Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

The Power of Place
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The reaction to the Speaking of Faith broadcast on Abraham has been enormous. Thanks for all your letters and emails. Here's a story on the web that really touched me, from a blogger who identifies himself as a "twenty-something Baptist minister":

I already knew that my feelings for home were that of a love/hate nature. I already knew that geographical place could hold great power in human ties and relationships, not to mention culture and religion. I also knew that the ties I have to the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia are strong ones. I hadn’t realized how strong they are, however, until this past Sunday evening, during my one-hour-twenty-minute drive home, listening to Bruce Feiler on the radio. I began crying while Feiler, author of, “Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths,” talked about the power of place. More specifically, he was talking about the power of place in the three great monotheistic religious traditions (i.e. the Middle East).

While listening to Feiler, I could not help but think about the ties between Appalachia and religion. The church in Appalachia is so intertwined with the land and culture that one can hardly separate the three. Indeed, it is difficult for the individual who has lived nowhere else to pull up her/his Appalachian roots without carrying at least some of the soil along.

I have been a part of the Appalachian land-religion-culture mix my entire life. The church of my childhood traces its roots to a West Virginia coal mining community. The faith of my childhood is that of Christian fundamentalism, but with a very Appalachian twist. That means that this faith runs deep and it cannot be easily separated from the culture, daily life, or the land.

The book of mine that most resonates with this theme is WALKING THE BIBLE, which is really about the relationship between the people, the land, and God. I've been struck over the years by how many people have said to me that the feelings I experienced in the Middle East were similar to ones they felt upon, say, going to their ancestral home in Italy or walking in a beloved landscape, like the southwest. Appalachia seems to fit that description perfectly.

PS: To listen to a netcast or podcast of the show, click here.

Labels: Bruce in the Media

Posted by B Feiler at 7:03 AM
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