The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinners Semester at Americas Holiest University

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They hear from guest speakers like Mike Huckabee and Karl Rove, they pray before every class, and they follow a page code of conduct called "The Liberty Way" that prohibits drinking, smoking, R-rated movies, contact with the opposite sex, and witchcraft. Armed with an open mind and a reporter's notebook, Roose dives into life at Bible Boot Camp with the goal of connecting with his evangelical peers by experiencing their world first-hand.

Roose's semester at Liberty takes him to church, class, and choir practice at Rev. Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church. He visits a support group for recovering masturbation addicts, goes to an evangelical hip-hop concert, and participates in a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach, where he learns how to convert bar-hopping co-eds to Christianity. Roose struggles with his own faith throughout, and in a twist that could only have been engineered by a higher power, he conducts what would turn out to be the last in-depth interview of Rev.

Hilarious and heartwarming, respectful and thought-provoking, Roose's embedded report from the front lines of the culture war will inspire and entertain believers and non-believers alike. Hardcover , pages. Lynchburg, Virginia United States. Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Nonfiction To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

To ask other readers questions about The Unlikely Disciple , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Unlikely Disciple. Lists with This Book. Apr 22, Elpheaba rated it it was amazing. How do I know I went to Liberty University? Well, I do know all the verses to Victory in Jesus I do know more about tithing than my major, and I laughed over this book, cried over this book, and understood what he was trying to say.

Apr 09, Aaron rated it it was ok. This time around, we get to see the hijinks of a Brown student going to a religious Southern school. And Kevin Roose manages to learn a lesson of tolerance and hard-fought understanding during the era of the culture war. The problem is this book strikes me as incredibly cynical. In part, Roose as a narrator is both calculating and dishonest. He does this stunt explicitly to get a book deal, and it makes me question everything that happens. The narrative seems a bit too pat and marketable to not wonder how much of it has been manipulated.

Besides, he spent all of his time at Liberty lying. I think the only reason we have to trust what he says now is his commitment as journalist, and as a year-old who seems more concerned about launching a writing career, this assurance isn't enough. The distrust deepens as it seems that he has excised large chunks of the real story, such as why best-selling author A. Jacobs apparently had to hire a college freshman as his research assistant on the trip to Liberty which began Kevin Roose's whole spiritual journey.

My guess it that Roose's well-connected parents set him up with a well-connected author, the scheme for the book was hatched by Jacobs and a publisher, and Roose never writes nothing about it because he spends the majority of his pages carefully crafting the image of himself which he presents the reader.

I guess the hours he spends on Facebook his primary research tool paid off with that skill. That this book is best-seller material is somewhat depressing in itself. Roose jokingly compares his time at Liberty as just like spending a semester abroad, but in all honesty that's exactly what this book is in terms of his experiences and the intellectual depth with which he delves. Yet nobody would consider buying a novel of some sophomore's ramblings about Barcelona, but apparently we the Northern liberal that this book is clearly targeted towards think Southern Baptists as radically more foreign than anyone living outside our own borders.

The one really strong point of the book is its great pacing, usually a stumbling block for young authors. Maybe these Millennials, growing up on blogs and social networking, will be able to compensate for their lack of intellectual rigor with a great sense of pace. I look forward to an awesome future of rocking summer blockbusters. Action-packed laffs for sure. View all 10 comments. Feb 16, Brian rated it liked it. I believe its greatest flaws are the result of the writer's age. I also think its greatest strengths are the result of the writer's age.

This text is for the most part an unbiased and interesting take on one aspect of evangelical Christianity which is a vast and very diverse subculture and gives an outsider's undercover inside view. I enjoyed the text a lot, but I wonder if I got more out of it because I understand the evangelical culture, being "The Unlikely Disciple" is an interesting book. I enjoyed the text a lot, but I wonder if I got more out of it because I understand the evangelical culture, being raised in church, more than readers who have no Christian upbringing?

I am not sure. Roose decides that he has no understanding of fundamentalist Christianity as a result of his uber liberal upbringing, and rather than be one of the intolerant "tolerant" liberal elite decides to find out for himself the truth behind what he has assumed or been told. The result is a semester being a student at Liberty University in Virginia, the college started by the late Dr. There are moments in "The Unlikely Disciple" that are quite profound and theologically interesting, and Roose seems to be very honest about the power of Christian living and the attraction that it holds.

