Religious reads offer something for everyone

Religion is such a big subject that it has its own publishing domain. More religious books are sold than any other form of nonfiction, and the choices of what to read can be staggering in number and diversity.

I started my recent survey with "American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us" by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell (Tantor Audio, 16 CDs, $49.99), and survey is the byword of this comprehensive look at American religious life. Based on a massive Religiosity poll done in 2006 and a similar one in 2008, "American Grace" examines every aspect of how Christians, Jews, Muslims and other religious practitioners think about their faith.

The best parts of "American Grace" are the detailed looks at specific congregations, whether the enormous Saddleback Church in Orange County or a small Catholic parish in Baltimore struggling to integrate an older white audience with an immigrant Latino population of believers. These snapshots confirm how religion is adapting to modern times like every other aspect of our increasingly harried lives, yet emphasizes how comforting and rewarding faith can still be.

"American Grace" is never dull, but it can feel endless, as Putnam and Campbell trot out survey after survey that the reader, John Miller, struggles to keep up with. And it's not much use in an audiobook to keep referring to charts and tables — we can't see them. The numbers mostly support the points that "American Grace" is making about how important religion is in the United States and how fascinating its continuing evolution remains.

For true insight into what makes us religious, I turned to "In the Valley of the Shadow: On the Foundations of Religious Belief" by James L. Kugel (Tantor Audio, seven CDs, $29.99), a Harvard professor of Hebrew literature who previously wrote "How to Read the Bible." I expected a similarly dry exegesis on the link between ancient religion and our own. But Kugel's book is a fascinating journey into venerable religious texts but also modern neurobiology and the secrets it is revealing about how our brain works to create what we call religious feelings.

What personalizes Kugel's narrative is his own moment of religious epiphany when he gets a diagnosis of cancer that may be fatal. As Kugel describes it, "The music stopped and I suddenly felt very small."

That smallness is how we often feel before a divine presence or spirit, and Kugel takes us on his journey to religious understanding and acceptance. "In the Valley of the Shadow," richly read by George K. Wilson, is an intellectual delight that encourages the intelligent, self-introspection that we associate with religion.

"Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith" by John Osteen (Hachette Audio, four CDs, $24.98) is only for true believers who don't need to bother with introspection. The father of Joel Osteen, the pastor of America's largest house of worship, Lakewood Church in Houston, John Osteen founded that church, and "Becoming a Man" is a collection of his sermons read by his other son, Paul Osteen. They are all about the unwavering nature of true faith and the Osteen family's conviction that our acceptance of all the tribulations that life presents can only be furthered by divine understanding.

As "American Grace" reminds us, there is tremendous diversity in American religious practice, and that includes witchcraft. Perhaps it's the influence of the hit HBO series "True Blood" and its good and evil witches, but I approached "Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner" by Scott Cunningham (Tantor Audio, six CDs, $29.99) with an almost heady anticipation.

The Wicca religion is one of the world's oldest, says author Cunningham, and though based on an ecological reverence for the earth God and Goddess, it has been transmuted by myth and fear into black-hooded, evil women riding brooms and cackling over their cauldrons. But after listening to reader Robert Fass drone on about crystals, wands, candles, sacred circles, "black knives" versus "white-handled knives," I could no longer understand the fascination.

Cunningham reiterates that these rituals are only suggestions for the sole practitioner of Wicca and that the listener can customize them to one's inner energies. The use of "Magick" is apparently still limited by our human needs to find love, earn more, cure illnesses and block those bad people putting spells on us.

Ultimately, this audiobook just didn't make me want to rub my quartz crystal with mugwort under a full moon and chant the night away.