Does God exist in any objective way, or is belief in a God or gods just the effect of brain chemistry? Is faith merely an emotional response? Are humans biologically programmed to seek religious experiences? These are among the questions tackled in a number of books in the frontier field of neuroscience and religion. Coming this spring are The Sacred Neuron (Palgrave Macmillan, June) and Field Notes on the Compassionate Life (Rodale, Mar.).
The intersection of religion with neuroscience is far from the only multidisciplinary crossroad being explored in this season's books. Politics, sexuality, ecology, teaching, health, pop psychology—these are among the many topics that meet and interact with religion and spirituality, with abundant offerings in all of those hybrid subcategories.
Still, despite continuing double-digit gains in the category, many publishers are going forward carefully, with fewer titles this season than last spring. The exception seems to be faith fiction, which continues to eat up bookstore real estate and is the fastest-growing part of many religion publishing programs. Although much of it is genre fiction from Christian publishers, there are also general trade literary titles with religion themes, like Brenda Rickman Vantrease's The Illuminator (St. Martin's, Mar.) and Sue Monk Kidd's The Mermaid Chair (Viking, Apr.). Loyola's contribution is its new editions of classic fiction, including In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden (Mar.). And the Christian houses have literary aspirations, expanding beyond the genres with books like Dwelling Place (Bethany, Apr.) and Life with Strings Attached (Paraclete, Mar.).
Last year brought a flood of critical responses to The Da Vinci Code—more than 20 books at last count—a sign both of readers' fascination with the detail Dan Brown offered on a lot of formerly esoteric subjects, as well as the sly way he muddied the waters about what was true and what was fiction in his blockbuster novel. Though the flood of critiques has subsided, the Da Vinci effect continues to be felt in the religion category, with houses still publishing new books on Gnosticism and iconoclastic views of the history of the church, among them Basic's The Messiah Myth, Harmony's Laughing Jesus, and several titles from Inner Traditions, which has long published in this area and had several of its books specifically mentioned in Da Vinci. Weiser, Quest and others continue to mine their backlists for titles on the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar and Mary Magdalene. All of this activity has created a subcategory now being called "alternative Christianity." One manifestation of this phenomenon is that although the number of biblical studies titles submitted for our seasonal listings has held steady, a substantial number of them now fall under the heading of "alternative" views of biblical interpretation that would be dismissed by most mainstream scholars, but are being eagerly embraced by general readers.
Evangelicalism has come a long way from the fringes to being recognized as one of the most influential movements in American culture and society (not to mention politics), which is regularly reflected in the bestseller lists and on the shelves of general interest bookstores and big-box discounters. The season brings at least two new histories of evangelicalism. One focusing on the movement's Baptist expression comes from Columbia University Press (The Baptists in America, June); a broader look is due out from Baker Academic (The American Evangelical Story, Aug.). At least two more popular histories—these by journalists—are in the works, and agents tell PW they are seeing more proposals than they can handle.
Finally, mirroring the times, there are more books than usual this spring on grief, death and dying, illness and suffering of all kinds. A lot of ink has been spilled recently explaining or defending the concept of a God who is both all good and all powerful. (When was the last time you saw so many newspaper editorials on theodicy? Not even after 9/11.) Perhaps the essence of Buddhist thought, captured in the title of a March book from Shambhala, provides a useful reminder: Everything Arises, Everything Falls Away.
