Killing the Buddha

An interview With Gina Welch, author of In the Land of Believers.

Was J.D. Salinger crazy—or just quiet?

A drive through Manhattan with a jazzman in the world of ideas crammed in the back seat.

Why in tarnation is a performance artist running for mayor of New York City?

The holiest night of the year for a Nuyorican Muslim.

A chat with Robert Wright on his new monster, The Evolution of God.

From Believer, Beware: the KtBniks meet a real witch in Kansas.

Rocking out to hymns and ordaining gay pastors: an interview with Lutheran singer-songwriter Jonathan Rundman.

What does it take to be an “outsider artist”? Brushes, paint, and revelation.

Ira Louvin, a drunkard, a brute, and one half of Elvis’ favorite gospel duo, sang in a tenor that pioneered the place of sin close to the heart of country music. A 6/6/6 special from the KtB archive.

Jonathan Edwards and the making of America.

The Marquis de Sade, sexual liberator or sexual deviant? And St. Valentine, patron saint of lovers and the original international man of mystery.

Charles Keating, one of the masterminds behind the Savings & Loan rip-off of the 1980s, and St. Cecelia, patroness of musicians.

America’s leading theologian on laying bricks and taking the Lord’s name in vain.

The Boss will take you to the river if you help him get there.

Elvis’ favorite gospel singer builds a twelve-foot devil and puts sin in its place.