewed, they cut in actual audio from those podcasts, too, and I loved that. One of the most poignant parts of this book was how it underscores the importance of religious literacy, especially around Islam right now. Absence of better religious understanding only exacerbates global distress. This, and many other thoughtful moments (as one would expect from Krista Tippett) made this a very worthwhile read. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed On Being, or for that matter, who has enjoyed having any conversation about matters of faith and ethics.
October 15, 2017
I love Krista Tippett and On Being, so I especially appreciated listening to this on audio with her voice reading the book. There was a lot of great wisdom packed in here, so it will definitely be a reread for me! Possibly even one to own!
February 25, 2025
"Together we find illuminating and edifying words and send them out to embolden work of clarifying, of healing. We speak because we have questions, not just answers, and our questions cleanse our answers and enliven our world."
October 23, 2020
A pivotal book in my thinking as a human.
February 3, 2013
When WITF-FM abandoned its classical music format in June for news and talk, its decision provoked strong reactions from many long-time listeners.
But if you’re an early riser on Sunday morning, you know one of the happy byproducts of that change has been the appearance at 7 a.m. of Krista Tippett’s On Being, a show that’s billed as “a spacious conversation about the big questions at the center of human life, from the boldest new science of the human brain to the most ancient traditions of the human spirit.” Simply put, it features some of the most thoughtful conversations you’ll hear anywhere on radio or television.
Speaking of Faith (Tippett’s show originally bore that title) is really two books.
One tells the story of her spiritual journey, from an Oklahoma childhood where she grew up under the powerful influence of a Baptist preacher grandfather, through college at Brown, a stint as a journalist and diplomatic aide in Germany in the years leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, a divinity degree from Yale and an extended engagement with a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota. Though Tippett is a “person of faith” and a committed Christian, every page of this book reflects the questing soul of a spiritual searcher whose world view has been shaped by well-known theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr.
“This book is a chronicle of a change of mind,” as Tippett describes it, “and of a discipline of listening that keeps my mind and my spirit stretching.”
The book’s other thread concerns the birth and development of Tippett’s career as a media presence. It’s not surprising she had to overcome considerable skepticism when she first pitched the idea of a public radio show on religion.
“We have had few models in our public life for religious speech that does not proselytize, exclude, anger or offend,” she writes.
In the more than a decade Tippet has been on the air, she’s hosted an impressive array of religious leaders and intelligent lay people, scientists, philosophers and entertainers. Summing up the task she’s set for herself and the values she’s tried to serve in her conversations, she writes:
“This kind of journalism I do is, as much for myself as for others, about looking beyond the horrors of the evening news to the redemptive stories that are not being told, to ways of being in the world that keep sense and virtue and the possibility of healing alive in the middle of the world’s complexity.”
In the same civil, generous spirit that characterizes her probing interviews, Tippett spends a considerable portion of the book wrestling with some of the “big questions” – the conflict between science and religion, fundamentalism, social justice and the problem of evil – that have preoccupied her thoughts and conversations. She’s determined to change Americans’ perception of Islam, for example, observing that “exclusionary Islamic violence is a reality of the twenty-first century. But it is not the whole story.” Tippett believes religion fundamentally is a force for good, recognizing, as it does, that “each person’s presence, action, and words in the world matter, however inconsequential they may seem against the backdrop of the evening’s news. Religions remind us of this fact, this faith.”
Although she doesn’t explicitly address the claims of New Atheists like the late Christopher Hitchens, Tippett firmly rejects the proposition that the blame for many of the world’s ills can be laid at the feet of religion, citing persuasive examples to support her argument. In a chapter entitled “Exposing Virtue,” she extols “people who bring light into the world” like the late Kenyan Nobel Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, responsible for helping plant 30 million trees in her native country, or David Hilfiker, a physician who 20 years ago gave up his Midwestern medical practice and moved with his family to one of Washington, D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods.
In Tippett’s account, these are not mere “feel good” stories, but instead tales of people inspired to great deeds, even deep sacrifice, by a profound religious faith.
We’ve just finished a bitter election campaign that’s made most of us feel we’ve been overexposed to an overdose of what Tippett calls the “competing certainties of our public life.” We could use a measure of the civility that’s consistently supplied by the people she writes about in this book and on her show.
If Speaking of Faith whets your appetite to consider some of these issues more deeply, you may want to take a look at Einstein’s God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit, a collection of 13 interviews from her show, or visit her website at onbeing.org.
Copyright 2012 Harrisburg Magazine
But if you’re an early riser on Sunday morning, you know one of the happy byproducts of that change has been the appearance at 7 a.m. of Krista Tippett’s On Being, a show that’s billed as “a spacious conversation about the big questions at the center of human life, from the boldest new science of the human brain to the most ancient traditions of the human spirit.” Simply put, it features some of the most thoughtful conversations you’ll hear anywhere on radio or television.
Speaking of Faith (Tippett’s show originally bore that title) is really two books.