However, the text also suffers from some rather insipid and pedantic observations made by Roose that I believe are expressly the result of his age. There are parts of the text that reek of the "philosophical" discussions we all had while sitting around with our friends drunk in the dorms thinking that we were being "deep.

The text also slides between embracing and detracting from the faith and belief of the Liberty community. Roose often contradicts himself, usually on the same page. This may prove frustrating to some readers, but I did not mind it for the most part simply because the gamut of thought and emotion seems to be part of religious faith for many people. One thing I found particularly interesting was that the most unlikable and I believe bigoted people mentioned in the text are polar opposites. Roose has a homophobic and mean spirited roommate who I find disgusting.

He also mentions frequently two lesbian aunts, who I found to be just as bigoted and small minded about people not like them. I don't think this was a purposeful contrast that the author tried to create, but it is there, and I have talked to others who read this book that thought the same thing. All in all an interesting text and one that I am glad I read. It is hard to come across a book that deals with the religious divide that is mostly impartial, but "The Unlikely Disciple" comes close, and it is to be celebrated for that.

View all 6 comments. Jun 27, Daniel Bastian rated it it was amazing Shelves: I came to Liberty to humanize people. Because humanizing people is good, right? But what about people with reprehensible views? Do they deserve to be humanized? By giving Jerry Falwell's universe a fair look, am I putting myself in his shoes?

Or am I really just validating his worldview? I ask myself these questions and more for hours, and when I calm down, I reach this conclusion: You can peel a stereotype off a perso " Here's what worries me the most: You can peel a stereotype off a person and not see a beautiful human being underneath. In fact, humanity can be very ugly.

While I did not attend Liberty University, I was reared in an identical culture, where fundamentalist attitudes reigned supreme. Where preservation of dogma was paramount. Where absolutist certainty was all but demanded and gray areas of belief decried as a warning sign of pending spiritual failure. Where words like evolution, Darwin, the Big Bang and even science itself were considered evil and subversive. Where being a Christian also meant voting conservative. Yes, this is an environment with which I'm all too familiar. Thankfully, I did not end up spending my college years at what Roose dubs in his subtitle "America's Holiest University".

I know several who did, however, and I can say unreservedly that Roose's portrait in The Unlikely Disciple is not in the least a misrepresentation or caricature. If anything, it's too balanced, and that's quite an accomplishment for someone emigrating from Brown University. How does someone raised in a secular family and enrolled in an Ivy League institution end up transplanting himself to its antithesis in nearly every major respect?

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The early outlines of the idea formed while interning for A. Roose realized that there is a subculture in America with whom he had never really interfaced: You hear about them all the time on the news and in satirical send-ups by liberal media, but there's a difference between drawing your verdict from secondhand voices on the one hand and first-person experience on the other.

He decided that going incognito to live among them, immersing himself in their inner society, would be an effective way to bridge the gap. And who knows, maybe his story could change how each side views the other and help moderate the bickering to an acceptable volume. Much to his family's chagrin, Roose's application was accepted and he took his academic pursuits south of the Mason-Dixon line to Liberty University—the bastion of evangelicalism itself.

At the time, the school belonged to Jerry Falwell, the same incendiary televangelist-cum-segregationist who campaigned against MLK, Jr. This was no Brown. Putting up a credible facade around his new ultra-religious classmates would not be easy. If culture shock was on the agenda, he certainly came to the right place. Draconian injunctions against R-rated films and all physical contact with the opposite sex outside of hand-holding ; weekly Bible studies, daily prayer sessions and omnipresent invocations of Jesus fever; courses that felt less like education than Christian apologetics, more sermonic and indoctrinational than didactic; surplus doses of Adam-and-Eve-based "science," homophobia-ridden expletives and rhetoric laden with allusions to hell.

It's all here, and having been an insider for so long I can only imagine how alien Liberty must have felt to an observer outside the fold. Roose chooses the higher road. Far from the minimally participative bystander, he invests his time in all of the extracurricular activities his schedule can accommodate. He befriends members of his Bible study and carries on late-night discussions with his hallmates. He goes on dates with chaste Christian girls. He joins the choir at Thomas Road Baptist Church and proselytizes spring-breakers on Floridian beaches. He even meets with a spiritual mentor once a week in which his masturbation habits tend to come up with irregular frequency.

