The Creed Room: A Novel of Ideas

by Daniel Spiro

Sam Kramer is the kind of school teacher who is born to provoke—whether it’s his students’ thoughts or his principal’s anger. In his classroom, he’s in charge. But he soon finds himself a pawn in someone else’s classroom when he responds to a cryptic ad in the Washington Post and visits an old Victorian mansion. There, he and eight others are given a for a handsome fee, work together over the next several months to develop a new creed for humankind, a unifying philosophy that will give hope to an increasingly divided world. The group starts out with great devotion to the man who brought them together. What they don’t realize until later is that this “benefactor” may in fact have created the creed room for his own, more sinister purposes.

Daniel Spiro’s characters pull no punches as they spar about religious fundamentalism, racism, poverty and the question of God. Sometimes, these characters find common ground. They also find romance. And in the end, they change history.

The Creed Room is a dramatic, thought-provoking journey through the ideological divide that now strangles the American soul. Fortunately, Mr. Spiro doesn’t simply diagnose the problem; the “creed” he offers as a solution succeeds in marrying many of the best ideas on both sides of the Great Divide.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published March 23, 2006

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a different type of book for me. This one makes one think. Quite a bunch of divergent views that come together. It would probably take a second reading (I don't expect to reread anytime soon), to have the ideas in this book sink in. Interestingly, the last date notation in the book is 2004, but the topics covered are still valid today in 2019. Rationalism, empathy, passion. I will try to remember these concepts in my daily life.

[Krista]

There were parts of this book that were commendable for attempting to present non-stereotypical opposing viewpoints about religion and politics. But other parts were contemptible for being close-minded and judgmental on those same topics. I chalked it up to the minds of the characters, until I reached the epilogue, which was the author revealing his true perspective, the perspective that made me cringe all along.


If the book had ended with the creed, I was ready to run out and start a book club just to discuss it. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for recommending the book was thoroughly deflated when the first 300 pages of characters working to de-polarize thoughts were undermined by the epilogue that revealed the creed room as a plot by underhanded conservatives to secretly steal ideas from liberals in order to win the 2004 election.


If you detest the labels of liberal and conservative, you'll have a hard time reading this entire book. Which is too bad in a way, because the creed that is introduced at the end of this book is actually a good starting place for common ground, no matter your political affiliation or spiritual beliefs -- although we could have a lot of debates about the way the characters suggest it be applied. But that was the author's intent, to "start the conversation".

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story of philosophical searching is praiseworthy for its upbeat spirit: rationalism and empathy coming together.... exactly what the world needs.