Killing the Buddha
Twenty years ago today this weird book [(Killing the Buddha)] I made with [Jeff Sharlet] was published. First book for us both, set us each on a path for thinking & writing about religion in America. Publisher thought it would get more attention with no words on the cover. We didn’t know anything and said Sure!
This was a seminal book for me. It effectively reoriented the way I thought about religion and how people practice it. After reading it, I could make sense of religion's true place in culture, in people's personal lives. Not in an academic way, nor dryly philosophical. Certainly not cynically. But as a practical thing. Our media tends to focus on either the growing number of nonbelievers or the true obsessives who cause trouble for the rest of us. In truth, most religious folk are somewhere in between. Killing the Buddha showed me how varied — and beautiful — that somewhere in between can be. And it did so with respect and empathy. I'm grateful for what Jeff and Peter taught me.
