Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Spiritual Books Dominate Bestseller List
A religious and spiritual revival is hitting the top of the best-seller list.
Four of the top eight titles on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list deal with religious issues.
Such sales may reflect a "widespread spiritual yearning," says Bill Anderson, president of the CBA, formerly the Christian Booksellers Association. They're "extra-biblical," he says, not what evangelicals consider the literal truth.
HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman says it's "reaching beyond evangelicals to a lot of other Christians. . . . Look at the numbers." Zondervan CEO Bruce Ryskamp says 9/11 "stirred the souls of people to ask, 'What is this all about?' In the '90s, a lot of people made a lot of money but found it didn't always buy long-term happiness."
But James Martin, a Catholic priest and an editor of America, a Jesuit magazine, says most religious best sellers are "theology lite. Like fast food, some is nourishing, most of it isn't. But it's easily digested and makes few demands."
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