One tells the story of her spiritual journey, from an Oklahoma childhood where she grew up under the powerful influence of a Baptist preacher grandfather, through college at Brown, a stint as a journalist and diplomatic aide in Germany in the years leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, a divinity degree from Yale and an extended engagement with a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota. Though Tippett is a “person of faith” and a committed Christian, every page of this book reflects the questing soul of a spiritual searcher whose world view has been shaped by well-known theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr.
“This book is a chronicle of a change of mind,” as Tippett describes it, “and of a discipline of listening that keeps my mind and my spirit stretching.”
The book’s other thread concerns the birth and development of Tippett’s career as a media presence. It’s not surprising she had to overcome considerable skepticism when she first pitched the idea of a public radio show on religion.
“We have had few models in our public life for religious speech that does not proselytize, exclude, anger or offend,” she writes.
In the more than a decade Tippet has been on the air, she’s hosted an impressive array of religious leaders and intelligent lay people, scientists, philosophers and entertainers. Summing up the task she’s set for herself and the values she’s tried to serve in her conversations, she writes:
“This kind of journalism I do is, as much for myself as for others, about looking beyond the horrors of the evening news to the redemptive stories that are not being told, to ways of being in the world that keep sense and virtue and the possibility of healing alive in the middle of the world’s complexity.”
In the same civil, generous spirit that characterizes her probing interviews, Tippett spends a considerable portion of the book wrestling with some of the “big questions” – the conflict between science and religion, fundamentalism, social justice and the problem of evil – that have preoccupied her thoughts and conversations. She’s determined to change Americans’ perception of Islam, for example, observing that “exclusionary Islamic violence is a reality of the twenty-first century. But it is not the whole story.” Tippett believes religion fundamentally is a force for good, recognizing, as it does, that “each person’s presence, action, and words in the world matter, however inconsequential they may seem against the backdrop of the evening’s news. Religions remind us of this fact, this faith.”
Although she doesn’t explicitly address the claims of New Atheists like the late Christopher Hitchens, Tippett firmly rejects the proposition that the blame for many of the world’s ills can be laid at the feet of religion, citing persuasive examples to support her argument. In a chapter entitled “Exposing Virtue,” she extols “people who bring light into the world” like the late Kenyan Nobel Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, responsible for helping plant 30 million trees in her native country, or David Hilfiker, a physician who 20 years ago gave up his Midwestern medical practice and moved with his family to one of Washington, D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods.
In Tippett’s account, these are not mere “feel good” stories, but instead tales of people inspired to great deeds, even deep sacrifice, by a profound religious faith.
We’ve just finished a bitter election campaign that’s made most of us feel we’ve been overexposed to an overdose of what Tippett calls the “competing certainties of our public life.” We could use a measure of the civility that’s consistently supplied by the people she writes about in this book and on her show.
If Speaking of Faith whets your appetite to consider some of these issues more deeply, you may want to take a look at Einstein’s God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit, a collection of 13 interviews from her show, or visit her website at onbeing.org.
Copyright 2012 Harrisburg Magazine
February 3, 2019
Oh my goodness, what a treasure for the curious mind, religious or not. Krista Tippett hosts a weekly radio program that began because she was, in mid-life, searching for answers to the big questions that touch us all - most important of all being can faith and science co-exist? She began her radio program in conversations with scientists who surprised her and themselves I think at the wonder and mystery that are the heart of both science and faith. This memoir is both her faith journey and the story of how her program morphed from "Speaking of Faith" to "On Being" as she grew, and her listeners grew, into a sense that political globalization and the speed of our communication can serve us all as we discover ways to embrace each others' full humanity, and in our differences discover our unity. I've thought of Krista and her guests as spiritual mentors for my whole life and was surprised to learn that "Speaking of Faith", the radio program from whence the book's title came, was piloted in 2000 and only became nationally available in 2003. )I retired in 2003, so in a way, that is a whole life...) The text is rich in quotes and poetry that inspired her and me, and I hope you, dear reader, to continue to ask the hard questions in a way that reveals to each of us a way of "Being" in the world that is just, good, and wonder-filled.
March 1, 2017
For the past year or so, I've been listening to the On Being podcast with Krista Tippett. This is my first time reading her, and I feel like I've found another important mentor. Tippett is eloquently skilled at communicating her own faith while intelligently engaging people of all faiths to share their own stories. This is a rare skill, and I want to grow in it.
More at my blog: http://www.tamarahillmurphy.com/blogt...
More at my blog: http://www.tamarahillmurphy.com/blogt...
July 31, 2014
This is the book that has convinced me, once and for all, that trying to understand the appeal of religion is a hopeless cause, for me.
I had been hoping that Tippett, who hosts NPR's program on religion, would provide a solid argument for why religion still has a place in the world. She did not start out strongly. In chapter one, she mentioned two people with scientific backgrounds, in the quest for examples of where religion and science can come together. Unfortunately, the first was Dr. Mehmet Oz, who despite being an excellent doctor (by most accounts) is also a modern-day snake-oil salesman, hawking "magic pills" and "miracle drugs" that have never been shown to work. Her other mention is of Einstein, whose scientific credentials cannot be questioned. However she claims that his general relativity somehow argues that time goes in a circle, which not only has nothing to do with Einstein's theories, it is actually an idea had by Nietzsche, ironically given the position Tippett is taking with the book.
