- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (3 May 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0374273189
- ISBN-13: 978-0374273187
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 15.9 x 2.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
133,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #78 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Church & State
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Review
A very courageous and challenging account of the tensions between Muslims and Christians that refuses to settle with any damaging stereotypes, focusing instead on the extraordinary potential for reconciliation and understanding in the lives of ordinary believers. (Rowan Williams, Archbishop Of Canterbury )
In this revolutionary work, Griswold ... has brought back the unforgettable stories of Christians and Muslims along the tenth parallel whose faith is shaping the world's future. Griswold's courageous pilgrimage changes the way we think about Christianity and Islam by exploding any simplistic "clash" narrative. She returns us to the most basic truth of human existence: that the world and its people are interconnected (Archbishop Desmond Tutu )
The Tenth Parallel is one of the most important books you will ever read ... No one else could have written this book (Reza Aslan, Author Of 'no God But God' )
Ingeniously conceived and beautifully wrought, The Tenth Parallel traces the uneasy fault line of two great faiths, which have so much bloody history between them ... Eliza Griswold gives us a rare look at how complex and interwoven these two cultures actually are (Lawrence Wright, Author Of 'the Looming Tower' )
Intense and often beautifully written ... It is a fabulous piece of reportage. (Jason Burke Literary Review )
Griswold's confrontations with preachers of evil, her forays into war zones and here determination to listen and explain took guts ... Mediators could learn much from her pilgrimage. (Michael Binyon The Times )
The Tenth Parallel is a beautifully written book, full of arresting stories woven around a provocative issue. (Linda Robinson The Scotsman ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
In this revolutionary work, Griswold ... has brought back the unforgettable stories of Christians and Muslims along the tenth parallel whose faith is shaping the world's future. Griswold's courageous pilgrimage changes the way we think about Christianity and Islam by exploding any simplistic "clash" narrative. She returns us to the most basic truth of human existence: that the world and its people are interconnected (Archbishop Desmond Tutu )
The Tenth Parallel is one of the most important books you will ever read ... No one else could have written this book (Reza Aslan, Author Of 'no God But God' )
Ingeniously conceived and beautifully wrought, The Tenth Parallel traces the uneasy fault line of two great faiths, which have so much bloody history between them ... Eliza Griswold gives us a rare look at how complex and interwoven these two cultures actually are (Lawrence Wright, Author Of 'the Looming Tower' )
Intense and often beautifully written ... It is a fabulous piece of reportage. (Jason Burke Literary Review )
Griswold's confrontations with preachers of evil, her forays into war zones and here determination to listen and explain took guts ... Mediators could learn much from her pilgrimage. (Michael Binyon The Times )
The Tenth Parallel is a beautifully written book, full of arresting stories woven around a provocative issue. (Linda Robinson The Scotsman ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Product Description
The tenth parallel, the line of latitude 700 miles north of the equator, is the defining metaphor of our time. An ideological front line stretching across two continents and nineteen countries, this is where Christianity and Islam collide a profound encounter that shapes the lives of more than a billion people. It s not just geographic; it s demographic. The centre of global faith lies in the jungles and buzzing megacities of Africa and Asia. Of the world s 1.3 billion Muslims, more than half live along the tenth parallel, as do roughly 60 percent of the world s 2 billion Christians. Here, as elsewhere, Christianity and Islam are growing faster than the world s population. The stories of THE TENTH PARALLEL examine the complex relationships of religion, land, and oil, among other resources; local conflicts and global ideology; politics and contemporary martyrdom, both Islamic and Christian. This visionary work of literary nonfiction will set the agenda for the way we think about religion and our shared future, and how we divide our dwindling resources. An award-winning investigative journalist and poet, Eliza Griswold has spent the past five years in the villages and slums along the tenth parallel on both sides of the faith-based fault line. Her observations, tempered with respect and deep curiosity about the role of God in the lives of her subjects, renders THE TENTH PARALLEL a timely and essential examination of the relationship between faith and violence in the contemporary world.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Both insightful and intrepid, Eliza Griswold journeyed through Africa and Asia along the tenth parallel, the line of latitude 700 miles north of the equator where nearly 25% of the world's Muslims and Christians compete for resources, converts and political power. A poet with an ear for simple but evocative language, Griswold takes the reader through the dust of encroaching desertification as she attends an indigenous Indonesian wedding, meets with African rape victims, sits with a Muslim religious leader as he tries to resolve local disputes, and observes an election where voters line up in a barren field behind the candidate of their choice. After reading about her meetings with the homosexual and Muslim denouncing Anglican Bishop Akinola of Nigeria I still have no sympathy with his views, but I now have some understanding of why he thinks the way he does. Griswold's own empathy serves her well; believers on both sides of the religious divide open up to her. As an agnostic daughter of the former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Griswold even shares a flash of private connection with crusading evangelist Franklin Graham when she meets him in Africa--though they have very different ideas they are both PKs, preacher's kids, with childhoods that were a struggle between belief and rebellion. My copy of THE TENTH PARALLEL is tabbed with more than 30 post-it notes marking sections I thought were so perceptive and illuminating I knew I'd want to read them again.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
35 reviews
42 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Great read
22 Aug 2010
Format:Hardcover
Eliza Griswold demonstrates an unparalleled expertise in issues of religion and politics. This book is a must for anyone who wants to go beyond the dominant rhetoric of religious extremism to understand the intricate political issues at stake in the local conflicts of the regions she examines. Griswold shows the personal human costs of regional power structures.