You know, normal college stuff, minus the Jesus-stuffed diet. While Roose came mentally equipped for the fervorous religiosity, his semester away wasn't without its surprises. Like any school, one can find a diversity of views strolling the halls, and Liberty is no exception. Roose encounters several students during his time there who don't fit the mold Liberty has prepared for them: His exchanges with these nonconformists were enlightening and will be appreciated by those exploring a more progressive faith.

The Structure of Fundamentalism Offensive, comical and rebarbative all at the same time, many may wonder how such a community can survive under the duress of modernity. As a former evangelical with a foot in both sides of the pond, I know the mentality well. More than anything else, institutions like Liberty are interested in the doctrinaire attachment to an ideology.

Their dogma is a thinly veiled version of Christian dominionism. Any information deemed in conflict with said dogma is viscerally suppressed; inconvenient facts are pushed aside and only addressed once they become too difficult to ignore. Fundamentalist communities are thus arranged so as to propagate internal views at the expense of external ones.

Within the propagandistic bubble, only views consistent with the dogma are given any weight. Its members are fastened, often without a weighing of alternatives, to a system that valorizes ignorance and trammels free thought. They are not aware that they are 'suckers' bred on intellectual deprivation, any more than fish are aware of the oxygen outside the fishbowl. This basic schematic maps well to several pockets of Christian fundamentalism and churches dotting the American landscape, even if its application to today's Liberty loses some precision.

Towards the end of the book, Roose learns through his continued communications with Liberty students that the school has grown a bit more lax in the ideology department following Falwell's departure. Given the extreme contrast between the late reverend's views and those of mainstream America, we can only hope this was inevitable.

Closing Thoughts Possibly the defining introspective work of our generation, Roose's sojourn turned memoir is an honest, transparent, balanced look into a cultural divide that seems more unbridgeable by the year. His stay at Liberty was attended by no shortage of disheartening revelations, including run-ins with narrow views on sexual ethics, gender and race, rampant faculty-encouraged homophobia, and distortions of inconvenient science, all sentiments deeply rooted in American culture and for which Liberty is but an emblem. But contrary to what might be expected from its gimmicky-sounding premise, Roose doesn't spend the length of the book razzing de-intellectualized Bible-belters who max out on the Christian Richter scale.

Roose stepped into the shoes of an evangelical to learn about their beliefs, values and traditions, and came away with so much more. He found that on the surface there is much that separates the evangelical community from the rest of American society, but scratch below that surface and you find a lot more commonality than polarizing media profiles would suggest. This is easily one of the best books I've ever read, perhaps because it hits so close to home. Roose's closing words in the epilogue continue to resonate with me.

Humans have always quarreled over religious beliefs, and I suppose they always will. But judging from my post-Liberty experience, this particular conflict isn't built around a hundred-foot brick wall. If anything, it's built around a flimsy piece of cardboard, held in place on both sides by paranoia and lack of exposure.

It's there, no doubt, but it's hardly forbidding. And more important, it's hardly soundproof. Religious conflict might be a basic human instinct, but I have faith, now more than ever before, that we can subvert that instinct for long enough to listen to each other. This review is republished from my official website. View all 3 comments. Apr 09, Heather rated it it was amazing Shelves: Jacobs was writing The Year of Living Biblically , he took on a slave unpaid intern. The slave was Kevin Roose. What Roose finds at Liberty is an anomaly that changes his world.

There is overt faculty-encouraged homophobia, antiquated views on race, and an emphasis on de-intellectualiz When A. There is overt faculty-encouraged homophobia, antiquated views on race, and an emphasis on de-intellectualizing Christians. But there are also genuinely warm, empathetic, intelligent people who become a second family to him. His friends at Liberty seem to fear the secular world, while his liberal family including his favorite lesbian aunts seem to fear the evangelical world. In both cases, they only know the malevolent hype about one another.

This book is at once infuriating and heart-warming. It was like reading the exact opposite of my life story. Dec 29, D. Let me start off by saying that I did like this book I thought that Roose had some interesting insights into evangelical Christianity and this wasn't the "Evangelical Bashing" I thought it would be.

