The Search for God at Harvard

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

In 1985 Ari L. Goldman took a year’s leave from his job as a religion reporter for The New York Times and enrolled in the Harvard Divinity School. What began as a project to deepen his knowledge of the world’s sacred beliefs turned out to be an extraordinary journey of spiritual illumination, one in which Goldman reexamined his own faith as an Orthodox Jew and opened his mind to the great religions of the world.

In his year at Harvard, Goldman found to his surprise that his fellow students were not straitlaced, somber clerics, but a diverse, vibrant, and sometimes embattled group from every major religion, united by their deep spiritual commitment. Even more surprising was the spiritual climate of the Divinity School itself: Far from being an ivory tower or a bastion of old-time Christian piety, the school was a forum for passionate debate on the relationships between religion and politics, social mores and sexuality.

Written with warmth, humor, and penetrating clarity, The Search for God at Harvard is a book for anyone who has wrestled with the question of what it means to take religion seriously today.

Praise for The Search for God at Harvard:

“Personal yet informative, warm and humorous, beautifully written. In a word, superb.”
–Elie Wiesel

“Is it possible to honor the truth of one’s own religion while being genuinely open to others? In The Search for God at Harvard, Ari Goldman tells his story in so fine a manner that he helps us to understand why the answer must be yes.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Excellent: intelligent, informative, infused with humor.”
–Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Enriching . . . well-written, absorbing.”
–The Boston Globe

“A valuable and unique contribution.”
–The Washington Post Book World

Ari L. Goldman, one of the nation’s leading religion journalists, is a professor of journalism at Columbia University. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and was educated at Yeshiva University, Columbia, and Harvard. At Columbia, he teaches the popular “Covering Religion” seminar that in recent years has taken students to Israel, Jordan, Russia, Ukraine, and India. Through his teaching and his travels, Goldman has taught a whole generation of religion writers. He has been a Fulbright professor in Israel, a Skirball fellow at Oxford University in England, and a scholar-in-residence at Stern College for Women. He served on the boards of several organizations, including the Jewish Book Council, the Covenant Foundation, and the Congregation Ramath Orah, an Orthodox synagogue on Manhattan's Upper West Side. In addition to The Search for God at Harvard, he is the author of Being Jewish: The Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today and a memoir, Living a Year of Kaddish. He occasionally contributes articles and reviews to the New York Times, among other publications. He lives in New York City with his wife, Shira Dicker, and their three children, Adam, Emma, and Judah.