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.

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 […]

Connie Neal is the author of The Gospel According to Harry Potter: Spirituality in the Stories of the World’s Most Famous Seeker (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002) and What’s a Christian to Do With Harry Potter? (Waterbrook Press paperback, 2001). She has also helped churches start Harry Potter Book & Bible Clubs for kids and youth, along with education for […]

John Granger of Port Hadlock, Wash., is the author of The Hidden Key to Harry Potter: Understanding the Meaning, Genius and Popularity of Joanne Rowling’s Harry Potter Novels (Zossima Press, 2002). Read “Harry Beasts,” an excerpt from his book Looking for God in Harry Potter (Tyndale House, 2004), about how the animals in Harry Potter support a Christian reality. […]

Steven Walker is a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He wrote the article “Humor in the Bible” for the journal Perspective (autumn 2003). He has also spoken extensively on the subject.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin was spiritual leader of the Synagogue for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. He wrote Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews, as well as several books on Jewish ethics, such as The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living and The Ten Commandments of Character: Essential Advice for Living […]