I laughed at some of his confusion over things I grew up with I understood how some things looked to him as an outsider. All in all, I think the book is a fascinating read. Roose was clearly writing for different a Let me start off by saying that I did like this book Roose was clearly writing for different audiences. He says he has a liberal family repetitively mentioning their concerns with his experiment , lesbian aunts, and a book deal already in the works.

Then he actually became friends with his Liberty schoolmates, found Falwell gasp non-evil in person, and had powerful moments of self-discovery. It's all too shiny and nice to be true. I believe there was probably a good deal of "writing for people" that occurred with this nineteen year-old's project. When I was 19 year-old journalist at my school paper, I was pretty full of myself, but I also got to interview some higher ups in my college.

I always wanted to please them. I get this type of Disneyland cleanliness from Roose. Doesn't want to piss anyone off - and why would he? Piss off the liberals AND the evangelicals? Where is your book buying audience? Keep it walking the line between clearly offending anyone and I think you have what Roose has -- a calculated lie meant to sell books.

There was an agenda here: To write a book. Journalists with agendas write awesome stuff sometimes He purposefully infiltrated groups on campus so he could write about them in the book. What comes to mind is meeting with the pastor who counsels homosexuals at Liberty. And then he went to the group with men dealing with masturbation?

So, is it representative of what "Christian Evangelicals" are dealing with? It doesn't matter how you read it. Kevin Roose thinks most evangelical Christians are academically backwards. He specifically says that he could accept Jesus Christ as his savior before he could convert to young earth creationism or a religion that "bashes homosexuals". He just took those populations of believers and made them into the whole -- NOT recognizing the other population of believers who believe in the Big Bang and accept that perhaps "6 days" may not be literally 6 days.

And there are a lot of them out there. Seems like Roose is throwing the baby out with the bath water. So, you know what happens when you take a liberal arts school student and throw him in the mix with the boys at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, a school where the dorms are segregated and residents have a curfew? Well, gee, whaddaya know, "what boys always do" happens: Oh, and throw some prayer in, too, because it's a Christian University.

And what a shocker!

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Not all the stud So, you know what happens when you take a liberal arts school student and throw him in the mix with the boys at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, a school where the dorms are segregated and residents have a curfew? Not all the students are as straight-laced as the school would have them, while others are complete biggots. Why, in fact, they're a mixed bag, pretty much like you'd get in any other university in America.

The science classes teach creationism because it's a religious school, and well, gee, the students who believe in creationism seem to just eat that right up. Yet, there are still some private dissenters.

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This ethnography is so vague that it literally could have been about any social group in any institution in the world. Took nothing away from it other than Jerry Falwell was a money-making evil genius. View all 5 comments. Mar 22, Jeanette "Astute Crabbist" rated it it was amazing Shelves: I love immersion journalism when it's done well. I'm mightily impressed by this Kevin Roose kid.

He's funny, respectful, bold, thoughtful, and a darned good writer. At age 19, Roose decided he wanted to cross the "God Divide" that separates secular kids from ultra-religious ones. After a crash course in evangelical culture from a formerly evangelical friend, he spent a semester undercover at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University a misnomer if ever there was one.

He completely immersed himself in I love immersion journalism when it's done well. He completely immersed himself in campus activities, pretending to be one of "them" in every possible way. How does one pretend to be a Liberty evangelical? Here are just a few of Kevin's activities: This meant being on national TV every week. They approached revelers on beaches and streets and invited them to accept Jesus. This made me cringe for him. The professor suggested that they could have been "teenage dinosaurs," so as to take up less space. This nearly made me spit out my crackers! No hugs lasting more than a second or two.

No kissing allowed, not even on the cheek. All of this, and much more, Kevin did with a straight face and an open mind, with no intent to mock or ridicule. He ended up making some good friends and discovered that evangelical kids, however misguided, are a lot more like him and his secular college buddies than he would ever have imagined. The book is both entertaining and educational. Roose's reportage is impressively fair and even-handed, with equal weight given to positive and negative aspects of his experience.

Oct 17, Sally Ewan rated it really liked it Shelves: The subtitle on this book irks me, but it also effectively demonstrates the crux of the author's problem: As I read about his semester "underground" at Liberty University, I kept wondering about the conversations that hadn't made it into the book. So he's not the only one there. And to call Liberty "America's Holiest University" is a misnomer. Mor The subtitle on this book irks me, but it also effectively demonstrates the crux of the author's problem: More like "one of America's most legalistic Christian universities".

