The World is About to Turn

October 30, 2020

This slim volume by well-known academics and sought-after speakers Rouse, a certified Spiritual Director and ordained Lutheran pastor, and Ingram (emeritus, religion, Pacific Lutheran Univ.) decries the divisiveness that marks the current political and religious climates in the United States and suggests ways to overcome that divisiveness. The authors look at what they term "the failure of the American religious experiment," which in recent years has been marked by the rise of the religious right and violent attacks on minority churches and synagogues. Rouse and Ingram advise that people should never trust a religious leader who tells their followers how to vote, or a political who tells their followers how to pray. Most of the book, however, advises how people of faith can find their way forward from this point with chapters devoted to moral courage, practicing mercy and compassion, repentance and reconciliation, discovering common values, embracing differences, and building bridges with those who are different from us. VERDICT There is much food for thought here, perhaps too much for a text of just a little over a 100 pages (excluding appendices), but the authors prove persuasive in their arguments for inclusivity and mutual respect. --Gail Eubanks, Univ. of Missouri, Springfield

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