A journalist and former diplomat, Krista Tippett created, hosted and produced the public radio program Speaking of Faith in 2000. It has been a popular nationally weekly program (see http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/) since 2003.

This is the story of a spiritual journey, with an emphasis on the care with which she listens to those who also try to understand the mysteries of the faiths of the world’s religions. Her journey was unusual – brought up in an evangelical culture, she became nonreligious was a diplomat in Berlin. She later graduated from Yale Divinity School.

Krista Tippett came up with the idea for this book while consulting for the internationally renowned Institute for Ecumenical and Research at Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, MN. From her years of talk and reflections about faith, she brings deep insight as she explores various religious traditions that she sees as “rich resources for our spirits, as guides to our most important modern confusions, and as correctives for the excesses of religion.” She speaks with others about faith while “defusing the usual minefields” – an art she has perfected. A good example of this is the depth into which she has explored Islam since 9/11. This is especially insightful since so many Americans harbor only tremendous distortions about Islam, equating Muslim faith with actions of its ill-informed extremists and terrorists – this book should be required reading for such people.

In Ch 1 – Genesis: How We Got Here – she says, “Faith is as much about questioning as it is about certainties.” Faith has “a tremendous capacity to nourish our lives and communities, if we can learn to speak of it meaningfully. Doing so is vital to our lives and our society, where matters of faith and ethics are often stepped in anger, fear, and suspicion.” In Ch 2 – Remembering Forward – she states: “This book is in part a response to questions my listeners have asked me.”…“We are all theologians. We build our understanding of ultimate things through the raw materials of the lives we’ve been given.” In Ch 3 – Rethinking Religious Truth – “I explore the intellectual and spiritual content of religion that is often misrepresented by religion’s critics and even religious people themselves.” In Ch 4 – Speaking of Faith – “I describe the nature of ‘narrative theology’ that I translated into a journalistic paradigm for radio that has a power to reframe some of our most difficult public conversations.” In Ch 5 – Exposing Virtue – “I explore life-giving spiritual ideas and practices that address and reframe our deepest modern confusions.” In Ch 6 – Confessing Mystery – “I delve in a more personal way into the imprint left on me by my life of listening across the world’s traditions.” I’ve had to read her book twice because it has neither footnotes nor index, thus looking up something I had read earlier was a frustrating chore. Nevertheless, because of the depth of Krista Tippett's insights and because I can see much of my own spiritual growth in hers, I still found it a good (albeit frustrating) read and I can still recommend it to all.