The legalism and rules bothered him, but I wondered if anyone had explained to him that Christians are called to be holy, and that is the way that some people approach holiness, the flip side of the antinomian crowd. I wondered if anyone had told him that the Bible is God's Word, and so we align ourselves with it, not the other way around.

He seemed to think that the whole scene was something people made up to suit themselves, or to torture others with, and I suppose it might look that way without the Holy Spirit's influence. I'm glad he saw the joy that others experience as a result of their relationship with God, and I hope he finds that joy himself some day. I appreciate this description of his experience; it helped me to think carefully about how I live out my faith and how I talk about it with unbelievers.

Jan 15, Cheryl rated it it was amazing Shelves: Boy, was I wrong. I found this book fascinating and finished it in two days. I had no idea what evangelical Christianity was about, knew the name Jerry Falwell and had heard of Liberty, but beyond that, nothing. Roose gives us an inside look at what goes on at Liberty, from classes and church services to extracurricular activities and dorm life.

We find out about some of the people that are fundamental Christians or are on the path to becoming one ; people most of us might never meet unless they were trying to witness aka convert us. I really liked the fact that Roose threw himself into his semester at Liberty wholeheartedly, despite the fact that he disagreed with many of things he heard and saw, and that he kept an open mind about everything.

However, I really found myself liking and feeling for some of the students there Though I think a few are working on ulcers worrying about how all of us heathens are going to try and corrupt them as soon as they enter the real world. Roose did a fantastic, balanced job of telling us what life at Liberty is like, without turning it into a farce or a bashing of evangelical Christianity. Nov 17, Kyle rated it it was amazing. I just wanted to take a minute to share how I came to faith in Kevin Roose.

See, I consider myself a Christian. I was brought up in a protestant household, went to church every week, dressed up and sang the songs. I was just a part of the group, an operator in the fullest sense of connecting from the earth to the heavens. But one day, I was struck by the realization that not everyone was like me. Not every Excuse me. Not everyone even wanted to be a part of this group, and some even outright disliked the group I was a part of. I felt bruised, but more, I felt like if this was the case, then somewhere, something had gone wrong. I was depressed and bewildered.

I started tentatively after reading about his background and where he intended to spend a semester. This book is going to be just page after page of riffing on creationism and hermeneutics. I came in thinking that there was no way these groups could be peacefully reconciled and still make anything even close to an entertaining read. At best, it could be a completely neutered journal. At worst, it would be venomous. I poured through the book in a few days, eager to share, grimacing over some of the gross illogic at Liberty and being continually amazed that Roose blends so well with a group that tries so hard to be exclusive.

He managed to compile what seems to me like the truest account, almost an ethnography, of the world of intense Christian youth. Just the idea that a writer is able to be so bold in his notes and still keep his mind sensitive and, more importantly, his own, lets me look forward to a time when more of us can honestly talk without cutting into each other.

Jun 10, Brian Eshleman rated it it was amazing Shelves: This is a great book from a great writer. It takes a brave and mature soul to put oneself in the middle of a subject like this, and from a reader's perspective, it is worth the effort. Most people venturing into a culture to which theirs is juxtaposed would be looking for self-justification and material force — especially at But when this author decides on this adventure, he is all in.

He reads books for background, and he really listens to the perspective that his classmates have. He is rea This is a great book from a great writer. He is really immersing himself in another world. Doing that well enough as an interested social scientist or cultural commentator is probably enough to get a five-star review for me, especially since I am very interested in the cultural divide between secular norms, followers of Christ, and some odd hybrid of something called Christian culture that has little or nothing to do with what Christ actually taught.

The author venturing into this subject might be enough, but he actually tells a compelling story. What year-old can make himself a character in his own story and not come off as egotistical?! This author does it, though. He manages throughout to give the benefit of the doubt to the other "characters" in his story, to assign the best possible motives to them, and to hold onto his own assumptions very lightly. Not only does he develop compelling characters, but he tells their story so well that he manages to build suspense in what otherwise could have been dry and only occasionally interesting material.

