Saints & Sinners - Hardcover

Wright, Lawrence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394579240 ISBN 13: 9780394579245

Publisher: Knopf, 1993

Synopsis

A penetrating study of the triumphs and failures of the life of faith features portraits of six contemporary religious leaders--Walker Railey, Jimmy Swaggart, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Anton La Vey, Will Campbell, and Matthew Fox--and their diverse beliefs. 12,500 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Wright (In the New World, 1987, etc.) takes a poorly planned but intermittently entertaining journey through the American religious landscape. The problem here is that Wright's avowed intention is to ``search for faith,'' to understand religious belief and how it animates people's lives. Yet the six figures he profiles are patently chosen for journalistic sexiness rather than religious profundity. He offers two disgraced preachers (Walker Railey and Jimmy Swaggart), an angry atheist (Madalyn Murray O'Hair), and a Satanist who is either ``a complete fake,'' ``a tortured psychotic,'' or ``the Devil incarnate'' (Anton LaVey) before arriving at the only two subjects who might be thought to exemplify spiritual values (Catholic priest Matthew Fox and Baptist minister William Campbell). The upshot is that Wright's search never dips below the surface, reaching its New Age apotheosis in a sweat-lodge ceremony with Fox and the vague statement that ``something had touched me.'' On the other hand, the author does deliver blood-bright sketches of his motley crew, with the accent on shock (``Jimmy Swaggart stands behind her, pants down, staring at her ass. No doubt he thinks he is staring into hell itself'') rather than insight. Wright explores Swaggart's relation with his cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis, and sees both as driven by the same demons; records O'Hair's rants against God and LaVey's rage against humanity (``I actually have more respect for vegetables than I do for people,'' says the diabolical dandy); and confronts Railey, a prominent Methodist minister suspected of strangling his wife. Campbell and Fox inspire Wright, the former by his manic social activism, the latter by his loose-knit spirituality. But these offbeat gurus offer too little, too late; many will wonder where the saints of the title can be found. Six slick profiles packed with gritty gossip; but as a religious quest, this never leaves base camp. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Wright ( In the New World ) explains that his own spiritual uncertainty impelled him to interview these six religious figures. The first two essays are compelling accounts of two of them who went astray: Walker Railey, a prominent Methodist minister in Dallas who in 1987 was charged with attempting to kill his wife, then committed suicide, leaving a note about the "demon in his soul"; and Jimmy Swaggart, the evangelist disgraced by his escapades with prostitutes. But the piece on Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an atheist activist in Texas, combines hearsay with vague allegations of financial misdoings. Others covered are Anton LaVey, who founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966; Will Campbell, who studied theology at Yale and whose Southern ministry includes the Ku Klux Klan; and Matthew Fox, a New Age Catholic priest in Oakland, Calif. The essays, although clever and incisive, are diminished by the author's ruminations on his own spiritual quest, which seems an artificial device.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0394579240
• ISBN 13: 9780394579245
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 266