Customer Reviews

God Talk in America

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am prompted to review this book because the only reader review rates this book so poorly. I read it several years ago and was very impressed with Mrs. Tickle's knowledge of contemporary religious discourse (printed, oral, and electronic). I found her material to be extremely well-documented and her prose style to be simple on first glance. However, her thoughts are complex and invite careful reading. Chapters were brief but so densely packed with meaning that more than one reading yielded ideas on several levels. I assumed that Mrs. Tickle is a Ph.D. of religious studies and teaches in a university or seminary somewhere. Only this year did I discover that she lives on a farm in rural Tennessee and is the mother of seven children. She has been a contributing editor in religion for Publishers Weekly for many years, and she has obviously done her homework. This is not a book for people who want an easy romp through some inspirational matter, but those who want to have an overview of much that is happening in America should give it a try. It looks like a simple text, but it is a rich field for the careful, thoughtful reader.

I want to add my voice to that of the reviewer praising this book. I ran across Tickle's book several years ago at a retreat center where I volunteer and spent much of the remaining time I was there furiously taking notes.

For anyone interested in why traditional religious constructs have little meaning for modern Americans, this is the place to start. The author, who was Religion Editor at Publishers Weekly and thus could see every new trend as it developed, analyzes the effect of every thinker and trend on American religion in the past 50 years -- such as the influence of Joseph Campbell and his application of Jungian mythology.

Since this book came out, Phyllis Tickle has moved on to examine the possibilities of the so-called "emerging church" as a locus for both the faithful and for spiritual seekers.

This book, by a religion editor who should have much to say, is an example of rambling impressionistic writing of the worst sort. A disappointing waste of time and money!