Religion has always fascinated me. It’s also long eluded me- I’ll spare most of the sordid details of my personal history with Judaism- but that’s what makes it all the more interesting to me.
If you’re reading this, you probably know that I lived in Spain during my sophomore year of high school- being dropped straight from a highly Jewish area into a historically Catholic country. This meant that when I arrived in 2004 in the teeniest, most traditional town on the Mediterranean coast, most people in that town had never met a Jewish person before. This also meant that I- the least engaged Hebrew school student-turned-dropout of all time- was answering (not always polite) questions about religious beliefs that I struggled to understand in English, let alone explain in Spanish. With that in mind, I acknowledged that there was a religious piece of understanding that I also needed to seek out during my cultural immersion.
The most compelling moment of religious fascination came when I was well into my year abroad. In early April, Pope John Paul II died, leaving the Papal conclave to select a new religious leader. Captivated by something that hadn’t happened in my lifetime and grateful for the opportunity to learn it outside of my own predominantly Jewish environment, I watched coverage day and night, learning about all new traditions and trying to understand the process. More than anything, what stood out to me was how singularly unifying religion can be for those on the inside- I was inundated with images of people coming together to mourn and, ultimately, celebrate the naming of a new Pope. With no real personal feeling of investment, I was decidedly on the outside, but it was quite impressive to start to understand some of the purpose of religion for the first time in my life- again, perhaps not becoming religiously enlightened on a personal level, but to understand why people find comfort in faith and beliefs.
Fast forward to this project- when Carol recommended this book, I knew it would be the perfect “non-fiction that reads like fiction” book to keep my interest during reading season. I was excited to read this past week because I had a lot of travel time to read on my Kindle with no ability to read applications (which turned into way more reading time than I’d anticipated/wanted, but that’s the positive).
The book is an incredible inside look at Liberty University, the largest Evangelical Christian university in the country. Founded by Jerry Falwell in the early 1970s, it has experienced exponential and massive growth, both in population and space. The aim of the university is to create an academic community that also promotes Christian beliefs, so it’s one of the universities where you’ll find a creationism department and a women’s ministries major. Right there in their mission statement, they’re talking about “training Champions for Christ.” As the author knew in deciding to attend Liberty for a semester, this is a much, much different place than secular universities and even most of the religiously affiliated ones. I have read the chapter of Al Franken’s book in which he and his son visit Bob Jones University at least a hundred times, but this is a much more genuine attempt at understanding a different college environment than that one.
I have Googled plenty about the university within the past week and was surprised by a few things- for one, the 20% acceptance rate. It seemed from reading about some of the characters as if it was a place where many were welcome, but it’s an incredibly selective institution. It’s also not hard to see the appeal for someone looking for a heavily Christian environment- they offer an incredible number of majors and classes and the amenities seem amazing. (A synthetic ski slope? Okay.)
Overall, the book is a really lovely look on the inside of an experience most people I know (fine, no one I know) would have ever considered. Roose has such a genuine interest in learning about those around him- even while he struggled with some of what he was learning, he rarely seemed particularly cynical or judgmental. I appreciated the ability to learn more about this world that I struggle to understand from the perspective of someone who was at one point just as unattached, rather than understanding it from those surrounded by it all of the time.
You’ll like this if: you are interested in a very human look at intense religiousness, which is really the only way for a super-outsider to describe the rules Liberty students are expected to follow. The author doesn’t sugarcoat it, but it’s never mean spirited.
Happy reading!
carlyreads 