Philocrites

General impressions of 'Knocking on Heaven's Door.'

by Philocrites

We jumped to a heady start with our book discussion, largely dismissing Mark Oppenheimer's definition of religion (which I don't think he really relies on much anyway). But before we get to what he means by "counterculture," I'd love to know what you thought of the book as a whole. Have you enjoyed reading it? Did you learn anything important?

The parts of the book that really made me sit up and take notice came in the final two chapters, much of the same material that Kevin writes about. (I'll say more about Oppenheimer's conclusions later.) It's also quite possible that I have a somewhat quirky appreciation for writers who take us seriously but also don't give us the benefit of the doubt. I suppose I find criticism more engaging than adulation.

Oppenheimer, who's even younger than I am, expanded the book out of an undergraduate paper he wrote about Unitarians and gay clergy (aha! says Jeff). He told a group of Yale students, "When I came to Yale as a freshman, I had never been religious"; he came to appreciate religion by meeting "religious" classmates and studying religious history with Harry Stout. He acknowledged criticism that he is "too denigrating of liberal religion." It has often been my impression that nonreligious scholars often find highly demanding or rigorously orthodox religions more interesting — more exotic — than moderate or liberal ones, which may be a factor in Oppenheimer's book overall, even though his own viewpoint seems liberally inclined. (He's the editor of the New Haven Advocate, writes about religion for Slate, and has written a new book about the American bar mitzvah.)

Let's treat this post as an opportunity to be chatty about the book; we can get back to heavy lifting later. Was is it a good read?

Also, perhaps only for my own reference, here are some other reviews of the book: "Experimental decade," Maurice Timothy Reidy, America [Roman Catholic] 5.10.04; "That old time religion," Jeff Sharlet, Killing the Buddha n.d.; "Kyrie eleison plus Kumbaya," Stephen J. Whitfield, Sh'ma: An Online Journal of Jewish Responsibility 2004?; "How the counterculture went to church," Alan Wolfe, Books and Culture 11.1.03, sub req'd; reviews not online but available to academic readers: Michael Alexander, "Knocking on Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture (review)," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35: 2 (Autumn 2004): 324-325; J. Shawn Landres, "Knocking on Heaven's Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture (review), " American Jewish History 91: 2 (June 2003): 328-331.

Copyright © 2006 by Philocrites | Posted 29 March 2006 at 8:11 AM

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