Erin Smith is associate professor of gender studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has spoken on the subject of religious book clubs at a conference on religion and the culture of print.

Darren Middleton is an professor in the department of religion at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He has written about religion in the literature of Nikos Kazantzakis. He says more non-Christian publishers are producing books with religious themes and material. He calls this the “Mel Gibson-Dan Brown effect,” but also says it moves into […]

John Morden is associate professor of religious studies at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., and the author of The Bop Apocalypse: The Religious Vision of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs (University of Illinois Press, 2001).  

Matthew Hedstrom is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. He wrote his dissertation on the search for spirituality in mass-market books.

Jeanne Kilde is a professor of religious studies at the University of Minnesota. She has written about the Left Behind series of books.

Bishop Joseph Campbell is with the Church of Christ (Holiness) USA in Jackson, Miss. The church has sent missionaries to Africa.

The Rev. Michael McClaflin is Africa director for the Assemblies of God, headquartered in Springfield, Mo. Through partnerships with local churches, the Assemblies of God evangelizes, starts churches, trains pastors, assists displaced refugees, runs mobile clinics and baby shelters, digs wells and works on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

Benedict Giamo is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana. He has written about the spiritual in the works of Jack Kerouac and teaches a course about Kerouac and other Beat writers. He is the author of several books: On the Bowery: Confronting Homelessness in American Society; Beyond […]

Rick Hemphill is spokesman for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Colorado Springs, Colo. Since 1884, the alliance has been evangelizing, starting churches, educating Christian church leaders and offering medical care in Africa.