Things didn't get a whole lot better. Much of Tippett's argument seemed to consist of stories from her life in which she drives home the point that she likes religion. Tippett is at her most convincing when what she is defending could be more properly described as philosophy.
But what really turned me off to the book is that Tippett seems to struggle a great deal to accept that other religious doctrines may be precisely as good (or bad) as Christianity. The reader gets the impression that she makes such allowances primarily for political correctness, before returning to expounding the virtues of the Bible.
At the end of the day, she, as many insistent believers, is uninterested in basic facts. She tries to redefine truth, and then essentially acts like she is using the usual definition (why else use the same word?). If you are an atheist and want to learn from a well-thought out argument for religion, look elsewhere. And if you find it, let me know.
I had been hoping that Tippett, who hosts NPR's program on religion, would provide a solid argument for why religion still has a place in the world. She did not start out strongly. In chapter one, she mentioned two people with scientific backgrounds, in the quest for examples of where religion and science can come together. Unfortunately, the first was Dr. Mehmet Oz, who despite being an excellent doctor (by most accounts) is also a modern-day snake-oil salesman, hawking "magic pills" and "miracle drugs" that have never been shown to work. Her other mention is of Einstein, whose scientific credentials cannot be questioned. However she claims that his general relativity somehow argues that time goes in a circle, which not only has nothing to do with Einstein's theories, it is actually an idea had by Nietzsche, ironically given the position Tippett is taking with the book.
Things didn't get a whole lot better. Much of Tippett's argument seemed to consist of stories from her life in which she drives home the point that she likes religion. Tippett is at her most convincing when what she is defending could be more properly described as philosophy.
But what really turned me off to the book is that Tippett seems to struggle a great deal to accept that other religious doctrines may be precisely as good (or bad) as Christianity. The reader gets the impression that she makes such allowances primarily for political correctness, before returning to expounding the virtues of the Bible.
At the end of the day, she, as many insistent believers, is uninterested in basic facts. She tries to redefine truth, and then essentially acts like she is using the usual definition (why else use the same word?). If you are an atheist and want to learn from a well-thought out argument for religion, look elsewhere. And if you find it, let me know.
May 26, 2014
There are books that are important, useful and helpful, but difficult to read. There are also books that are a breeze to read, but of little use. Then there is Krista Tippett’s Speaking of Faith, which was simply a joy to read. It’s not a difficult read, but it’s an important book none-the-less. A product of love (of matters of faith), that love shows on every page. And at a time when shrill voices both decry and defend the faith, it is good to hear a voice that is gentle and inviting. A voice that is humble and gracious.
That is the voice one finds coming from Krista Tippett, a theologically trained (Yale Divinity School) journalist and host of the radio program of the same title – Speaking of Faith. She is by birth and by profession of faith a Christian. As she engages her guests and us in conversation, she does not shy away from that profession – but at the same time she recognizes that there are other voices that need to be heard. Her book offers evidence that she knows how to listen and that she’s willing to elicit from her conversation partners confessions of faith that are just as humble and inviting.
To continue reading -- http://www.bobcornwall.com/2007/06/sp...
That is the voice one finds coming from Krista Tippett, a theologically trained (Yale Divinity School) journalist and host of the radio program of the same title – Speaking of Faith. She is by birth and by profession of faith a Christian. As she engages her guests and us in conversation, she does not shy away from that profession – but at the same time she recognizes that there are other voices that need to be heard. Her book offers evidence that she knows how to listen and that she’s willing to elicit from her conversation partners confessions of faith that are just as humble and inviting.
To continue reading -- http://www.bobcornwall.com/2007/06/sp...
June 26, 2014
"I have become a crusader against insufficient questions and answers that stand in, prematurely and destructively, for both justice and mystery." This is Krista Tippett's concise statement of her life's work, and her memoir, SPEAKING OF FAITH, is a wild romp through an abundance of questions and exploratory answers. Tippett is a conversationalist extraordinaire; she's written a memoir that traces her faith journey in relationship to the Christian conservatism of her childhood, the cold war climate in Berlin where she was a journalist, and the hundreds of dialogues she's initiated over the years of hosting "Speaking of Faith." In other words, it's a faith story largely shaped by ideas. And so this book lacks the narrative drive and vivid scenes we often expect of memoirs. But for those of us searching to integrate our relationship with mystery into all dimensions of our lives--our political outlook, our religious discourse, our family dynamics, our life's work--Tippett's memoir is a beautiful, heartfelt, sweeping role model. I highly recommend it.
Erudite analyses, for all their merits, rarely take note of the power of a sense of belovedness as an antidote to fear.
--Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith
Erudite analyses, for all their merits, rarely take note of the power of a sense of belovedness as an antidote to fear.
--Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith
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