Media Quotes for WHEN RELIGION BECOMES EVIL by Charles Kimball
ISBN: 0060506539

As with the September 11-related books, the key question is: Are there too many? Has American readers’ interest and need for information already been sated? Some books promise to have legs, among them Harper SF’s When Religion Becomes Evil by Charles Kimball, a professor of religion who was director of the National Council of Churches’ Middle East office during the 1980s and in 1979 helped facilitate dialogue during the Iranian hostage crisis.

—Publishers Weekly, July 29 2002

Kimball’s clear and steady voice provides a helpful guide for those trying to understand why evil is perpetrated in the name of religion.

—Publishers Weekly, August 26, 2002 [Winner of PW’s top religion books of 2002]

Backed by 30 years as a student and first-hand observer of the great faiths in places around the world, Kimball presents his views with an awareness of history and the contemporary situation… The author writes with acumen and deep conviction.  His own life journey is, in itself, a demonstration of the human capacity to move beyond the confines of baser to more noble religious awareness.

—Toronto Star, October 26, 2002

But the subject of evil is now becoming the focus of unusual attention.  New books are out about fundamentalism and evil, like “When Religion Becomes Evil,” By Charles Kimball…

—New York Times, October 5, 2002

[Kimball] wrote a book to educate people about the warning signs of destructive religious groups: When religious leaders claim absolute truths, demand blind obedience and rationalize war to the point of declaring a Holy War.

—Miami Herald, September 11, 2002

Perhaps the dispiriting nature of current events argues against optimism, but as long as there are writers as relentlessly honest as Kimball, there will always be grounds for hope, and his well-written book markedly extends the boundary of those grounds.

—Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, September 14, 2002

Kimball, who is an ordained Baptist minister, developed an interest in world religions long before he decided to study Islam at Harvard University in the mid-1970s and later at the American University in Cairo…. Kimball got comfortable in the spotlight early in his career, when he was one of seven American to travel to Iran during the hostage crisis in 1979.  He met not only with the Iranian students who took over the U.S. Embassy but also with the Ayatollah Khomeni.

—Winston-Salem Journal, September 9, 2002

Kimball is well suited to his task, writing with a perspective forged in experience.  Chairman of Wake Forest University’s Department of Religion in Winston-Salem N.C., he is an ordained Baptist minister.  He holds a doctorate of theology in comparative religion with a specialization in Islamic studies from Harvard University.

—Chicago Tribune / Religion News Service, September 2002

The Scholar-preacher clearly desires a world in which religion would be a force only for good.  But as a man who’s become something of an expert on religion’s darker side, he readily acknowledges the ugliness…In examining this thorny issue, Kimball has written a highly accessible book.  It’s a bit like sitting through five or six seminar sessions with an amiable, knowledgeable, liberal and perhaps overly optimistic Christian college professor. 

—Boulder Camera, September 8, 2002

People of faith, [Kimball] says, have the power to monitor their own traditions and great potential to work for peace.  Learning about others’ religious beliefs, finding out more about what you believe, thinking about claims of absolute truth and talking to others in side and outside your tradition are crucial to keeping religion free from evil. “You have to think for yourself,” Kimball says, “You don’t let good intentions of some end trump what’s at the heart of the religion.  If you violate your neighbor, you’ve trumped what’s essential.”

—The Oregonian, November 14, 2002

In his book, Kimball says when particular conceptualizations lead to rigid doctrine and cocksure certainty about God, the likelihood of major problems increases.  He calls absolute-truth claims, such as Falwell’s, one of the five warning signs of corrupted religion.

—Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 12, 2002

…the events of the past couple of years have led more than a few thinking individuals to consider the presence of evil in the world. A series of scholarly books, including… “When Religion Becomes Evil,” by Charles Kimball…have begun to address the presence of evil in stark terms.

—Republican [Waterbury, CT] – October 20, 2002

Religion can nurture and lead people closer to God.  It can also destroy body and soul.  Charles Kimball deals with that paradox in this book, which is timely, informative and easy to read. 

He is well equipped to do this.  A Baptist living in the south—a professor of religion at Wake Forest University—he has dealt with the Middle East for years, including negotiating during the Iran hostage crisis.  In that context he met fact-to-face with Ayatollah Khomeini.

—The Presbyterian Outlook, December 16, 2002

I strongly recommend this book to leaders of religious and civic groups and to teachers of introductory courses in religious ethics…his book will start a soul-searching dialogue.

—Christian Century, October 9-22, 2002

Perhaps Kimball’s greatest achievement is taking extremely complicated historical, political, religious and social conflicts in the Middle East and presenting them in comprehensible bits.  Because he has done extensive work in the area of Christian-Jewish-Muslim relations, Kimball is able to explain the intricacies of the current climate in the Middle East with the savvy of a foreign affairs correspondent, the depth of a religious scholar and the conviction of a person of faith.  When Religion Becomes Evil is a must read for anyone who is serious about religious dialogue in a post-September 11 world.

—Report from The Capital [a publication of the Baptist Joint committee]