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The Tenth Parallel
The Tenth Parallel
Sep 20, 2024 4:24 AM

Author:Eliza Griswold

The Tenth Parallel

The tenth parallel - the line of latitude seven hundred miles north of the equator - is a geographical and ideological front line where Christianity and Islam collide.

Across much of inland Africa and Asia, from Nigeria, Sudan and Somalia to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, live more than half of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, and sixty percent of the world's 2 billion Christians. The space between the equator and the tenth parallel marks the end of Africa's arid north and the beginning of sub-Saharan jungle; in Southeast Asia, the encounter between the two religions is also driven by wind and weather, as the trade winds carried merchants of both faiths across the sea, and the clash of hot and cold air creates the hurricanes that travel across the earth to hit Latin and North American soil. On both sides of the line, the religions and their people are experiencing reawakenings of faith - and in their buzzing megacities and swarming jungle, the encounters between the two faiths is shaping the future.

Eliza Griswold, award-winning investigative journalist and poet, has spent the past seven years travelling the space between the equator and the tenth parallel, exploring the meanings and ramifications of this reawakening of faith, in a place where these changes may alter the future of what's called the Global South - and, in turn, the West. In each country along the faultline, she asks if it is possible to determine where faith ended and secular violence began, or what role religion actually plays in struggles over resources and political power. The story of this encounter between religions unfolds over nearly two thousand years and more than 600,000 square miles.

An urgent examination of the relationship between faith and worldly power, The Tenth Parallel is an essential work about the conflicts over religion, nationhood and natural resources that will remake the world in the years to come.

Reviews

The Tenth Parallel is one of the most important books you will ever read ... No one else could have written this book

—— Reza Aslan, author of 'No god but God'

Ingeniously conceived and beautifully wrought, The Tenth Parallel traces the uneasy fault line of two great faiths, which have so much bloody history between them ... Eliza Griswold gives us a rare look at how complex and interwoven these two cultures actually are

—— Lawrence Wright, author of 'The Looming Tower'

In this revolutionary work, Griswold ... has brought back the unforgettable stories of Christians and Muslims along the tenth parallel whose faith is shaping the world's future. Griswold's courageous pilgrimage changes the way we think about Christianity and Islam by exploding any simplistic "clash" narrative. She returns us to the most basic truth of human existence: that the world and its people are interconnected

—— Archbishop Desmond Tutu

'This fascinating travelogue...[A] complicated and highly emotive story'

—— Glasgow Evening News

'Remarkable'

—— Choice

In this gloriously learned page-turner, both biography and intellectual history, Harvard Shakespearean scholar Greenblatt turns his attention to the front end of the Renaissance as the origin of Western culture's foundation: the free questioning of truth (starred review)

—— Publishers Weekly

Aslan offers an invaluable introduction to the forces that have shaped Islam [in this] eloquent, erudite paean to Islam in all of its complicated glory

—— Los Angeles Times Book Review

Wise and passionate . . . an incisive, scholarly primer in Muslim history and an engaging personal exploration

—— The New York Times Book Review

Acutely perceptive . . . For many troubled Muslims, this book will feel like a revelation, an opening up of knowledge too long buried

—— The Independent

Thoroughly engaging and excellently written . . . While [Aslan] might claim to be a mere scholar of the Islamic Reformation, he is also one of its most articulate advocates

—— The Oregonian

A revelation, an opening up of knowledge too long buried, denied and corrupted by generations of men ... Muslim keepers of the latter will rage against Reza Aslan as his careful scholarship and precise language dismantles their false claims and commands ... Aslan is acutely perceptive

—— The Independent

A rather beautiful account of the birth and evolution of Islam ... Lucid and illuminating ... Fascinating

—— Metro

Aslan is an engaging writer, his strength lies ... as an observer of contemporary challenges facing Islam ... Sensitive and generous

—— FT Magazine

Enthralling. A book of tremendous clarity and generosity of spirit

—— Jim Crace
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