Religion & Spirituality

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews, "Europa, Europa," the foreign film based on a true story about a Polish-German Jewish boy who escapes the Germans and Russians by hiding his true identity.

Comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks. Brooks has made some of the funniest films in movie history, including "The Producers," "Young Frankenstein," and "Blazing Saddles." In his new movie, "Life Stinks," Brooks plays a billionaire who accepts a wager to spend a month living on the street.

Green is one of the greats of soul and gospel music. He's probably best known for his hit, "Let's Stay Together." He'll talk about his secular musical career in light of being a born again Christian.

Author and professor Padraig O'Malley's most recent books is called "Biting At the Grave," about the IRA hunger strikes in 1981 that ended in 10 deaths. O'Malley challenges conventional wisdom on each side of the conflict. Formal talks between Protestant and Catholic political leaders over the future of Northern Ireland are to begin next Monday.

Journalist Ari Goldman is the religion correspondent for The New York Times. He's written a new book, "The Search for God At Harvard," about the year he took off from his job to attend the Harvard Divinity School. It details his experiences there and how they affected his own faith as an Orthodox Jew.

Novelist Mary Gordon has a new collection of essays, "Good Boys and Dead Girls: And Other Essays." Catholicism has been a constant theme in her novels, which include: "Final Payment," and "The Company of Women." American fiction by men, Catholicism, and abortion are some of the issues she write about in her new book

Mehdi is the Secretary General of the National Council on Islamic Affairs and President of the American-Arab relations committee. Born in Bagdad, he moved to the U.S. in the late 1940s. He talks with Terry about his frustration with the U.S.'s destructive actions in his home country, and about the strong link between the Islamic faith and the law.

The New York Times reporter has spent the last decade covering the Middle East. In light of the start of the Gulf War, he has two questions -- How will we know when we win? And how will the war affect the peace process between Israel and Palestine? Friedman is the author of the bestselling book From Beirut to Jerusalem.

Terry speaks with three guests about how African Americans are engaged with the Gulf War. Diane Pinderhughes is a professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois and the author of a new report for the National Urban League on the role of blacks in the Gulf War. Damu Smith, the founder of the peace group, the African-American Network Against US Intervention in the Gulf, talks about the social forces that lead many African American to military service. Muhamad Abdul-Aleem is resident Imam of a Philadelphia Mosque.

Reverend Theodore Hesburgh has just published a new memoir about serving as the University of Notre Dame's president for 35 years. His tenure overlapped with the 1960s student movements; Hesburgh did his best to strike a balance between allowing for freedom of expression and maintaining an environment conducive to learning.

Filmmaker Pierre Sauvage made the film "Weapons of the Spirit," about a small, farming village in France that sheltered 5,000 Jews during World War II. Sauvage's own family was among them.

The political journalist is a former Jesuit seminarian and professor of public policy at Northwestern University. His new book is called Under God. It's a collection of essays about the frequent collison of politics and religion in America.

Literary critic Denis Donogue was a Catholic who grew up in a community suspicious of Protestants. His memoir about his life in Northern Ireland, and his father's career in the constabulary, is called "Warrenpoint."

Newsweek magazine's religion writer Kenneth L. Woodward's new book examines the politics surrounding how the Roman Catholic Church decides who will become a saint. Woodward says it's the most democratic process in a profoundly undemocratic institution.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan says that, after reading the writer's first two autobiographies, it's shocking to confront Simon as an old woman. The third and final memoir, published after Simon's death from stomach cancer, is called Etchings in an Hourglass.

Reverend Joseph Ingle. He directs the Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons and ministers to death row inmates. "Last Rights," published by Abingdon.

Clarinetist Don Byron. Byron's black, but he plays klezmer, the music created from the mixture of American jazz and European jewish culture. Byron's an alumnus of the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and he performs on a new anthology album called "Live At The Knitting Factory." It's on A&M records.

Comedian David Brenner. He's written a new book about the pitfalls of traveling.

Writer Judith Miller. She's deputy media editor of The New York Times and author of the new book, "One, by One, by One: Facing the Holocaust." Miller visited six countries (including the U.S.) to examine how the Holocaust is remembered. (published by Simon & Schuster)

Spiritual teacher RAM DASS. Ram Dass' book, "Be Here Now," was a widely used spiritual guide during the early 70s. Ram Dass followed that book up with several others, among them "The Only Dance There Is" and "How Can I Help?" Ram Dass started out as Harvard professor Richard Alpert. While at Harvard in the early 60s, Alpert joined with Timothy Leary and others in the early psychedelic experiments. That led him to investigations of meditation and spiritual practices.