America's preacher: how Rick Warren made it.

• Author: Sullivan, Amy
• Position: Prophet of Purpose: The Life of Rick Warren - Book review

Prophet of Purpose: The Life of Rick Warren

by Jeffery L. Sheler

Doubleday Religion, 336 pp.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

For a man who is arguably the most famous religious leader in the world after the pope and the Dalai Lama, evangelical preacher Rick Warren remains a surprising enigma. Is he just a kinder, gentler, Hawaiian-shirt-clad version of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson? Or is he the face of a new evangelicalism that represents a break from the Religious Right? Is he the nonpartisan above-the-fray leader who delivered the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration? Or is he the conservative activist who inserted himself into the debate over Proposition 8 (the California ballot measure rejecting gay marriage) and courts influence with Republican politicians?

It's hard to know what to make of the megachurch pastor and best-selling author, in large part because Warren's message and image change based on his audience. Given his ever-rising profile as friend of presidents and global AIDS policy advocate, a book that tried to explain and pin down Warren would be a welcome resource. Fortunately, veteran religion journalist Jeffery L. Sheler has just written Prophet of Purpose: The Life of Rick Warren with plenty of fresh information about the man. Unfortunately, the book is a frustratingly incomplete account that never truly grapples with Warren and the role he has assumed in American culture and politics.

What Sheler does do is provide a well-written story of Rick Warren's life--from five-year-old Ricky's baptism, to his teen years (during which Rick dreamed of becoming either a rock musician or a politician), on through the long slow struggle to build a church from a handful of friends gathered in a living room to a congregation of more than 25,000. Sheler draws on hours of interviews with Warren, as well as close access to family members and friends. The result is an uncritical biography that will doubtless appeal to many of the more than 30 million people who bought Warren's blockbuster book The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

In a sense, Sheler has written a religious version of Richard Ben Cramer's What It Takes, the classic campaign book that sought to explain what kind of man thinks he not only could be but should be president. In Warren's case, the question is what kind of man believes that he can build a megachurch from scratch, write bestselling books, and--in his latest and most audacious effort--mobilize volunteers from...