This book is of such a high quality that I want to continue to follow this author.

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If God, ironically, has blessed him with this kind of insight at this age, I cannot wait to see what Roose's eyes continue to be open to throughout his journey. I pray he continues to be intellectually honest as people continue to sing his praises as I am here and as he begins to reap the considerable financial rewards that can be his for such good writing but can begin to lock an author into status quo thinking.

Kevin Roose, should God show you a burning bush at 40, I hope you will have the open-mindedness Moses did to turn aside and to hear what He would say. View all 4 comments. Apr 22, Marie rated it really liked it Recommends it for: I could not put this book down. Kevin Roose, an Ivy League-educated liberal agnostic with a Quaker upbringing, decided that instead of doing a semester abroad like everyone else at Brown University, he would explore a different culture right here in the U.

He spent a semester somewhat undercover at Liberty University, which was founded by Rev. His parents and in particular, his lesbian aunts, were very worried about his decision to consort with I could not put this book down. His parents and in particular, his lesbian aunts, were very worried about his decision to consort with the enemy. They worried that he would be outed as a liberal, or worse, become converted and change entirely.

Although Roose found much to trouble him blatant homophobia, subtle and not-so-subtle racism, pure disregard for science and history, and sexist attitudes toward women, men, and marriage , he also found himself making friends. He realized that not all evangelical Christians are as conservative or straightforward as he had thought.

He discovered that he actually envied their passion and the deeper meaning and purpose in their lives. He found that living a "cleaner" college life without alcohol or partying resulted in feeling a whole lot healthier. He actually enjoyed some of his religion classes, and found himself challenged by some of the curriculum while other classes were hopelessly full of defenses of the bible vs. He made some great friends with people whose company he truly enjoyed, even though their backgrounds and beliefs were very different.

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Falwell died a few days before the end of the semester. He also had a violently homophobic roommate who was convinced that Roose was gay if only because he didn't join in the homophobic taunts , and Roose actually began fearing for his safety during his time there. What I liked about this book is that it shows us that if everyone can find some common ground, perhaps we would all understand each other a little better. Roose did not get "born again" when he was at Liberty. His aunts, parents, and Brown friends were relieved when he left.

As of publication, Kevin Roose was a senior at Brown. The fact that he could write such a compelling, well-written book, combined with his ability to keep his mouth shut and stay somewhat undercover during his semester "abroad," means that he will be a much better journalist than I ever could be. I will always remember sitting in a bible study during my freshman year at PLU which attracted a lot of evangelical Christians because it was a Christian university , and the other girls were expressing worry that some of their friends would go to hell. I said that my best friend from high school was Jewish and turned out to be gay, as well , and I didn't believe for one second that a loving God would send him to hell.

We got into a heated debate, and I never went back. This was essential for my sanity and well-being I find that I do not have patience to get into heated debates with other people, especially if I sense that the other person does not respect my opinion. Roose, however, was respectful and open to being changed by the experience. If every person could spend 3 to 4 months in another culture, religion, or environment, we would be a more peaceful world, because we would understand each other just a tiny bit more. And that would be a wonderful thing. I look forward to reading more of Kevin Roose in the future.

Jul 16, Larry Bassett rated it liked it Shelves: Can a young man immerse himself in an alien culture without it having an impact upon him? Can a liberal Brown University student transfer to the fundamentalist Christian Liberty University, living in a Liberty dorm for a semester and participating in all the student experiences, and come out unchanged?

This is a fascinating first person experience in what I would call indoctrination or maybe even bra Can a young man immerse himself in an alien culture without it having an impact upon him? This is a fascinating first person experience in what I would call indoctrination or maybe even brainwashing.

I came here to spend time with the practitioners of another faith, to learn how they lived. But it was crazy of me to expect that I could situate myself among these people twenty-four hours a day, befriend them, and adopt their mannerisms without also internalizing and grappling with their beliefs.

I can relate to the experience. I have lived in Lynchburg for almost eleven years now. The culture shock that I experienced when I first moved here is much less intense. Now, over the decade, it is possible that the temper of the times has changed at least a little bit. But the Letters to the Editor in the local paper still can occasionally shock me with the Bible Belt rhetoric.

