SPIRITUAL FOCUS ON BOOKS August 14, 2006 Issue

FAITH-SHAPED PUBLIC LIVES

WARREN BOLON, SENIOR WRITER

TO PARAPHRASE Muppets philosopher Kermit the Frog, it's not easy being public.

But it shouldn't surprise those who are happy to seek God in relative privacy that many of the glitterati—the world's celebrities in the arts, sports, politics, and other fields—also have meaningful spiritual lives. They have family religious histories that we can easily connect to our own families' faith diasporas (the typical mix of those in the family who "keep the faith" and deepen it, and those who take other roads). "Public people" also have their own varieties of spiritual thoughts, practices, hopes, hungers, and awakenings; they have questions and confusions; some have experienced or witnessed spiritual healing.

A distinctly modern spectrum of public yet spiritual lives shines throughout Cathleen Falsani's recent book, The God Factor, Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People. In brief profiles of 32 public figures ranging from rock star/global activist Bono, to rising politico-stars United States Senator Barack Obama and Bush Administration speechwriter/policy advisor Michael Gerson, to Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, Ms. Falsani has deftly served as the heart-attuned listener while her interviewees toured their inward spiritual landscapes.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

SENTINEL WATCH

'GET BEHIND ME, SHADOW'