Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, Oct 4, 2004 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 296 pages
Now in paperback -- the book that caused a religious and critically acclaimed stir. Publishers Weekly called it "the most original and insightful spiritual writing to come out of America since Jack Kerouac first hit the road." The Buffalo News hailed it as "one of the most eccentric and fascinating books of the year." O, The Oprah Magazine said "This collection proves that fear and trembling are human, but a sense of humor is divine."
Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet have created a work of calling that is as odd, moving, and inspiring as the people and the scriptures they encountered. Whether it is Manseau and Sharlet telling their "psalms" from outposts as unexpected as a strip club or a cattle-auction barn, Peter Trachtenberg unraveling the Gordian logic of Job via the Borscht Belt, Rick Moody finding a modern-day Jonah in Queens, or Haven Kimmel shocking and thrilling us with her Revelation, what emerges is not an attack on religion, but a quizzical, fascinating look at it from the inside. Killing the Buddha is a positively riveting look at the facets of true belief.
 

Contents

MORTAL EAT THIS SCROLL
1
New York New York
23
EXODUS
31
Poolesville Maryland
39
LEVITICUS
47
Henderson North Carolina
59
RUTH
69
Myrtle Beach South Carolina
79
Mount Vernon Texas
165
EZEKIEL
173
Crestone Colorado
185
DANIEL
193
A California
203
JONAH
211
Unincorporated Territory Oklahoma
231
GOSPEL
239

SAMUEL
85
Broward County Florida
107
JOB
115
An Orange Grove Somewhere in Florida
133
SONG OF SONGS
139
Nashville Tennessee
143
Heartland Kansas
257
REVELATION
267
Geneva Illinois
279
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
287
A GUIDE TO SCRIPTURE IN KILLING THE BUDDHA
295
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2004)

Peter Manseau is the author of Vows and coauthor of Killing the Buddha. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, and on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. A founding editor of the award-winning webzine KillingTheBuddha.com, he is now the editor of Search, The Magazine of Science, Religion, and Culture. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Washington, D.C., where he studies religion and teaches writing at Georgetown University.

Bibliographic information