43 of 46 people found the following review helpful
POWERFUL
21 Aug 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I had to stop reading The Tenth Parallel before bed because I couldn't put it down and was staying up all night reading. The stories Giswold relates are so powerful you have to finish each chapter once you start. Unlike so many book like this she does not rely on easy answers or come to confident conclusions but lets the reader sit in the uncomfortable accounts.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
On-site Clash of Civilizations
11 Nov 2010
Format:Hardcover
This is an on-site rendition of the `Clash of Civilizations'. Ms Griswold goes boldly to outposts in Africa and Asia to meet radical (and rabid) Christians and Muslims. By radical I mean people who may kill because of words written in their so-called sacred texts.
But the book goes beyond that, as Ms Griswold explores the why and the localities of these conflicts. She puts a historical and geographical context in her interviews. There are different manifestations of these `radicals' - some, like in Nigeria, seem to have exhausted hate and rhetoric and hopefully the truce established will not expire. What is also apparent with these religious extremists is their intolerance of liberal religious views in the West. Religions in the Western world receptive to Gays, pro-choice, woman's rights, general openness to sexuality ... are an apostasy to fundamentalist Christians and Muslims in the tenth parallel. There is another religion in the areas discussed by Ms. Griswold where there are no shades of grey. Sometimes we have a view of this in the U.S. when abortion clinics are bombed. But I don't know how the `born-again' evangelicals in the U.S. would fit in or adapt to Africa or Asia. As the writer points out, religion in these countries is a way of life because there is no government infrastructure that they can rely on for social and economic support.
There is among both Muslims and Christians in Africa and Asia a strong tendency to revert and restore a view of the way religion was several centuries ago - a literal view of the Quran or the Bible. So this is another clash with modernity. It is difficult to see a resolution of this religious conflict with modernity. It did seem that Muslims in Malaysia were successful at this.
This book does have more of a focus on Christianity and Ms. Griswold (in my opinion) is more comfortable in that milieu, but there are several excellent encounters with Muslim fundamentalists, particularly in Somalia and Asia. Ms. Griswold is a keen observer and is able to provide several perspectives when she is conducting an interview.
But the book goes beyond that, as Ms Griswold explores the why and the localities of these conflicts. She puts a historical and geographical context in her interviews. There are different manifestations of these `radicals' - some, like in Nigeria, seem to have exhausted hate and rhetoric and hopefully the truce established will not expire. What is also apparent with these religious extremists is their intolerance of liberal religious views in the West. Religions in the Western world receptive to Gays, pro-choice, woman's rights, general openness to sexuality ... are an apostasy to fundamentalist Christians and Muslims in the tenth parallel. There is another religion in the areas discussed by Ms. Griswold where there are no shades of grey. Sometimes we have a view of this in the U.S. when abortion clinics are bombed. But I don't know how the `born-again' evangelicals in the U.S. would fit in or adapt to Africa or Asia. As the writer points out, religion in these countries is a way of life because there is no government infrastructure that they can rely on for social and economic support.
There is among both Muslims and Christians in Africa and Asia a strong tendency to revert and restore a view of the way religion was several centuries ago - a literal view of the Quran or the Bible. So this is another clash with modernity. It is difficult to see a resolution of this religious conflict with modernity. It did seem that Muslims in Malaysia were successful at this.
This book does have more of a focus on Christianity and Ms. Griswold (in my opinion) is more comfortable in that milieu, but there are several excellent encounters with Muslim fundamentalists, particularly in Somalia and Asia. Ms. Griswold is a keen observer and is able to provide several perspectives when she is conducting an interview.
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