The Unlikely Disciple
A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University
Published on 26. March 2009
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-446-17842-6 (ISBN)
Description
As a student Kevin was eager for a term abroad - a break from the mind-numbing sameness of life at Brown University, one of the most liberal colleges in America. Well Kevin found the most foreign place he could in America's backyard. Liberty University is the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's fundamentalist Christian college for hardcore conservative Christians. The 10,000 students learn everything through a strict lens of Biblical literalism, every professor is a born-again Christian, the student code of conduct, lays out a host of rules e.g. no witchcraft allowed and at spring break, they take a bus to Daytona Beach to convert the heathens. But Kevin did not go to poke fun at the students or the way of life there, far from it. He went there to try to better understand the people who are so similar and yet so different from him, to see if perhaps they have found a way to live that is more rewarding than his own. What begins as a journey to reveal what is actually going on at the nation's largest Christian fundamentalist school ends up revealing more about Kevin than he could have possibly imagined.
Reviews / Votes
"Kevin Roose has produced a textured, intelligent, even sympathetic, account of his semester at Liberty University. He eschews caricature and the cheap shot in favor of keen observation and trenchant analysis. THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE is a book of uncommon wisdom and insight. I recommend it with enthusiasm."--The Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer, Episcopal Priest and Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University
"Kevin Roose is a delightful writer, and this is a humane book. Read it and I predict you'll have less paranoia, more exposure to 'the other,' and a larger dose of Roose's generous and hopeful faith."
--Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and Everything Must Change
"Keenly observed, funny, and compassionate. Kevin Roose parachutes us into a seldom-glimpsed and little understood pocket of America, then guides us through a story of religion and country more resonant than any of us could have imagined."
--Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers and Crashing Through
"This is a brilliant book. Absolutely brilliant. Roose's wisdom, humanity, and love kept me going. And I laughed. A lot."
-- Rob Bell, founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church and bestselling author of Velvet Elvis and Sex God
"What happens when a Brown undergrad goes undercover at Liberty Univers
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Little, Brown & Company
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
545 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-446-17842-6 (9780446178426)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
07/2010
Grand Central Publishing
€36.11
Article is exhausted; no reprint
Person
Kevin Roose is a student at Brown University, where he studies English Literature. A regular columnist for the Brown Daily Herald, his work has been published in Esquire, mental_floss, and other publications. Visit the author's website at www.kevinroose.com.