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Product Identifiers

PublisherGrand Central Publishing

ISBN-100446178438

ISBN-139780446178433

eBay Product ID (ePID)102919708

Product Key Features

Book TitleUnlikely Disciple : a Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University

Number of Pages336 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicReligious, Personal Memoirs, Christianity / General

Publication Year2010

GenreReligion, Biography & Autobiography

AuthorKevin Roose

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height1.3 in

Item Weight11.1 Oz

Item Length8 in

Item Width5.2 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

TitleLeadingThe

Reviews"Kevin Roose has produced a textured, intelligent, even sympathetic, account of his semester at Liberty University. He eschews caricature and the cheap shot in favor of keen observation and trenchant analysis. THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE is a book of uncommon wisdom and insight. I recommend it with enthusiasm." --The Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer, Episcopal Priest and Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University

Dewey Edition22

Dewey Decimal378.755/671

SynopsisThe hilarious and heartwarming, respectful and thought-provoking memoir of a college student's semester at Liberty University, the "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals, that will inspire believers and nonbelievers alike. No drinking. No smoking. No cursing. No dancing. No R-rated movies. Kevin Roose wasn't used to rules like these. As a sophomore at Brown University, he spent his days fitting right in with Brown's free-spirited, ultra-liberal student body. But when Roose leaves his Ivy League confines to spend a semester at Liberty University, a conservative Baptist school in Lynchburg, Virginia, obedience is no longer optional. Liberty is the late Reverend Jerry Falwell's "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals, his training ground for the next generation of America's Religious Right. Liberty's ten thousand undergraduates take courses like Evangelism 101 and follow a forty-six-page code of conduct that regulates every aspect of their social lives. Hoping to connect with his evangelical peers, Roose decides to enroll at Liberty as a new transfer student, chronicling his adventures in this daring report from the front lines of America's culture war. His journey takes him from an evangelical hip-hop concert to a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach (where he learns to preach the gospel to partying coeds). He meets pastors' kids, closet doubters, Christian rebels, and conducts what would be the last print interview of Rev. Falwell's life., As a student Kevin was eager for a term abroad - a break from the mind-numbing sameness of life at Brown University, one of the most liberal colleges in America. Kevin found the most foreign place he could in America's backyard. Liberty University is the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's fundamentalist Christian college for hardcore conservative Christians. The 10,000 students learn everything through a strict lens of Biblical literalism, every professor is a born-again Christian, the student code of conduct lays out a host of rules e.g. no witchcraft allowed and at spring break, they take a bus to Daytona Beach to convert the heathens. But Kevin did not go to poke fun at the students or the way of life there, far from it. He went there to try to better understand the people who are so similar and yet so different from him, to see if perhaps they have found a way to live that is more rewarding than his own. What begins as a journey to reveal what is actually going on at the nation's largest Christian fundamentalist school ends up revealing more about Kevin than he could have possibly imagined.

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by jvsst2116.i4oqhsa
May 30, 2025
Excellent book.
Thoughtful writing. Author knows his subject matter. Very humorous. Thought provoking.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned