The Unlikely Disciple

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University

by Kevin Roose

Grand Central Publishing, New York, New York, 2009. 336 pp.

Journalism student at liberal Brown University, with a secular and Quaker upbringing, decides on a project to go to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University "undercover" as an evangelical Christian college student. The first block to his project is no drinking, no smoking, no cursing, no dancing, no R-rated movies.

It might sound like the set-up for a Saturday Night Live skit, but it's the set-up for this book which is both fun and engaging, and at the same time thoughtful and well-written. Will he be converted, worry his family and Brown friends? Will he offend the Liberty students when/if he tells the truth about himself at the end, worries Kevin. Can he make it through a semester of "Bible Boot Camp?" Will he find any spiritual nourishment at Liberty, I wondered? What would Kevin like evangelical students to know about mainstream America? What would he like mainstream Americans to know about evangelicals? If a dialog comes out of the process, can he keep it going?

Beyond fun and engaging, I also found it insightful for talking to friends and family members on a completely different path.

-- reviewed by Jennifer Knight


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