Encounters with the World's Religions

A spectacular stretch of earth, the Eastern Sierra region of California reveals volcanic reefs, desert sand dunes, majestic mountains, and snow-fed lakes and rivers. Drawing on forty years of college teaching on the world's religions, Professor Brad Karelius is your guide, uncovering deep spiritual dimensions in this achingly beautiful place. This book shares crystallizations of religious wisdom collected through the ages, and finely tuned descriptions of holy sites, which you may visit, that will draw you deeper in your personal encounters with world spiritualities.

""The book is a lovely weaving together of Brad's experience and erudition, the personal and the interreligious. From the opening pages regarding his son, it has an intimate and even confessional quality to it. I am sure it will be much appreciated.""
--Francis X. Clooney, Director, Center for the Study of World Religion, Harvard Divinity School

""The phrase 'World's Religions' conjures up a global, rather theoretical discussion of the Big Five of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We anticipate . . . they will 'clash.' None of that here! Here we get the self-disclosing, self-giving witness of Brad: priest, poet, observer, witness lover of the earth, sinner, lover of his son Eric, expansive believer. . . .[O]ne is struck by Brad's modesty [and] his courage in truth-telling. His book is a generous invitation to all of us . . . to find our True Self.""
--Walter Brueggemann, Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

""As I began to read, I was fascinated by the rhythm of the words and the ideas they evoked. Slowly, words and ideas gave way to feelings; then, feelings to simply being present to my own surroundings. I suspect that this is part of what Karelius intends. This is a book that insists on savoring, and persists in rewarding us when we do.""
--Denise Carmody, Jesuit Chair of Religious Studies, Santa Clara University

""In the great American tradition of road books, Brad Karelius has written a lovely little memoir whose title might be On the Road with the World's Great Religions. Take it along on your next road trip, read a chapter each night (they're short), and see if you don't like where it takes you.""
--Jack Miles, General Editor, The Norton Anthology of World Religions

Brad Karelius is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, California, and an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles. He is author of The Spirit in the Desert: Pilgrimages to Sacred Sites in the Owens Valley (2009), and Home Is Right Here (2014).