From: Julie Ranelli <jrr03e>
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:05:45 -0500

I've been eagerly awaiting the discussion of "Godless." I read the book over Thanksgiving vacation and can see why it won the National Book Award. It's a very thought-provoking book. These are the thoughts I wrote down at the time:
  Jason Bock creates a religion to worship the town water tower. He concludes that you can, as he does, have religion without faith. Shin shows him you can't understand something you don't believe in. Since Jason hasn't found a god to believe in, he doesn't understand religion, especially his own (or his dad's, really) Catholic tradition. There's also the implication that one may give power to what he/she believes in. Jason ends up alone, faithless. There are lots of questions to explore with this book. For example, is the book about intolerance, and why different religions can't understand each other (because we don't believe in/give meaning to the same things)?
  I'd be curious to hear others' thoughts about the book!
  Julie Ranelli jrr03e at fsu.edu Washington, DC School Library Media Specialist
Received on Fri 14 Jan 2005 05:05:45 PM CST