April 28, 2009

The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose

Kevin Roose has always been borderline atheist and stout democrat. However, while attending Brown University and doing a story about the Thomas Road Evangelical Church, he decides to go to Liberty University for a semester to find out what is really going on on the inside. Liberty University is the university started by Jerry Fallwell. While there, Kevin hopes to bridge the religion gap and gain a better understanding of what Evangelicals believe. He decides to not reveal that he is writing a book about the situation in order to get an accurate perspective. He ends up finding an amazing base group of friends and learning more than he ever expected. While still bothered by much of the ideology he comes to accept many of the practices he encounters.
The Unlikely Disciple gives a genuine look at the evangelical church from the inside. It is very interesting and funny at times. Kevin does a fantastic job and looking at the situation from multiple perspectives and trying to understand them and embed himself in the situation rather than just viewing things from surface level. This is a great book to begin to understand the evangelical religion from a secular perspective.

Posted by Lisa at April 28, 2009 6:02 PM