The Faith of Barack Obama | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen Mansfield
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 14023
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 1595552502
Dewey Decimal Number: 328.73092
EAN: 9781595552501
ASIN: 1595552502
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
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Product Description
Get inside the mind and soul of Barack Obama In The Faith of Barack Obama, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Mansfield takes readers inside the mind, heart, and soul of presidential hopeful Barack Obama—as a person of faith, as a man, as an American, and possibly as our future commander in chief. America faces looming inflation, climate change, a national credit crisis, war in the Middle East, threats to security and liberty at home, and skyrocketing oil and gas prices. With all of these threats to our security, prosperity and freedom on the horizon, it has never been more important to choose the right leader for America. “If a man’s faith is sincere, it is the most important thing about him, and it is impossible to understand who he is and how he will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life,” writes Mansfield. In The Faith of Barack Obama, Mansfield holds back nothing to share that vision and explain its roots, including: •Obama’s upbringing in a non-Christian home
•the influence on his life from his agnostic mother and Muslim father
•his remarkable turn to Christianity after working in the inner cities of Chicago
•his years at the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ
•his association to the radical teachings of Rev. Jeremiah Wright
•the source of Obama’s relentless optimism and hope for America
Every American voter concerned to know more about Obama’s beliefs, both religious and political, and how the two intertwine should read this book, as should every thinking person who continues to shape and evolve his or her religious beliefs. Barack Obama, according to Mansfield, is “raising the banner of what he hopes will be the faith-based politics of a new generation . . . and he will carry that banner to whatever heights of power his God and the American people allow.” “You must read this perceptive and well written book. Then you will know why Barack Obama has such a passion for justice and equity, such a gift for filling people of different generations with a newfound hope that things can and will change for the better.” —ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
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| Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...
Insight Into Obama's Church, Conclusions Drawn About His Faith December 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I got this book for free via Thomas Nelson's blogger book review program, and was eager to read it because I only knew the barest outline about Barack Obama's religion and church involvement. That being said, I must also admit that having grown up as a reform Jew, I also know little about the Christian church in general.
With those disclaimers out of the way, I found Mansfield's storytelling style easy to read and informative. He takes the view that Obama is a part of the new Religious Left, which is picking up the slack from the formerly secular left and trying to win over evangelicals as well as other religious voters. He gives a brief history of Obama's life, especially his mother who was more skeptical of religion, rather than belonging to a specific church. In Mansfield's view, it was only once Obama dedicated himself to being a Christian under the auspices of United Church of Christ that he truly came into his own.
As I said, I'm not an expert or even someone with more than the most cursory knowledge of the history of Christianity, let alone the African-American churchgoing experience, so I can't speak to the accuracy of Mansfield's views, but he does provide one of the more sympathetic portraits of Reverend Jeremiah Wright that the mainstream press has shown, perhaps because Mansfield visited Obama's church, and his descriptions of the building and service itself, as well as its practitioners and clergy, are some of the most compelling parts of the book.
Though Mansfield thanks Obama's staff, the only quotations from Obama in the book come from his books, speeches, or prior media. One wonders what this book would have been like with direct input from Obama. Nevertheless, Mansfield situates Obama within a framework of both a country longing for a leader who comes from a place of religion (he at once point compares him to Abraham Lincoln, who raised suspicion by not being religious enough) and a man whose lifelong search for identity culminated, to some degree, in his religion.
Mansfield take is interesting, but drawing so much from Obama's own books and speeches, this is much more about what Mansfield views as the role of religion in modern politics than an exacting scrutiny of precisely what Obama thinks about religious matters. Perhaps that is inevitable, and it doesn't make this a less worthy book, but it would have been nice for Mansfield to break from his journalistic take and share his own opinions a little more forthrightly when he is drawing such powerful conclusions.
Mansfield falters at one point by quoting what he only terms as "one blogger on a Lef-leaning Web site" who wrote, "More God and country crap from the party that ought to know better." In this instance, Mansfield ought to know better: if a blogger's statement is worthy of being quoted, the blog's name should be quoted as well.
