Religion & Spirituality

His new book, Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis is the second volume of his biography of Hitler. It has been nominated for the Whitbread Prize. The first volume, Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris was an editors choice of the New York Times and is now available in paperback. Kershaw is a professor of modern history at the University of Sheffield.

Leila Ahmed is Professor of Women Studies in Religion at the Harvard Divinity School. She written extensively on feminism and Islam, and is the author of a new memoir about growing up in Egypt during the 1940s and 50s. It called A Border Passage: from Cairo to America - a Woman Journey.

Ruth Kluger is the author of the new memoir, Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered (The Feminist Press). Kluger was ten years old when she and her mother were deported to the Jewish "ghetto" Theresienstadt. From there they were sent to Auschwitz and the young Kluger survived to go to the work camp Christianstadt by lying about her age. Her memoir, Still Alive, was published in Germany in 1992 and has just been published in the U.S. Kluger became a distinguished professor of German and is professor emerita at the University of California, Irvine.

Former Istanbul bureau chief for the New York Times, Stephen Kinzer. He written the new book Crescent & Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds, (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). He describes a country caught between the entrenched ruling elite and its younger, well-educated population who want democracy. He describes a country of talented –writers, thinkers, university professors and business executives— who have been excluded from positions of power. Kinzer is currently the Timesnational culture correspondent based in Chicago.

Imam Sayed Hassan Qazwini is the religious leader of the Islamic Center of America in Detroit, the biggest such center in the United States. It includes a Mosque in which he preaches.

Religion scholar and former nun Karen Armstrong. She is the author of many books, including, A History of God, an examination of the fundamentalist movement in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths and Islam: A Short History. She's also the author of the bestsellers Jerusalem, and The History of God.

American Muslim Asma Gull Hasan. She the author of the book, now in paperback, –American Muslims: The New Generation— (Continuum press). ASMA was born in Chicago and is the daughter of Pakistani immigrants.

Journalist Benjamin Weiser (“WHY-zir”) writes for The New York Times. He covered the trial of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Dying Animal by Philip Roth.

Epidemiologist and one of the world's leading experts on Alzheimer's disease, David Snowdon. In 1986 he began what he calls the "Nun Study," following a group of aging nuns to better understand why some of the sisters were able to age gracefully, retaining their mental faculties, and others were not. He studied 678 nuns who belonged to The School Sisters of Notre Dame. His study was published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Richard Bernstein has served as Time Magazines Beijing Bureau Chief as well as the New York Times National Cultural Correspondent and now, book critic. He has published several books including –From the Center of the Earth,— a book on modern China and –Dictatorship of Virtue,— which examines multiculturalism. His newest book is –Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment.— In it, Bernstein traces the monk Hsuan Tsangs legendary journey through seventh century China and India.

Religion scholar Karen Armstrong. The best-selling author of The History of God, and The Battle for God, has a new book about the life of Buddha. From North India, Sidhatta Gotama, renounced normal life, leaving his wife and child to live alone and attain enlightenment. He found it through his own experiences, did not rely on a supernatural God, and fought against the cult of personality that would turn him into a leader. Instead the Buddha taught his disciples to discover the truth within themselves.

Writer Samuel Freedman. He’s just written a book about the state of the American Jewish Community called “Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the soul of American Jewry." (Simon & Schuster) Freedman believes that three fundamental questions are rending the American Jewish community today: "What is the definition of Jewish identity? Who decides what is authentic and legitimate Judaism? And what is the Jewish compact with America?" We talk with Freedman following the recent nomination of the first Jewish vice presidential candidate, Democrat Joe Lieberman.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg takes a look at the trouble the media had trying to find the words to describe vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman.

Author Garry Wills. The Pulitzer Prize winner has written a new book criticizing the Catholic Church. It’s called “Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit.” (Doubleday) Wills is a practicing Catholic and studied with Jesuit priests, though he was never ordained. In Papal Sin, Wills describes a papacy that seems unable or unwilling to admit its mistakes. He writes, “Given so much to hide, the impulse to keep hiding becomes imperative, automatic, almost inescapable.” He addresses topics such as birth control, the ordination of women, and views on the Holocaust.

Religion scholar and former nun Karen Armstrong. She’s the author of the bestselling book, “A History of God.” Her new book, “The Battle for God” examines the fundamentalist movement in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths that began to emerge in the 1970s. She writes that today’s fundamentalist movements differ from previous ones, in that they are no longer throwbacks to the past, but are complex movements that are shaped by the modern culture they also decry.

Karl Evanzz is an on-line editor at the Washington Post, and author of "The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad" (Pantheon Books) the founder and "Prophet" of the Nation of Islam. Evanzz talked to Muhammad's children, his apostles, and had access to previously unreleased FBI files about him.

Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas and pastor Ed Dobson. Both previously worked with the Moral Majority: Thomas was Jerry Falwell's spokesman, and Dobson was Falwell's personal assistant. The two are now critical of the emergence of conservative Christian groups into politics, and they've collaborated on the new book: "Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America?" (Zondervan Publishing).

Gay rights activist Kelli Peterson talks about her controversial efforts to a gay and lesbian support group in her high school. She is the subject of the recent film "Out of the Past" which received the 1998 Sundance Film Festival's Audience Award for "Best Documentary." Peterson's effort was suppressed by the School board and the Utah legislature which passed a law banning all extra-curricular clubs in schools. THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW.