Religion & Spirituality

Housekeeping, the first novel from Marilynne Robinson, won a PEN/Hemingway Award. Now 23 years later, she's written a second novel, Gilead. Gilead is written as a letter from a 76-year-old Congregationalist Preacher to his seven-year-old son. Robinson is a Congregationalist, and has served as a deacon in the church.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid is a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Daily Telegraph, reporting on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia . He is also author of Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia and the bestseller, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia.

Rev. Jim Wallis is the founder of the organization Sojourners, a Christian group advocating a style of peace and justice. Wallis is editor in chief of Sojourners magazine. His new book is God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.

Richard Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He and President Bush share the same evangelical faith.

After being introduced at the age of 12 to a set of religious rules, Jennifer Traig developed a hyper-religious form of obsessive-compulsive disorder known as "scrupulosity." She chronicles her disorder in the memoir Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood.

On Nov. 2, 2003, Bishop Gene Robinson became the world's first openly gay Episcopal bishop. He was elected by the Diocese of New Hampshire. His appointment and confirmation have caused some division in the Episcopal Church. Robinson was married for 13 years. He continues to be close to his ex-wife and two daughters. For more than 16 years, he's been in a relationship with a man.

The intersection of religion and politics was a subject of dispute this year when the question arose over whether Catholic politicians who support legal abortion should receive communion. McCarrick is the archbishop of Washington, D.C., and heads of the task force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians.

A new documentary from filmmakers Calvin Skaggs and David Van Taylor describes the emergence of evangelical Christianity as a powerful political force. With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right is being broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Van Taylor and Skaggs run the documentary company Lumiere Productions.

His new book is In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom. Crossan looks at the life of Paul, and describes how the most important Christian value is justice. Crossan is professor emeritus of De Paul University, and is considered by some to be the foremost scholar of historical Jesus. His The Historical Jesus is an alternative and fact-based look at the life of Christ.

As president and CEO of The Presidential Prayer Team (PPT), John Lind urges voters to pray each day for President Bush and the nation, to hold prayer parties and to become members of his non-profit, non-denominational organization. The PPT was founded in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Balsiger's film George W. Bush: Faith in the White House has been released as an "alternative" to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911. Interviewees share their experiences on how President Bush demonstrates his faith. Introduced at the Republican National Convention, the film is now on DVD.

tine was having limited success in the secular world, decided to pray for help, and landed on his feet in the evangelical church circuit. He has since moved back to playing for larger audiences as well as churchgoers. His DVDs are the new A Conservative Unleashed and last year's Put A Helmet On.

Journalist David Kirkpatrick reports on the conservative movement's issues and leaders for The New York Times.

Allen writes for the National Catholic Reporter. He's a Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR, and he writes a weekly Internet column called The Word from Rome. His new book is called, All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks.

He's been acting since he was a child. Culkin first attracted attention as John Candy's inquisitive nephew in the John Hughes film, Uncle Buck. The film Home Alone turned him into a star. He also made the films Home Alone II, Jacob's Ladder, and most recently Party Monster. Recently he returned to acting after a 6-year hiatus. His latest film is Saved! He plays a high school student in a wheelchair attending an evangelical Christian High School, whose friends are all outsiders. The film has been described as part religious satire, and part teenage rite of passage film.

Sageman is a former foreign service officer who worked with Islamic fundamentalists daily during the Afghan-Soviet war. He's the author of the new book Understanding Terror Networks.

Producer Raney Aronson is the producer, writer and director of the new PBS Frontline documentary, The Jesus Factor (April 29, at 9 p.m. on many stations). It examines President Bush's evangelical Christian faith, how he became a born-again Christian and the impact it has on his politics. Also, Wayne Slater, Austin bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News. He's followed Bush's political career, and appears in the documentary. He is also the author of the book, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush President.

Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. He and President Bush share the same evangelical faith.

His new film, The Clay Bird, is set in 1960s Pakistan, before Bangladesh gained its independence in 1971. It tells the story of Anu, a student torn between Muslim and Hindu worlds. Masud spent much of his youth in an Islamic seminary school in Bangladesh before the war for independence. He is a founding member of the Short Film Forum, the main organization for alternative filmmakers in Bangladesh.

Cole is an authority on modern Islamic movements. He is professor of modern Middle East and South Asia history at the University of Michigan. His most recent book is Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi`ite Islam. The book collects some of his work on the history of the Shiite branch of Islam in modern Iraq, Iran and the Persian Gulf region.