I think these are tough questions and I wonder about them myself as I read along with Kevin Roose. What do students at Liberty do in their spare time? How is Kevin feeling? Has he subjected himself to brainwashing that is working? I saw two men walking hand in hand on the way to the parking deck, and I did an incredulous triple take, staring much longer than politesse would dictate.

I saw a group of high school-age kids sitting on a stoop, and the first thing that flashed through my mind, before I could quash it, was: I wonder what that means? Do I fear the experience of being sucked in? Start reading The Unlikely Disciple on your Kindle in under a minute. Don't have a Kindle? Now Playing The Unlikely Disciple. Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers.

Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention liberty university kevin roose jerry falwell unlikely disciple brown university america holiest thomas road open mind well written holiest university living biblically boot camp semester at liberty baptist church evangelical christianity year of living recommend this book bible boot road baptist god divide. Showing of reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. I absolutely adored this book! To start, the college kid who wrote it is as gifted an essayist as any you can imagine.

His prose just is wonderful to read, and draws you into his head; the style seems effortless. The book itself is a fantastic cross between an immersion-ethnography, in which a researcher joins a society, and makes informant contacts, and a humorous travelogue.

In fact, to this boy, Liberty U might as well have been on the other side of the world. Roose writes with compassion and a wide, wide open mind. He reveals himself to be a wonderfully curious person, and spares himself nothing. Like all travelers, he makes faux pas, suffers embarrassing incidents and otherwise falls mostly gently over his own two feet, as only a young person can.

I'd recommend this book to just about anybody of any religious persuasion. If you are mightily religious, it will give you a perspective on yourself. If you are closer to the atheist end of the scale it will provide a peek into evangelical thought. Mostly though, this was just plain fun to read. I enjoyed every moment of this book! I could relate to Kevin's experience too, as I've been out of that scene for many, many years and consider myself a secularist. I appreciate how he clearly had an open mind to the experience and was not overly judgmental.

I know extremists on both sides of the culture wars, and people like Kevin, who take the time to get to know people as people, are our only hope to avoid an all-out WW3. I feel sorry for students like many who Kevin described I used to be one of them , because they only see the world as black and white.

What a terrible way to live. Kevin Roose was an aspiring writer studying at an Ivy League university when he first visited the Rev. Jacobs with his research for The Year of Living Biblically His post-trip fascination with the student culture led him to do more research on evangelical colleges and eventually birthed the idea of traveling "abroad" for a semester as a visiting student.

After receiving some practical coaching from a friend who knew his current agnosticism and limited Quaker background were inadequate preparations for the task, Kevin transferred from Brown University to Liberty University and lived "undercover" as an evangelical undergraduate for the Spring semester. The book offers an honest, fresh, and objective look inside one of the most well known evangelical universities.

The Unlikely Disciple is a must read for anyone who wants to know what life is really like at Liberty University or for those seeking to better understand American evangelicalism. Kevin's experiences as a nineteen year old sophomore include living in a dorm, taking introductory classes, attending chapel, dating, singing in the Thomas Road Baptist Church choir, interviewing Rev.

Falwell for the student paper, and learning to live according to a forty-six page code of conduct known as "The Liberty Way. Kevin is pleasantly surprised to learn that the university is more academically rigorous than he anticipated and that most students are not as radically fundamental about their worldview as the media portrays. Though he does not convert to evangelical Christianity, Kevin does gain a new respect for those who affiliate with evangelical traditions and finds he now "believes in a divine presence more often than not" p. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase.

Having been raised in a traditional Christian home and having spent my own freshman year as a student at Liberty University, I was very interested in learning how the school was perceived from Roose's "outsider" perspective. I found his account to be fair, accurate, and without bias. Roose is a very engaging writer who managed to put a comical spin on some experiences that I remember well from my own LU days - from mandatory convocation three times a week, to weekly hall meetings and prayer groups, to Dr.

Elmer Towns's New Testament Survey class. I greatly admire his ability to present the school, so different from what he was accustomed to, with an open mind and total lack of judgment. Some things at Liberty have definitely changed since his semester there, but at its core, things are much the same. I recommend this book to anyone interested in possibly attending "the world's most exciting university", as well as their parents.

You would be hard-pressed to find a more accurate review of the atmosphere around campus, and, to be honest, will learn much more about the rules and expectations than can be gleaned from the website or learned at orientation.

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