Solid journalistic effort November 30, 2008
I approached The Faith of Barack Obama with a good bit of curiosity as to how the author would approach the subject. In the days leading up to the election we have been besieged with arguments over Obama's faith - is he really a Christian? Didn't he get raised as a Muslim? Isn't that pastor of his church in Chicago kinda weird? The temptation is for each author's perspective on Obama's political views to color their observations about Obama's faith. I was happy, then, (and feeling as if I was in quite unfamiliar territory!) to read TFOBO. Author Mansfield manages to draw a fair, compassionate picture of Obama's faith as Mr. Obama has himself expressed it in books and interviews. In the short (150-page) volume, Mansfield acknowledges seeming inconsistencies between Obama's faith claims and his political views - notably on the issue of abortion - but avoids drawing conclusions, leaving things for the reader to wrestle with in their own mind.
A chapter toward the end of the book seems out of place and suspiciously like filler material; that chapter examines other "faces of faith" in the political scene, giving thumbnail sketches of the faith of Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, and John McCain. All told, though, The Faith of Barack Obama is a fair journalistic look into the beliefs of our next president, and helpful reading.
Factors Influencing Obama's Faith November 25, 2008
A fascinating study of the factors that have influenced the faith of the president elect. Mansfield discusses Obama's Muslim stepfather and humanist mother, his radical pastor at Trinity Church, his conversion to Christianity, and his self-proclaimed doubts about some tenets of his religion.
Mansfield illuminates the reason for Obama's skeptical approach to his Christian faith by explaining how Obama's mother taught him to respect all religions--but not subscribe to any. (Obama, however, became a Christian as an adult). Mansfield further shows how Obama's post-modern approach to faith, his "picking and choosing" of which parts of Christianity to embrace, has not only connected with young voters but has also provided a basis for Obama's approach to the intersection of church and state.
Readers will probably be most interested in the chapter about Obama's pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ, a church Obama attended for over twenty years. Jeremiah Wright became a controversial figure in the media for condemning his country, and Obama ultimately left the church and spoke out against his pastor's statements. Mansfield takes an in-depth look at the character and teachings of Wright in order to shed light on why Obama first considered Wright a mentor and later left Wright's church.
Vague wording and convoluted sentence structure make some sections of this book difficult to follow, but its study of the many contradictions (belief and doubt, detachment and community) that forged Obama's faith is well-executed.
 Faith of Barack Obama November 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I recently read The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield.
This election is the most interesting one of my voting lifetime; and I always care about the candidates from a spiritual perspective.
Mansfield's book was an easy read. He gave an overview of Obama's confusing, certainly not average, childhood.
At times I felt Mansfield treated Obama in a bit of a "precious" way, most evidently when he described the service at Trinity Church. Being a white, conservative Christian, I've never experienced anything like it. This was the most disturbing segment of the book, knowing Obama had a deep association with this way of thinking for 2 decades.
Though Mansfield wrote more objectively than I expected, a lot of his information came from Obama's own works. This causes me to treat the book more as one of spin and positioning than biographical.
In my favorite chapter Mansfield compared the faith history of Bush, Obama, Clinton, and McCain. I was encouraged to see that all of them have a faith - diverse, deeply personal, but there all the same.
I don't know what our country's future holds. I do look forward to seeing how President Obama walks out his faith as he leads our great nation.
A great place to start November 23, 2008
During the time leading up to the 2008 election I have to confess that I did not make much effort to learn about Barack Obama. I was actually turned off by the hype and everyone's willingness to elevate him without knowing much about his character. However, now that he is our president, I felt that it would be irresponsible of me to not know anything about our new president. The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield is an excellent read. As an author, who obviously has a political leaning like every other American, does a good job of presenting Barack in a neutral light.
Barack Obama had a very interesting variety of influences as a child and was interesting to see how media had taken bits and pieces of his life and elevated them in various ways. Beyond giving a look into Obama, Mansfield gives an overview of how religion has shaped politics in the past, how the religous-right has suffered over the past years and how the culture is changing. For me this book provided a look at different perspectives that I have never considered when it comes to the religous left and that there can be faith on the "other side of the line".
If you go into this book looking for an answer to the question, "Is Barack Obama really a Christian?" I expect you will be surprised and disappointed. You will be surprised by what you find but should be disappointed because the only one who truly knows that answer is God. All we can do is trust what he says is true, pray for him as our leader and president and as a fellow believer on the faith journey as we all are.
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