All That's Holy: A Young Guy, an Old Car, and the Search for God in America [Hardcover]

Tom Levinson (Author), Harvey Cox (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 20, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0787961663 | ISBN-13: 978-0787961664 | Edition: 1

There's nothing more American than a road trip— and a spiritual road trip at that. From mosque to synagogue to chapel to coffee shop, Tom Levinson's entertaining and erudite stories of conversations with the faithful and the seeking get to the heart of religion in America today. All That's Holy is a fascinating conversational collage set against the backdrop of the author's deepening appreciation— both intellectually and spiritually— of his own religious roots.

"Tom Levinson has given us a spiritual Odyssey, an extended adventure in the new meaning of faith and hope. Eloquent, heartfelt, and true, this is a book America needs."
— James Carroll, author, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews and American Requiem, winner of the National Book Award

"Tom Levinson has written an engaging and lucid personal essay on a timely and timeless subject."
— Joyce Carol Oates, author, A Garden of Earthly Delights, Big Mouth & Ugly Girl, and I'll Take You There

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wry, poignant, insightful and balanced, this travelogue is a keen first effort by Harvard Divinity School graduate Levinson, who embarked on a self-imposed pilgrimage of three months and 9,000 miles in a 1994 Nissan "traveling laboratory." Daunted by the scope of his own ambition, Levinson's business cards stated his mission and bolstered himself as the "Project Director" of "God Is: An Oral History of Faith in America." Armed with a cell phone, tape recorder and list of potential contacts, he traversed the landscape, initiating profound conversations in often unlikely places with likely and unlikely subjects such as southwestern U.S. Sikhs, converted Hasidic Jews, Wiccans in the Army, Texas evangelicals and Yorubans in a South Carolina roadside attraction, among nearly 100 others. Levinson's fluid style connects these rapid-fire interludes, beguiling the reader to peer with him into a cultural kaleidoscope of a gloriously pluralized religious landscape. A superb storyteller, Levinson's book lures like the very routes that beckoned him, where way leads on to way, path leads on to path. His insights about truth, tradition, choice and empathy arise in part from the road trip's powerful juxtapositions. For example, because he is a Jew, from the story of Moses he understood the Navajo tribal need to rely on a core of elders for community leadership. Coming to a just conclusion that "there is no going it alone," Levinson's thoughtful adventure proffers much hope and understanding for anyone interested in contemporary American culture.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Usually road trips and pilgrimages don't mix, but in Levinson's entertaining cross-country tale, they do. He set out to talk to people of as many faiths as possible, throughout America. He meant to speak less than to listen, and to learn thereby more about himself. The fourth-generation Jewish New Yorker also says his journey was partly a process of transformation, partly a means of escape. Purposeful, if lacking an itinerary, he met Trappist monks near Dubuque, Iowa; Hare Krishnas on Boston's tony Beacon Hill; Muslims in Toledo; an alumnus of a Christian fundamentalist university in Virginia; a member of the ill-fated Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas; denizens of a wiccan community center in Dallas. He had brushes with other Catholics, Mormons, Pentecostalists, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, Quakers, and more; and he had personal insights and sudden revelations. Although rather long-winded, his book is still an enjoyable romp across the patchwork quilt of faiths in contemporary America. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (August 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787961663
• ISBN-13: 978-0787961664
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #949,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! When do we get a sequel?, September 10, 2003

By 

puchunga (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All That's Holy: A Young Guy, an Old Car, and the Search for God in America (Hardcover)

If you buy this book I promise you won't be able to put it down once you start reading it. The places Mr. Levinson visits and the encounters he describes are so interesting, fun, and witty that you'll find yourself wishing you could have been his traveling companion. The next best thing to that is joining the author in spirit while reading about his journey.

Although motivated by a desire to understand what drives people's religious beliefs, Mr. Levinson uncovers a lot about American society in general that transcends religious tendencies.

So, if you enjoyed Jack Kerouac's On the Road do yourself a favor and buy this book, too.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One Long Trip, December 30, 2004

By 

Brian Markowski (Cedar Rapids, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All That's Holy: A Young Guy, an Old Car, and the Search for God in America (Hardcover)

The idea of someone going from one town to another with the soul purpose of exploring individual faith is an intriguing one. However, Tom Levinson, though his hearts in the right place, writes a book that's only half of what it should be.

When I first heard of this book I half expected it to be a sort of biblical "On the Road", a journey of faith or in search of faith. Instead we get Tom Levinson, a Theology student who is basiclly tying up his academic loose ends. He travels across the country talking to Jews, Wicca's, Sikhs, etc. This is all fine but unfortunately Levinson has the prose of a graduate student. I didn't expect him to be Keroack, but I did expect something richer, something more fulfilling. Levinson respects all his interviews but there is little insight. He creates a business card which reads "Project Director of "God Is: An Oral History of Faith in America". Cute, but it comes across awkward and maybe even a little silly.

I read this book almost a year ago and sadly all I could originally remember were two passages, one in which the ever polite Levinson is surprised by the arrogance of an evangelical Christian minister. That was the best surprise of the book for me and frankly this book needed more of them.

For better books on road trips I'd recommend:
"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
"A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins
or "The Kindness of Strangers" by Mike McIntyre

For books based on religious investigation I'd recommend:
"Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia" by Dennis Covington
"Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith" by Jon Krakauer
"The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff
or "Nine Parts of Desire : The Hidden World of Islamic Women" by Geraldine Brooks

For media based on religious experience, I'd recommend:
The movie "Saved", now on DVD
Or go to the website based on the radio show This American Life and listen to shows
"Leaving the Fold" and "My Experimental Phase"

Granted my recommendations tend to be, for the most part, darker, but established religions are all combinations of dark and light. Levinson gives us neither, just a friendly informative, almost text book like approach to the diversity of religion in America.

(2 and a half stars)

5.0 out of 5 stars All that's right about religion in America, October 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: All That's Holy: A Young Guy, an Old Car, and the Search for God in America (Hardcover)

All That's Holy will make you question nearly every belief you've ever held about religion and your own personal faith - but in a good way. Levinson's conversations with strangers across the country and his exploration of his own religious leanings is the quintessential pilgrimage story, with one small exception: this time you'll actually care. Whether you're "religious" or "definitely not," All That's Holy presents an entertaining and insightful survey of religion in America today. And besides, any book that has the author's grandmother quoted on the back alongside nationally best-selling authors is a keeper.