The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches From The Fault Line Between Christianity And Islam
by By Griswold, Eliza
Category: Religion , Comparative Religion

"Ingeniously conceived and beautifully wrought, The Tenth Parallel traces the uneasy fault line of two great faiths that have so much bloody history between them. In exploring the potent tensions that underlie so many of the conflicts of the present age, Eliza Griswold gives us a rare look at how complex and interwoven these two cultures actually are."ùLawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower"Eliza Griswold's talent runs through this book like a blinding light. Through he; daring travel, quiet observation, empathy, and gift for language, she humanizes and clarifies conflicts in Africa and Asia that are often neglected or misunderstood. The Tenth Parallel is both vitally important and beautifully written."-Steve Coll, author of The Bin Ladens"In this revolutionary work, Eliza Griswold has dedicated the last seven years of her life to traveling in The world's least known places to explore the encounter between Christianity and Islam in Africa and Asia. She has brought back the unforgettable stories of Christians and Muslims along the tenth parallel whose faith is shaping the world's future. Grisworld's courageous pilgrimage changes the way we think about Christianity and Islam by exploring any simplistic 'clash' narrative. She returns us to the most basic truth of human existence: that the world and its people are interconnected."-Archbiship Emeritus Desmond M. Tutu"Eliza Griswold is courageous reporter, a gifted writer, and an acute observer of life. In The Tenth Parallel she takes us on a crucially illuminating tour of some of the most volatile terrain in the world, acquainting us with people who are far away both spatially and culturally but whose fates are intertwined with our own."-Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God"Based on years of firsthand experience and observation, The Tenth Parallel is a deeply impressive achievement that so often challenges our common assumptions. The book will be immensely rewarding for anyone who wants to make sense of the relationship between those long-estranged sister faiths, Christianity and Islam. It should be required reading for policy makers, and for anyone interested in the spiritual dimensions of the 'clash of civilizations'."-Philip Jenkins, author of Jesus Wars"Seldom does a book of this nature, ranging over such vast terrain, succeed in maintaining a steady focus and an engaging lightness of touch. In Eliza Griswold's hands, Islam resounds through the voice of Muslims, and religions lives through its followers and devotees. The book is a triumph of the human imagination and capacity for intercultural exploration."-Lamin Sanneh, author of Whose Religion is Christianity?"The Tenth Parallel is one of the most important books you will ever read. Eliza Griswold combines the fearlessness of an investigative journalist and the bold vision of a poet to take readers on a perilous journey along the fault line between Islam and Christianity. No one else could have written this book."ùReza Aslan, author of No god but GodThe Tenth Parallelùthe line of latitude seven hundred miles north of the equatorùis a geographical and ideological front line where Christianity and Islam collide. More than half of the world's 13 billion Muslims live along the tenth parallel; so do 60 percent of the world's 2 billion Christians. Here, in the buzzing mega-cities and swarming jungles of Africa and Asia, the two religions meet; their encounter is shaping the future of each faith, and of whole societies as well.An award-winning investigative journalist and poet, Eliza Griswold has spent the past seven years traveling between the equator and the tenth parallel: in Nigeria, the Sudan, and Somalia, and in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The stories she tells in The Tenth Parallel show us that religious conflicts are also conflicts about land, water, oil, and other natural resources, and that local and tribal issues are often shaped by religious ideas. Above all, she makes clear that, for the people she writes about, one's sense of God is shaped by one's place on earth; along the tenth parallel, faith is geographic and demographic.An urgent examination of the relationship between faith and worldly power, The Tenth Parallel is an essential work about the conflicts over religion, nationhood, and natural resources that will remake the world in the years to come.